Our great-grandfather, Johann Feckter (Fochter) was the mayor (Burgomeister) of the Austrian town of Weisskirchen, where he lived in 1848-1850. The family was descended, so the story goes, from an ancestor who was a Royal French guard in the palace of the unfortunate French King, Louis XVI, at the time of the French Revolution, at the end of the 1700’s. When the King’s attempt at escape from his captors in Paris failed, most of the guards had to flee for their lives, and Captain Fochter (Feckter) crossed the border into Austria, where he married an Austrian girl and henceforth lived as an Austrian citizen. As time went on and several generations passed, we come to the above mentioned Johann Fochter (Feckter) the mayor of Weisskirchen, who was a local politician and a charitable man, well liked by all who knew him.

Johann had a son, Jacob Fochter (Feckter), born around 1850 who became a construction contractor for the government and worked at building bridges over small rivers, railway stations, and other government buildings. Eventually his business expanded and he built many bridges in the mountainous regions of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and other Balkan countries. Young Jacob married a local girl named Elizabeth Becker, in 1872, whose family owned some vineyards in the area and operated a wine company. Elizabeth was the 12th child of her father and the only child of her mother, much younger than her father, who had married Mr. Becker when he was a widower. Our grandmother told us that she did not even know some of her older sisters and brothers, since most had married and left the neighborhood. After her father died, her mother left Austria and Elizabeth continued to live on the family estate. Her only friend during her teen years was her half-brother Carl Becker, who was bout ten years older than she was. Carl Becker and his wife, Filomena Lutz Becker, left Europe and came to the United States in 1870, to St. Louis, Missouri, where they settled in Holy Trinity parish. Jacob and Elizabeth becker Fochter (Feckter) were the parents of four children - Johann, born in 1874, Jacob, Jr., born in 1876, Barbara (Vette) born in 1878, and Josephine who died in infancy.

As you have already guessed, Johann Fochter (Feckter) was our father, who came to the U.S. from Austria at nineteen years of age, after a misunderstanding with his father. Here is the story as told to me by Grandma Elizabeth:

Young Johann had attended the villiage school and the Lyceum (equivalent to our Junior High) taking courses suggested by his father, so he could follow the construction business. However, the son did not look forward to building bridges, so he entered a competition open to the brighter studends in the small towns and villiages of Austria, for a scholarship to the Royal Military Academy in Vienna. His mother knew about her son’s action but did not tell her husband because he was very much against a military career. She said she just thought it was a young man’s ambition and that her son would not have a chance to win the scholarship anyway. But things turned out differently and several months after the examinations two officers rode into town from Vienna. They had beautiful horses and wore red and black uniforms, and found their way to the house of Mr. Jacob Fochter, in order to inform him of the great honor to his family - the acceptance of his son, Johann, as a student in the Royal Military Academy. Well, the elder Jacob became incensed on finding out about the competition and his son’s part in it, without his knowledge, so he refused, not too politely, to hear about the appointment, saying that Johann was not of age and would not have his permission to accept the scholarship. Grandma said that her husband literally threw the officers out of his house and she feared for weeks that the Emperor’s police would come to arrest him. That did not happen, of course, and things went back to normal in their household. However, young Johann cried and moped for months and lost interest in his surroundings, so that she felt he was losing his health. Finally she wrote to her brother Carl and sought his advice on dealing with the problem.

Uncle Carl Becker suggested that his nephew take the next boat and come to America, to St. Louis, Missouri, to stay with him and Aunt Filomena, until he could get adjusted and find work. That’s the way Dad happened to come in 1893, and found out on his arrival that it was the year of the Panic of 1893, with no easy jobs available. He lived in the attic of his uncle’s house with a cousin he did not know, the nephew of Aunt Filomena, named Joe Lutz, and the two young men got along very well. Joe helped Johann find work and introduced him to the organist at Holy Trinity Church, a Mr. Hoernchermeier, who took him on and taught him English during the first six months he was here, without charging anything for the lessons, a favor our father never forgot.

Johann was young and strong, and took any job offered, from working in a lumber company yard to pouring hot steel into molds in a stove factory. He decided he would never return to Austria, and began preparations to become a United States citizen, which he accomplished in about three years. In the meantime, he was having trouble with some of his fellow workers, about the pronunciation of his name - Fochter - and at the time of registration for naturalization he mentioned the fact and was told there would not be any difficulty in changing the spelling of his name. The result was that Johann Fochter was naturalized under the name of John Feckter, and the other members of his family, his mother, brother, sister, and a cousin, all adopted the same surname and spelling, when they came to St. Louis, some years later, after his father had passed away.

It did not take long for John Feckter to rise in the economic world, and soon he became an agent for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, then Superintendent, and along the way of salesmanship and insurance he finally had his own business, the John H. Feckter Insurance Agency, Inc. At the time of his death, in 1939, he had his office as a broker for many companies, in the Boatman’s Bank Building, in downtown St. Louis.

There is no need to mention how Dad aquired the Henry as his middle name, but it is part of an interesting story, so here it goes. When our father arrived in St. Louis, there was a family living in Holy Trinity parish named Siemer, consisting of Clemetine Siemer, wife of Henry Seimer, deceased, and her two daughters, Elizabeth (Lillie), and Antonia (Nettie), and her son, Henry. Young Henry Seimer was a devout Catholic and noticed that some immigrants from Europe known as Catholics, were not attending Mass on Sundays, and he was curious to learn their reasons. One of the newcomers who aroused Henry’s interest was John Feckter, a young man from Austria, who was faithful in attending the Choir practice in the parish, each week, but did not attend the parish Masses on Sunday, when the choir performed. Henry managed to take John F. as a new friend and liked him, so he inquired about the omission from Mass. John was very frank and told Henry that he went to afternoon devotions, which were held in the church every Sunday afternoon, but was attending singing lessons with a local "Sang Ferien" (German Song Society), on Sunday mornings. He seemed to think that the afternoon service was just as good as morning Mass - in fact that was what was being taught in the religious instructions of his native country, at that time. Henry soon changed his friend’s lifestyle, and John Feckter became a fervent Catholic and never missed Mass on Sunday again. As a sequel to this, Henry took John home with him and introduced him to his mother and sisters, and Grandma Siemer became very fond of the way John read the German newspapers and magazines to her during her illness, and she was very sincere when she advised her girls that they should take note of him and get him to fall in love with one of them, since she was sure he would be a very fine husband. John was not confirmed in Austria, so when he rectified this oversight, with Henry as his sponser, he took the name Henry, and was known ever after as John H. Feckter. The end of the story is that John H. F. chose Antonia Siemer for his wife, and they had a large, happy family of children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. John H. Feckter and Henry Siemer were close friends until the death of Mr. Siemer in 1938. John H. Feckter died in 1939, and his wife, Antonia, passed away in 1963, aged 86.

As of 1982, there are seven children of John H. and Antonia Feckter living, with 13 grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren, and four great-greats. Three of our ten have passed into eternity - Joe at age 15; Dolores Brown in 1975, at age 61 and Dan J. (Adolph) in 1981, aged 69.

Jacob Feckter, the younger brother of John H., came to St. Louis from Austria, several years after our father. He married Anna Ilges and they became the parents of seven children - one died in infancy. Jacob died in 1963. At present in 1982, Anna Ilges Feckter has survived her husband and is living with her daughter, Betty Wengstrom, in St. William Parish, in the North County of St. Louis. At 94 years of age, Aunt Anna is enjoying her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Barbara (Vette) Feckter came to St. Louis after the death of her father, and was accompanied by her widowed mother, in 1898. In 1903 Barbara married John Schoellhorn, a young man from Hungary, and they were the parents of four sons, John, August, Ernst, and Tony who died in infancy. John Schoellhorn worked as a wood-turner in furniture for some years, and at one time was given the privilege of making an ornate walking-cane that was presented to President Theodore Roosevelt on a visit to St. Louis. Later John S. was a custodian for Holy Trinity Parish in St. Louis. He passed away in 1927. Aunt Vette Schoellhorn died in 1949, and at present in 1982, her descendents include her three sons, six grandchildren and several great-grands.

Our grandmother, Elizabeth Becker Feckter, came to St. Louis as a widow and lived with her children for several years. However, after the marriages of her son Jacob and her daughter, Barbara, she married Anton Taschler, a widower with three grown children. Mr. Taschler, whom we children called "Opa", was a versatile entertainer from the Tyrolean region of Austria, who could yodel for our delight, and who made beautiful cookoo clocks. Their marriage was successful and happy and lasted for more than 30 years until death parted their union. Anton Taschler died in the Spring of 1938, and Grandma Elizabeth survived him by only a fewe months, dying in the latter part of the same year.

This ends my report on the historical highlights of the family of our father, John H. Feckter, gleaned from memories of conversations with relatives and scraps of oral and written information, passed on from our ancestors to the present year, 1982. No doubt, ther are some discrepancies in dates, etc., and I trust that those who peruse thses pages will excuse them, or if they wish, they may continue digging into the past genealogical findings to suit their own interests.

Respectfully submitted by

Sister Mary Marcia (Paula F.) Feckter, C.S.J

Daughter of John H. Feckter and Antonia Siemer Feckter

March 1982