Reflections Upon a Blessed and Exciting Life No. 1: Birth

I entered this world from my mother/s womb on a cold night in the teacherage (home for parochial school teachers) outside of Walburg Texas on December 10,1927. Dr. Wiedemeyer was there with his black bag and my Aunt Mattie Kurio was there to assist. The delivery took place in the dining room of the house. That is because it was cold and that was the only room in the house which had a heater, a venerable wood-burning stove that had served for decades.

I was the first-born son and third child of Oscar and Lena Kieschnick. Oscar was known throughout the community as Teacher Kieschnick as he served as teacher for grades 4 through 8 and principal of Zion Lutheran School. Ancestry was not much talked about in my early years and what I know about my family heritage is limited. I know that my great-grandfather John Kieschnick was born in Malschwitz, Germany and came to American in 1854. He settled on a farm in New Ulm near Brenham, Texas. It was there that my father (one of ten children) was born in 1899. My grandmother Marie Friedrich was born in Kleinbautzen, Germany in 1868 and came to America in 1882. John and Marie settled in Lee County, worked very hard as successful farmers and had seven children.

My maternal grandfather, Henry Doering was born in Walburg, Hesse, Germany in1855. He came to the United States in 1880 and settled in Berry Creek in central Texas. He suffered a severe sun-stroke, gave up farming, opened the general store, post office and bank and is recognized as the founder of Walburg, Texas

My maternal grandmother is Lena Braun who was born in Fayette County Texas. She and Henry were married in 1882.My mother Lena was born in Walburg, one of eleven children

My father was born in 1899 and my mother in 1902. They were married in Walburg in 1923.

As was the custom I was baptized soon at the age of 8 days at Zion Lutheran Church by Pastor John Sieck, with an aunt, an uncle, a cousin and a Lutheran schoolteacher as sponsors. The notes my Mother recorded in my “baby book” are sparse but contain the note that I first said “papa, mama” when at ten months I heard my father deliver a sermon at church. One other note explains why I never really learned to swim and to this day am somewhat afraid of water. Mom wrote, “ He always enjoyed his baths till he was eight months old. Then we took him to the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston. From then on he never liked his bath-or running water.”