Ficke Family

Edited by Ann Chrissos

Frederick Ficke married Johannah Frankensen in Germany and they had thirteen children.  Their son Herman Ficke was born in Bremen, Germany and the family emigrated to the United States in 1832. They entered through New Orleans, came up the Mississippi River and settled in Chesterfield.  They acquired a tract of farmland along the Missouri River. Herman married Molly Enloe, whose family was from Alsace Lorraine.  They had two sons:  Harry and Grover Frank.  Harry owned and operated the Ficke Store at Olive Street and Schoettler Roads.  Frank married Dolly Lee Devinney and they had four children:  Leone, Dorothy, Loretta and Norman.  Frank owned the G. F. Ficke Meat Market in St. Louis.  When his daughter Leone was one year old, they moved from St. Louis to a house on Olive Street Road in Hilltown (Chesterfield), next door to Mrs. Widener.  They built a house on Wild Horse Creek Road, next to Chesterfield School, and took up farming.  Frank and Dolly Lee Ficke are buried at Gumbo Cemetery.

Dolly Lee Devinney Ficke was the granddaughter of Pleasant Devinney, a Mississippi River steamboat captain.  When Dolly’s parents died, she was raised by her maternal grandparents, Elijah and Jane Cordell Payne.  The Payne estate was in the Lake, Missouri area, and west of Woodsmill Road.  The Payne ancestors are buried at Old Bonhomme Cemetery. Dollie Lee attended Sunday school and church at the Old Stone Bonhomme Church and she attended Lake School on Olive Street Road.

Source
Mrs. Dierberg gave this information to Arland Stemme on 17 Mar. 1992.