John Peter Reck
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth Date: 21 Jun 1858 - Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, Vosges, Lorraine France Christening: Death: 9 May 1942 - Armstrong Co., Texas ( at age 83) 2 Burial: in Claude, Armstrong Co., Texas Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Nicholas Reck (1827-1917) 1 Mother: Madelaine (1825-1913) 1
Spouses and Children
1. *Madelaine Christine Pacher (9 Jan 1875 - 13 Sep 1930) 1 Marriage: 15 Jul 1897 - Armstrong Co., Texas 3 Children: 1. Elizabeth Reck (1898-1930) 2. Alfred John Reck (1900-1978) 3. Raymond Peter Reck (1902-1986) 4. John A. Reck (1904-1994) 5. Henry Oscar "Hy" Reck (1906-1964) 6. Frank George Reck (1907-1969) 7. Samuel Houston Reck (1911-1998) 8. David Nicholas Reck (1911-1943)
Notes
General:
CENSUS:
<pre>1900 Armstrong Co., Texas, Precinct No. 7, ED 3; June 1,2,4; sheet 1A
5/5
John P. Reck Jun 1862 37 M3 Fr Fr Fr 1881 19 Na Farmer
Mary M. " wife Jan 1875 25 M3/2/2 Fr Fr Fr 1891 9
Elizabeth " dau May 1898 2 S Tx Fr Fr
Alfred " son Jan 1900 4/12 S Tx Fr Fr
Nicholas " father Feb 1828 72 M52 Fr Fr Fr 1881 19 Na Farm laborer
Magdalene " mother Mar 1827 73 M52/4/4 Fr Fr Fr 1881 19 </pre>
He owns a mortgaged farm. He is in the sequence John P. Reck, x, Francois Chauveaux, Charles A. Weaver, James H. Weaver, x, John G. Weaver, Neal I. Collins, x, Harry D. McCurdy.
<pre>1910 Armstrong Co., Texas, Justice Precinct 3, ED 7; Apr 29; sheet 8A
74/80
John P. Reck 46 M1/13 Fr Fr Fr 1881 Na Farmer/Gen Farm
Meadaline " wife 34 M1/13/6/6 Fr Fr Fr 1882 Na None
Elizabeth " dau 12 S Tx Fr Fr None
John " son 10 S Tx Fr Fr None
Raymond " son 8 S Tx Fr Fr None
June " son 6 S Tx Fr Fr None
Henry " son 5 S Tx Fr Fr None
Frank " son 2 S Tx Fr Fr None
Nicholas " father 82 M1/63 Fr Fr Fr 1881 Na None </pre>
He owns a mortgaged farm.
<pre>1920 Armstrong Co., Texas, Justice Precinct 2, Claude Town, Ward: Param, ED 2; Jan 12; sheet 8B
172/180
John P. Reck 59 M Fr Fr Fr Farmer/Farm
Magdeline " wife 42 M Fr Fr Fr None
Elizabeth " dau 21 S Tx Fr Fr None
Alfred " son 20 S Tx Fr Fr Laborer/Farm
Raymond " son 16 S Tx Fr Fr None
John " son 15 S Tx Fr Fr None
Henry " son 14 S Tx Fr Fr None
Frank " son 12 S Tx Fr Fr None
Samuel " son 10 S Tx Fr Fr None
David " son 10 S Tx Fr Fr None </pre>
He owns an unmortgaged home.
<pre>1930 Armstrong Co., Texas, Justice Precinct #2, ED 6-3; Apr 11; sheet 3A
49/49
John P. Reck 69 M34 Fr Fr Fr Farmer/Farming
Madelaine " wife 55 M21 Fr Fr Fr None
Raymond P. " son 28 S Tx Fr Fr Farmer/Farming
John A. " son 25 S Tx Fr Fr Farmer/Farming
Henry O. " son 24 S Tx Fr Fr Farmer/Farming
Frank G. " son 22 S Tx Fr Fr Farmer/Farming
Sam H. " son 18 S Tx Fr Fr None
David N. " son 18 S Tx Fr Fr None </pre>
He owns his home, lives on a farm and has no radio. His son Alfred Reck lives at 56/56.
NATURALIZATION:
On June 12, 1919 John Peter Reck swore to a Declaration of Intention in Amarillo, Potter Co., Texas ("Texas, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1852-1991", Amarillo > Naturalization Petitions, 1913-1966, Pt9 at ancestry.com, image 184/493)
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/233632:2509?tid=&pid=&queryId=0332ab3c-f665-44d0-8644-e224f251fa9b&_phsrc=qnk1884&_phstart=successSource
Age: 59
Occupation: stock farmer
Color: white
Complexion: dark
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 160 pounds
Color of hair: dark to gray
Color of eyes: brown
Distinctive marks: scar on left arm
Born in St. Die, Vosges, France on June 21, 1860
Resides at Claude, Armstrong Co., Texas
Emigrated from Havre, France on the vessel Amerique
Arrived at the port of New York on or about October 14, 1880
Last foreign residence: St. Die, France
Married to Ellen Pacher, who was born at Moussey, France and now resides at Claude, Armstrong Co., Texas
Renounces allegiance to the French Republic of which he is now a subject
Not an anarchist or a polygamist
Intends to become a citizen of the United States and reside therein
LAND in ARMSTRONG CO.:
The on-line land grant records of the Texas General Land Office are useful but sketchy. They indicate that Nicholas Reck and each of his 4 sons filed a claim on land in Armstrong Co. None of those claims is dated, and land was finally patented to only one of the sons. On 31 Oct 1923 488.5 acres in Section 200 of a large tract called Houston and Great Northern Railroad Company B4 was patented to J. P. Reck. He is said to have been the original grantee of that land. However, it appears to be the same land originally granted to Joseph Reck. All of the land granted to the Reck brothers and their father in Armstrong Co. was in Block 4 (B4).
On 13 Feb 1926 649 acres in Section 162 were patented to J. P. Reck, who again is said to have been the grantee. However, that land appears to be the same land originally granted to his father Nicholas Reck.
Earlier on 28 Jan 1919 J. P. Reck had received a patent on the NW 1/4 of Section 200 (160 acres), originally granted to W. T. Milne. The result of J. P. Reck's 1923 patent was that he had completed his ownership of all of section 200.
Carson Co. is immediately north of Armstrong Co. On 7 Jan 1913 Andre Reck received a patent on 654 acres in Carson Co. in Section 162 of Houston and Great Northern Railroad Company B3 (Block 3). He was not the original grantee.
TEXAS DEATH CERTIFICATE 19910:
John Peter Reck, widowed, farmer & stockman, died 9 May 1942 in Armstrong Co., Texas 5 miles east of Claude at age 83 years 10 months 18 days.
Residence: 58 years in place of death
Born: 21 Jun 1858 in St. Die, France
Father: Nichelas Reck, born in France
Mother: don't know, born in France
Informant: A. L. Reck, Claude, Texas
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
The following was written in 1939 by John P. Reck's daughter-in-law Delma Collins, wife of Alfred Reck. I have a hand-written copy. It was published in 1965 on pages 78-80 in A Collection of Memories, a History of Armstrong County 1876-1965.
John P. Reck
John Peter Reck of Claude, Texas, was born Jean Pierre Reck at St. Die, Senones and Baccarat Department or Vosges in Lorraine, France, on June 21, 1858. He was the second of four sons born to Nicholas and Madelaine Reck.
Nicholas Reck was a miller in St. Die and it was there that John Reck spent his early years and received his education. Mr. Reck well remembers the days of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 at which time Germany was ceded a part of Alsace-Lorraine. This division of territory left St. Die about 1 1/2 miles inside of France. He tells of what high prices one had to pay for commodities in France while in Germany they were cheap. France had to pay a big war indemnity to Germany that is what made everything so high in France after the war. However, when one bought them in Germany the revenue was so high getting them across into France, it came out about the same. Consequently, there was a large traffic in smuggling carried on. The revenue officers were stationed every 400 yards apart, but many of the smugglers were clever enough to get by them.
What with the hardships of reconstruction after the war and the many glamorous tales one heard of America and all it had to offer, the Reck family decided to try their fortune in the United States.
So it was in 1878 that John Reck found himself in New York City, twenty years old and far, far from the shores of his native France. After spending two months in New York City, he went to Peoria, Illinois, and worked as a mechanic for about a year. Evidently, he had heard of Mr. Greeley's advice to young men to "Go West" and kept heading that way and to the south until he landed in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Reck family settled in Parker County near Weatherford. There were the parents, Nicholas and Madelaine; three single boys John, Emil and Andre; and Joe Reck, the married brother, and his family.
In 1887 Joe Reck moved to the panhandle and filed on a claim six miles east of Claude. Early in 1888 Jon decided that he too would have a look at the plains, so harnessed his team of horses to a wagon and started out for Claude. The trip took ten days. He found the country to his liking so he filed on a claim near his brother's and made preparations for his return to Parker County to move his parents and brothers to their new home.
Before starting on his return trip he dug up several big lumps of sod with grass six inches tall growing on it. He admits now that he took it from a low place where the soil was blackest and richest looking. He also dug several specimens of prickly pears, put them all in the wagon and started on the ten-day trip back to Weatherford.
Once there, the natives clustered around his wagon to see this rich looking sod and to marvel at the sharp needled cactus that grew in this place which was still considered wild country. Many of the men there wanted to trade him out of his claim here, offering him good improved fertile land with little or no indebtedness against it. The women wanted the cactus plants to put in their yards and he gladly gave the prickly pears away, but John Reck kept his claim on the prairie. He and his parents returned to Claude in November, 1888, via rail.
At the time John Reck returned to Claude the railroad went through to Amarillo. There was little or no town at Claude. A Mr. Trice went to Clarendon in his buckboard after supplies, brought them to Claude where the settlers bought them. There was no coal, the fuel was wood from the canyon.
The Reck's first home on the plains was a dugout. They lived in it for ten or twelve months and then built a half dugout and half house as they were drowned out of the first one. Water was hauled from six miles away for two years. At the end of this time they drilled a well.
There were still large herds of antelope running wild and lobo wolves were plentiful. There were panthers and bears in the canyons and sometimes they would be seen crossing the country going from one place to another.
Most of the country was in pasture with only small farming units. Mr. Reck farmed twenty-five acres.
In 1893 the Reck family built their first house all above the ground.
In the years since John had come to Texas his two single brothers had married and moved to homes of their own, leaving him alone with his parents. Now this family had kept in touch with a family in France who later came to America and settled in Massachusetts. Their name was Pacher. Joe Reck had married a sister of Mrs. Pacher and it was at the wedding in France that seventeen year old John Reck fed a green pear to two year old Madelaine Pacher with nearly disastrous results.
Knowing there were two single girls in the Pacher family in Massachusetts, John wrote to Mr. Pacher asking his permission to correspond with one of his daughters and his answer was a letter from Madelaine.
These two people who had adopted the Unted States as their country, found through their correspondence many ideas in common. In 1897 Madelaine came to Texas to visit the Reck family and she and John were married in the house that was to be their home for many years.
There were many hardships for the early settlers to endure, especially so for Madelaine. Everything was entirely different to anything she had ever known, but no hardened plainsman could have borne them more valiantly than Madelaine Reck. She had all those fine qualities it took to make a success of being a pioneer woman.
In the course of time there were eight children born to this couple. Their names, Elizabeth, Alfred, Raymond, John, Henry, Frank, Sam and David. The last two named are twins. These children were all born and partly raised in a small two-room house with two bedrooms. The kitchen was a room built by itself. One had to walk across the yard going to and from these rooms. Grandma and Granpa lived with them, too.
In 1916 John Reck built a large two story house which gave the family plenty of room to spread out.
While Mr. Reck's family was growing up the county was growing too.
Mr. Reck has taken an interest in all civic development in Claude and Armstrong County, giving of his time and his money to build a progressive community.
The year 1930 was a tragic one for the Reck family. In January Elizabeth was taken suddenly ill and died. In September, Mrs. Reck died after an unsuccessful operation.
Mr. Reck still lives east of Claude on the section he filed a claim on 51 years ago. Although he is nearing his 82nd birthday, he is still an active interested man. He reads newspapers and magazines and has never worn a pair of glasses.
His three oldest sons farm his land and look after his cattle, and though he no longer rides the range he is still the foreman.
by Delma Collins Reck
November, 1939
1 H. Neal Parker, Visit to Cemetery, Claude, Texas, 1999, 2007.
2 "Find-a-Grave," Memorial # 133695996.
3
Texas, U.S., Marriage Index 1824 -- 2014, J. P. Reck and Madelaine Pacher 15 Jul 1897 in Armstrong Co. Repository: http://www.ancestry.com.
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