Many thanks to William Beckhusen (Bill) of Lemon Grove,CA, who sent us this history of the family.
See the weather in Beckhusen Germany
Beckhusen is a small town located in the northern part of Germany, about 130 km southwest of Hamburg and just 70 km east of the border to the Netherlands. All Beckhusen ancestors found so far come from about a 25 mile radius bordered around Bremerhaven, Oldenburg and Bremen.
| Nearby Cities and Towns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| West | North | East | South |
| Ahlen (0.6 nm) | Dorpen
(1.2 nm) Mull (1.2 nm) |
Neudorpen (2.1 nm) | Kluse
(1.0 nm) Suddenburg (1.0 nm) Renkenberge (2.7 nm) |
The city of Oldenburg has for many centuries been the residence of very ambitious aristocrats, such as the counts, dukes and grand dukes of Oldenburg-Holstein-Gottorp.
From 1667 the area was under Danish rule and regained its independence in 1773 the principality Lübeck, The "French Age" lasted from 1811 to 1813. In 1815 Oldenburg obtained the principality of Birkenfeld; in 1918 the last grand duke abdicated and in 1919 the "Free State of Oldenburg" was founded. Under Hitler, Oldenburg, Aurich, Osnabrück and Bremen formed a "Reichsgau" (imperial district). In 1945 the British restored the "Land Oldenburg", and from 1946 on it belonged to the newly-formed Federal State of Lower Saxony. Since 1978 Oldenburg has been the capital of the Weser-Ems administrative district, a region as large as the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein.
| 1108 First documentary mention of Oldenburg |
| 1345 Town charter |
| 1383 Harbour for inland and maritime navigation ("Stau") |
| 1607 The count Anton Günther begins to transform the medieval fortress into a castle. |
| 1667 Under Danish rule (until 1773) |
| 1676 Almost completely destroyed by fire |
| 1773 The city falls to the House of Holstein-Gottorp |
| 1789 Razing of the ramparts. Inner ramparts are transformed into avenues |
| 1811 - Soat of the Sub-prefecture of the French |
| 1813 government department "Weser-Mündung" |
| 1918 Capital of the Free State of Oldenburg |
| 1945 After the war (1,1 % of buildings are destroyed) absorption of 42,000 refugees, thus becoming a major city of 100,00 inhabitants |
| 1946 Seat of the President of Lower Saxony's administrative district of Oldenburg |
| 1967 Construction of the pedestrian zone |
| 1973 Foundation of the Carl-von-Ossietzky university |
| 1978 Capital of the governmental district of Weser-Ems |
| 1995 650th anniversary of Oldenburg |
My grandfather and his two brothers came out of Oldenburg which is about 7 miles from Neuenlande on the east side of the Weser river. Wilhelm and Bill (who sent me his info) also comes from Neuenlande.
Bill believes my grandfather or his father was born in the Neuenlande area and moved over to Oldenburg, probably for employment . The towns on the east river are very small and so most unless heirs to family small farms moved to bigger cities or towns to support their families.
Most Beckhusen's coming out of Neuenlande were carpenters, small farmers, cobblers, in the shipping business and later in 1800's, hey were chefs. The reason he believes Beckhusens on the west side of Weser river originated on the east side has to do with church records recorded in the family history library (Morman). The earliest date he has found in the Oldenburg area is late 1700 - 1792 to be exact of a birth. On the east side records date back into the early 1600's. These were found at the Dedesdorf church about 2 miles north of Neuenlande.
The only jobs available to Germans prior to 1600's were with land barons. This is the case with our ancestors because the area we come from is mostly farm area.(German bread basket). These men were called by there first names and the city or town they came from.So my name back than would have been Frederick Von(from) Bekhausen. During Martin Luthers' era this became very confusing and all were told to construct a last name. In northern Germany this was done by altering there town or city name and in southern Germany (mostly Catholic) it was done mostly by Occupation. So as you can see the C was added which has little change in pronunciation and the A was dropped creating Beckhusen. If this was only done by one family at that time, then of course all Beckhusen's today are cousins, and I believe this to be the case. In the church records Bill also found other names in the area that appear they were derived from Beckhusenas well as names derived from other small communities around our ancestral area. If you can get any information on the family church or town your ancestors came from let me know and we will try to get the records from the church (if the Mormons recorded them) or write the church and seek information.
The scenery surrounding Beckhusenis particularly delightful, the landscape is basically composed out of the four elements geest, moor, marsh and the sea. The geest consists of small sandy hills covered with pine woods that elevate a little bit over sea level and are the highest points in this region.
The moors are a unique kind of morast that used to cover large areas of northwestern Germany and the Netherlands. During the 18th and 19th century most of these moorlands were cultivated because the dried moor soil (Torf=peat) was considered a cheap burning material. The moors were drained through complicated systems of canals that also allowed transporting the peat to the cities of Oldenburg, Bremen and even Hamburg. The villages that developed through the building of houses alongside the canals are called Fehne and they shape this part of region.
The marsh or fog, as it is also called, are in geologic terms simply the remainders of gigantic glacial valleys, or from the farmers point of view they are the most fertile parts of this region. Visiting the marsh means seeing plains of green meadows and colourful fields only limited by the horizon.
Beckhusenis also close to the North Sea, which gives you the opportunity of enjoying miles of sandy beaches and all kinds of water sports. With its unique flora and fauna the wadden sea national park is another interesting starting point for explorations.
Just 30 km east of Beckhusenyou can find Bremen, a big north sea harbour town and just a few more kilometers to the northeast there is of course Hamburg, one of the biggest cities in Germany. About 100 km south of Beckhusenyou will find the Teuteburger Forest, a low mountain range and the beautiful town of Osnabrueck, where the Thirty Years' War was ended.
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