I'm currently researching Dr. William J. Wackerle, born in Emmendingen, in Baden-Wurtemburg, Germany February 23, 1819.
He started for America in the fall of 1839, taking passage at Havre on a sailing vessel and landing in New Orleans after an ocean voyage of sixty-three days. He spent one year in Jackson, La., engaged in the practice of his profession, then, coming north, settled in Detroit, Mich.; less than a year thereafter returned south to St. Louis, Mo., and thence, in 1846, came to Morgan County, Illinois.

He married a Miss Susan F. Anderson in 1843 in St. Louis, Missouri. They raised their family in Morgan County, Illinois. Their children were: William F. Wackerle, born in 1849, Dr. Charles J. Wackerle, born in 1855, Louis J. Wackerle, born 16 October 1860, Fannie Ella Wackerle, born October 10, 1862, and Edward J. Wackerle, born in 1865.

I am fairly certain that Dr. William J. Wackerle was visiting and staying with relatives when in Jackson, Louisiana and Detroit, Michigan. I also think that the reason he settled in Morgan County, Illinois is because some of his relatives were already living there at the time.

I've seen numerous family trees with probable descendants and/or extended family members for the Wackerle family in Lousiana, Michigan and Illinois, yet I have not found a family tree linking them all together, either. Thus the reason for this message post, hoping perhaps someone will see a connection in the information above.

I'd love to correspond with anyone having information on - or common interests - within the Wackerle family.


Thanks !

I am not connected to the Wackerle family, but thought an article I came across regarding William Wackerle and his wife Wilburga [Waldburga?] might be of interest. This story was recounted in the Herald Despatch in Decator, Illinois September 20, 1890 and seems to be about a different William Wackerle, not the physician. However, many of the place names you cite, including St. Louis and Louisiana, are mentioned in this story. Perhaps you can use it to tie some of the family members together. I'll quote some of it:
An Interesting Insurance Case
Capt Joseph Weinman...is an old soldier and an old insurance man as well, and some years ago played a prominent part in a case which is generally known to insurance men.... In life insurance history it is known as the Wackerle case...."
[per Joseph Weinmann] "At the close of the war,[Civil War] Wm. Wackerle and his wife were living in Minnesota. He had taken out a policy [with Aetna and Mutual Insurance]...for several thousand dollars each. ...I knew him personally [during the war]. The Wackerle family went to St. Louis and then to Quincy. Here, owing to a difference of opinion with his wife Wackerle left for Louisiana to work on a railroad keeping his whereabouts unknown to his wife but telling a brother in St. Louis that he would make his way to California and live there. Sometime afterwards an unknown man was killed on a railroad near Shreveport and was supposed to be Wackerle. His wife heard of his reported death and visiting the spot got a number of neroes to swear that they had heard the man frequently say his name was Wackerle. This formed the basis of the suit which she brought against the Aetna company and won in the lower courts. It was early in the '70s and at the time I was still living in Minnesota. An item...attracted my attention to the case. It struck me as remarkable because only a few days before I had received a letter from Wackerle in California with whom I had been in communication.... ...the attention of the insurance people was attracted to me, and I was sent to California to bring Wackerle back. He [Wackerle]was found and identified.... It was a difficult matter to bring about a meeting between Wackerle and his wife, but it was finally accomplished at Chaska, their old home, in the presence of a dozen or more witnesses. It was a dramatic scene. When they stood face to face, Wackerle said: 'Wilburga, don't you know me.' Her face betrayed not the slightest emotion, and yet beneath the calm, passive exterior, it seemed that she was shaken with contending emotions. Whatever her feelings may have been she did not betray them. ...She said: 'I do not know you. If there is anything between us the courts will settle it.' with this she turned and walked away and would say nothing more. ...the Louisiana supreme court...remanded it for trial and Mrs. Wackerle lost. In a case against the Mutual Insurance company, however, tried a few years ago at St. Louis, she was victorious, depite the fact that Wackerle, supported by a dozen more witnesses, testified to his identity. In the case at St. Louis the evidence was so plain that the attorneys for the Mutual company did not submit all the facts in their possession. Sympathy had been worked up for Mrs. Wackerle, however, and the jury returned a verdict in her favor, contrary to the evidence and the law."