Heinrich Friedrich STÜNCKEL

My translation of Petra Kuske's history:

Heinrich Friedrich’s mother had already perished in Schwarmstedt and his father sought an appropriate substitute. Soon enough he found a new woman that he liked and thus his children had a new stepmother. Heinrich Friedrich grew older and learned, like his father before him, the carpenter trade. After the end of his apprenticeship, he went abroad as a journeyman, as was normal practice for carpenters, traveling on the road through new and strange districts. A pouch on his back, he went forth through the unknown and whenever the prospect of work presented itself, he worked.

Napoleon had bestowed the kingdom of Hannover upon his brother Jerome and then Hannover suddenly was joined with Westphalia, into a united province, such a long way from the Niedersachsen of the future.

Heinrich Friedrich found on his travels the woman for his life. He loved horses and during the war he had been assigned the care of the royal horses, he performed this task so well that the king {not Jerome?} wanted to reward him!

“I give you a piece of land.” He said and Heinrich Friedrich beamed accordingly. “Near Celle, we are building ourselves a colony and I give you a parcel of land there.” Heinrich Friedrich stood astounded before “his land.” The entire colony helped each other and together they built for each other house by house. In 1832 Heinrich Friedrich’s house was ready, House number 9.

House and courtyard was one-acre, the fruit and vegetable garden took up another acre. The land for cultivation totaled 28 acres. Shortly thereafter his first child was born!

It was a girl! Quickly he found godparents from the small colony and in August 1833 the girl, named Marie Sophie Dorothe, was baptized.

In the following ten years the little Marie had four more brothers. Heinrich Friedrich worked hard cultivating his land. The wonderfully beautiful red blossoming heath was hard to battle and could only be plowed under with ones own hand and spade. Heinrich Friedrich certainly needed the 15 years without expenses and taxes to pay. But his family also wanted to eat. After running out of the 15 free years Friedrich sold his estate and moved into the “new city” as the new quarter of Celle was named. It was outside and across from the central district of the city. Marie went as a maidservant to an estate in Wiedenrode, a small village across from Broekel.

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