In today’s day and age, a hacker has a definition that never existed even in fairly recent history, much less back in 1839. So, today’s story about a Hacker is not about a computer hacker. It will be a post that tells the story of one of the original immigrants who was part of the Gesellschaft that arrived in Perry County in 1839. I tell the story of this Hacker today because it would be his wedding anniversary. It is a story with several debatable facts.

Friedrich Hacker was possibly born on October 24, 1814 in Dresden, Germany. I think that birth date comes from his later church death record that gives how many years, months, and days he lived. However, there are other documents that seem to dispute that. One other debatable fact in this story is what Friedrich’s middle name was. I will show evidence that his middle name was Wilhelm, August, or Christian in the course of this article. Friedrich was the son of Friedrich August and Sibilla (Bieyl) Hacker. Friedrich’s family joined the Gesellschaft, which was led by Rev. Martin Stephan, who was a pastor in Dresden, so it is possible that the Hacker’s were members of his congregation in Germany. The Hacker’s came to this country aboard the ship, Olbers, in 1839. We find them on the passenger list for that ship shown below. Friedrich was said to be 20 years old at the time, but that would not agree with a birth date from 1814. This document also says Friedrich was a joiner, and his father was a merchant.

We can also find the Hacker’s on the passenger list found in the book, Zion on the Mississippi. This gives Friedrich the middle name of Wilhelm, and it says he was 24 years old when he arrived in the United States.

The Hacker family is found in the 1840 census for Perry County. The tally marks on this form represent the 3 members of this family under the proper columns for gender and age.

Next, we find the Hacker’s in the 1850 census. Friedrich’s father, at the age of 67, had no occupation, and Friedrich, at the age of 34, was a farmer.

Now, we will take a bit of a look at the woman that would become Friedrich’s wife, but there is not much I can tell you about her life prior to the marriage. Her name was Christiane Sophie Herchert, who was born sometime about 1827 or 1828. I do not have an exact birth date. I found a reference to the possibility that her father was named Johann George Herchert and her mother had the maiden name of Offstadt. She was born in Germany and at some point in time prior to 1855, she came to America.

Friedrich Hacker married Sophie Herchert on July 17, 1855 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. That means today would be this couple’s 170th wedding anniversary. We can view the church marriage record for this wedding below. Another questionable fact in this story is how to spell the name, Hacker. I am using the spelling that is found in our German Family Tree. His name is spelled Haecker in this church record. The Zion on the Mississippi list shown earlier spells his name with an umlaut. Other records spelled his name as Hecker.

We can also view 2 civil records of this marriage from Perry County. Here is the first one. The 2 civil documents use the Hecker spelling.

Below is the other civil record.

Our German Family Tree lists 3 children born to this couple. All of them were baptized at Trinity, Altenburg. However, only one of them lived to adulthood. In the 1860 census, we find the Hacker’s with no children. Friedrich’s father was included in their household. Friedrich was a farmer.

Next, we find the Hacker’s in the 1870 census with the one child who lived to adulthood. This time, Friedrich was called a teacher of music.

A Missouri state census was compiled in 1876. This form calls him Frederick C. Haecker. The C. supposedly refers to his middle name of Christian, which is also the name that is given to him on his Family Search information.

The last census in which we find these Hacker’s was the one taken in 1880. We once again find the same 3 individuals in the entry as in the previous one. Friedrich, called Fritz, was refered to as a carpenter this time.

Friedrich Hacker died on the Fourth of July in 1888, the 112th birthday of our country. His death record is found in the books of Trinity, Altenburg. I have included some other death records on this image for the discussion I will have about his grave site.

Another document I located is this one I found in a collections of Missouri Deaths and Burials. This transcription gives him the middle name of August. It is another document that states that Friedrich was a musical teacher. I have to wonder what specific musical skills that he had.

Sophie Hacker died a year later in 1889. Once again, I have included a few other death records in this image.

One must assume that Friedrich and Sophie Hacker were buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg. However, neither one of them has an entry on Findagrave.com for that graveyard. That sent me on a trip to that cemetery this morning. Here is what I found. First of all, below is what I think is the empty spot where Friedrich was buried. The gravestone on the left is the one for Johanna Birner, whose death record you see in the image for Friedrich’s death record. The gravestone on the right which is lying on the ground, is the one for Hartmann Grebing. The other 3 death records in the above image were for the deaths of young children, and they would be buried in a different location in this cemetery. So, I am pretty confident that this is where Friedrich was buried.

Below is a photo of where I think Sophie was buried. The gravestone on the left is for Johann Saalfeld. On the image above including Sophie’s death record, you can see that Johann Seibel was buried prior to Sophie. The Angeline Seibel death record is once again a child’s death. However, I think there is another issue in this photo. I think the Saalfeld gravestone may be a “better” one that replaced an older one that could no longer be read. I also think that someone who was involved in replacing that stone got their information incorrect for this newer stone. It has the death date for the Seibel child instead of the death date for Johann Saalfeld.

In another photo below, you can see that the sites for both the graves of Friedrich and Sophie Hacker are located rather close to one another. They are indicated by the red arrows.

Maybe “Miss Findagrave” Diane Anderson could consider adding these two sites to Trinity Lutheran Cemetery’s Findagrave website, even though we cannot view their gravestones.