by Gayle Stuart
THE vonLACKUM FAMILY OF LEO STUART
I was thinking about what to write this time. Leo & I decided to work on his Mother’s family. We think we have enough information to get started. She is of German descent, before now we have not spent much time trying to fill in the blank spaces.
When people think of the Stuart family, it is thought to be a Scottish family with a bit of Irish living in a very German community. This is only half of the equation. Leo’s mother came to town as a teacher, following her sister who was already here. Winona first taught in Wiota, then came to Walnut before returning to Dysart, her home town, to teach half days and care for an ailing grandmother.
Winona’s great-grandfather, Herman vonLackum, we find emigrating from Prussia, in the Frankfurt area, sometime in the 1840s. We find him owning land in the Lomira, Wisconsin area in 1847. He was a botanist who grew herbs.
Winona’s grandfather, Peter vonLackum, had three wives, of which we descend from the first wife, Augusta, who had four children. Winona’s family consisted of three generations of doctors of medicine. Her grandfather, Peter, graduated from Physio-Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 19, 1869. Her father, Herman Julius vonLackum, graduated from King Eclectic Medical College in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1886. He then opened an office in Dysart and practiced there his entire life. His last patient was seen November 15, 1949, completing a 62-year practice. Winona’s three brothers each graduated from the University of Iowa School of Medicine with medical degrees in Ophthalmology and Orthopedics.
On the Kullmer side of the family, Winona’s grandfather, Johannes, was raised in an orphanage and learned the trade of a tailor. He was born in Reichenscensen, Kurfurstentum, Hessen, Germany. He came to the US in 1857 at the age of 32, settling in New York for five or six years before venturing to Lee County, Illinois. Theresia Mockert, Winona’s grandmother, was born in Bietighein, Baden, Germany, on September 14, 1835. She immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1859 and later journeyed to live with a cousin in Lee County, Illinois. There she met her husband, Johannes Kullmer, and in 1874 moved to Dysart, Tama County, Iowa, where they lived the rest of their lives.
This is just a short synopsis; we hope to collect more information in the future.
GBS