Albert D. Wichman1
M, #157, b. 27 February 1905, d. 18 January 1993
Al Wichman
August 20, 1991
August 20, 1991
Albert was born in Eudora, Douglas County, Kansas, USAG, on 27 February 1905.1,2
His common name was Al.
Albert is the brother of Edward Wichman. Ed was raised by William Altenbernd. Helen and Albert lived in Topeka, Kansas for awhile and later moved to a farm purchased by Carl Altenbernd just east of his own.
At the age of 85, Al is still able to drive his pickup to Eudora everyday. He becomes disoriented at times, but always comes back around. Everyone in Eudora knows him and watches out for him.
Al is currently (1992) wearing a Nitro patch. One of Al's favorite places to hang out is Annabelle's in Eudora. Annabelle's is a restaurant and tavern.
Al died on January 18, 1993 in Eudora, Kansas. Memorial services were held at 10:00 am on Thursday January 21, 1993 at St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Eudora, Kansas. Rev. Paul Witmer held the service. Mrs. Winifred Gallup was the organist. Casket bearers were Trig Oleson, Kenneth Whaley, Clifford Neis, Bob McCabria, Larry Schaake, and Norman Musick. Al was laid to rest in Eudora Cemetery in Eudora, Kansas.
Al hadn't been well for some time and after Helen's death he began living in a rest home. Without Helen, he just gave up. He was lonesome and miserable without her.
Albert D. Wichman was employed as Farmer.
Albert D. Wichman married Helen Amelia Altenbernd, daughter of Carl Conrad Altenbernd and Martha Lydia Sophia Gerstenberger, in Topeka, Kansas, USA, on 20 August 1932.3
( at St Paul's Church, Eudora, Douglas County, Kansas, USA, on 27 June 1955.)4
Photo of Helen and Al Wichman on 20 August 1991. Original photo in the possession of Sheila Altenbernd (#172.)5
He resided in Kansas, USA, before 18 January 1993.1
Albert died on 18 January 1993 in Eudora, Douglas County, Kansas, USAG, at age 87.1,6,2 He was buried on 21 January 1993 Eudora City Cemetery, Eudora, Douglas County, Kansas, USA, at.2,6
His common name was Al.
Albert is the brother of Edward Wichman. Ed was raised by William Altenbernd. Helen and Albert lived in Topeka, Kansas for awhile and later moved to a farm purchased by Carl Altenbernd just east of his own.
At the age of 85, Al is still able to drive his pickup to Eudora everyday. He becomes disoriented at times, but always comes back around. Everyone in Eudora knows him and watches out for him.
Al is currently (1992) wearing a Nitro patch. One of Al's favorite places to hang out is Annabelle's in Eudora. Annabelle's is a restaurant and tavern.
Al died on January 18, 1993 in Eudora, Kansas. Memorial services were held at 10:00 am on Thursday January 21, 1993 at St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Eudora, Kansas. Rev. Paul Witmer held the service. Mrs. Winifred Gallup was the organist. Casket bearers were Trig Oleson, Kenneth Whaley, Clifford Neis, Bob McCabria, Larry Schaake, and Norman Musick. Al was laid to rest in Eudora Cemetery in Eudora, Kansas.
Al hadn't been well for some time and after Helen's death he began living in a rest home. Without Helen, he just gave up. He was lonesome and miserable without her.
Albert D. Wichman was employed as Farmer.
Albert D. Wichman married Helen Amelia Altenbernd, daughter of Carl Conrad Altenbernd and Martha Lydia Sophia Gerstenberger, in Topeka, Kansas, USA, on 20 August 1932.3
ME by John Altenbernd
Ordination Day
Ordination Day was a day to be approached with some degree of fear and trembling as well as with joy and anticipation. It marked the end of a lot of things as well as marking a beginning.
I was 25 years old. I had been in school ever since I was 6, and that had been a long time. There would now be no more of that. While school carries with it a great deal of responsibility, it is still a kind of sheltered responsibility. From here on I would be on my own. Instead of being a student under somebody, I would be the head man.
The farm house in Kansas would no longer be my home. And I did love that place. I had neither the desire nor the natural talent and knowledge to be a farmer, but I did love being there and working on it. There's a great difference between working on a farm and having the know-how to run it. My genes were primarily from the Stoerker family rather than from the Altenbernds, and I was smart enough to know that early on. Any attempt at farming as a living would have been doomed to disaster. I hated leaving the farm, but I've never had regrets for having done so.
I had already accepted the dual pastorate of St. John's and Bethany Churches in Berger, Missouri, so I knew where I was going. July 11 would be my first Sunday there. I had been serving there as student supply during the last few months at Eden, so I had some knowledge of the place and of the people. And although it was a farming community, as was the Kaw Valley of Kansas, it was a vastly different world. Around Lawrence and Eudora things and people were as much urban as rural, not at all the usual stereotype of country people. Berger, particularly around Bethany Church, was very definitely and exclusively rural. I wasn't at all sure I would like Berger, but I had to start somewhere. So this too was on my mind that day.
June 27 was a Sunday. The Ordination service would be that evening at St. Paul's Church in Eudora. Uncle Adolph Stoerker and Aunt Marie, with their daughter Joanne (now Kleuter), were there at the farm house from Aurora, Illinois, where he was pastor. Uncle Adolph was on vacation, and they were visiting my mother. Also there was Rev. Myron Ross, a friend from Eden (black) who had been ordained a year earlier. He was not yet married.
Uncle Fred Stoerker, pastor of Zion Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Aunt Hilda would come in that afternoon. He was to
Page 610
be the ordaining pastor. They would be bringing with them his student assistant for the summer, Lorenz ("Ike") Eichenlaub, another old friend from Eden who would be ordained two years later.
Rev. Karl Baur and his wife, Betty, would come from Kansas City in time for the service. Karl Baur had been pastor at Eudora during my teen years, and I had dated his daughter, Joan, who was now married and would not be with them.
Dr. Harold Barr, Dean of the School of Religion at Kansas University, was to be the preacher at the service. He only had to come from Lawrence so he would go directly to the church.
Rev. James McAllister, my roommate my Senior year at Eden, was also scheduled to be there but couldn't make it. He was a Methodist, and he was transferred to Roodhouse, Illinois, from Payson, Illinois, that week. So he was busy moving.
All the ministers mentioned above would participate in the Ordination service, along with Rev. Joseph Polster who was pastor in Eudora at the time. Rev. Polster was a half-educated, boorish, obnoxious man for whom I had little use, but as pastor of the church he could not simply be left out and ignored.
We went to church that morning as usual. It wasn't long before it became obvious that this was going to be a very hot day - and it would remain hot into the evening.
There was a lot of picture taking that afternoon. St. Paul's Church had given me a pulpit robe (Not the one I now have. That one long since wore out), and there was a lot of posing in it for the benefit of other people's cameras, I would wear the robe that evening at the service.
My mother continued with preparations for a reception at the house after the service that evening. With a large front porch and a large lawn on a summer evening, space was no problem.
The service was splendid. Dr. Barr was at his preaching best. Rev. Polster behaved himself. I was afraid he might decide to say "a. few words" somewhere along the line (something he could do with embarrassing frequency, and when he did so it usually was a display of ignorance).
When the time came for my formal Ordination, Uncle Fred called me forth and I stood before him. Uncle Fred was flanked by Uncle Adolph, Rev. Baur, Rev. Ross, Rev. Barr, and Rev. Polster. Uncle Fred asked me, and I accepted, the vows of service to God and to the Church. I then knelt for the laying
Page 611
on of hands. Uncle Fred's hand was on my head, and the hands of the others were on top of his. Uncle Fred then pronounced the words of Ordination.
I then rose and accepted the hand of fellowship and collegiality from each of the ordained pastors before me. I was one of them now. I said a few words of appreciation to them and to the assembled congregation, pronounced the benediction (my first official act as an ordained pastor), and the service ended.
I was very moved by it all, a highlight of my life.
The church was nearly full. St. Paul's congregation had turned out in force for me, only the second son of the congregation ever to be ordained. (Rev. Carl Schmidt was the other one a good many years earlier.) Other friends and relatives were there too. Among them was a surprise - Rev. Theodore Hauck from Higginsville, Missouri, who had baptized me years before when he was pastor of St. Paul's. He had arrived a little late, and we didn't know he was there or we would have asked him to participate in the Ordination.
A good many of them were at the house afterward for the reception, including Uncle Carl Altenbernd and Aunt Mattie, cousins of mine - Homer and Charlotte Altenbernd, Herb and Peggy Altenbernd, Helen and Al Wichman, Irene and John Vogel, and Frieda and Arthur Heck. There was also my father's hired hand when I was a boy, Oscar Russell. He was an old man by then, and I hadn't seen him in years.
I wished my father had lived long enough to have been there.
There was only one negative note in the whole thing. Connie Peters had said she would drive down for the Ordination. I was expecting her. But she neither showed nor called. That hurt a bit.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I was the second son of St. Paul's Church to enter the ministry. Carl Schmidt, brother of Ralph Schmidt, had been ordained in 1930.
Ordination Day was a day to be approached with some degree of fear and trembling as well as with joy and anticipation. It marked the end of a lot of things as well as marking a beginning.
I was 25 years old. I had been in school ever since I was 6, and that had been a long time. There would now be no more of that. While school carries with it a great deal of responsibility, it is still a kind of sheltered responsibility. From here on I would be on my own. Instead of being a student under somebody, I would be the head man.
The farm house in Kansas would no longer be my home. And I did love that place. I had neither the desire nor the natural talent and knowledge to be a farmer, but I did love being there and working on it. There's a great difference between working on a farm and having the know-how to run it. My genes were primarily from the Stoerker family rather than from the Altenbernds, and I was smart enough to know that early on. Any attempt at farming as a living would have been doomed to disaster. I hated leaving the farm, but I've never had regrets for having done so.
I had already accepted the dual pastorate of St. John's and Bethany Churches in Berger, Missouri, so I knew where I was going. July 11 would be my first Sunday there. I had been serving there as student supply during the last few months at Eden, so I had some knowledge of the place and of the people. And although it was a farming community, as was the Kaw Valley of Kansas, it was a vastly different world. Around Lawrence and Eudora things and people were as much urban as rural, not at all the usual stereotype of country people. Berger, particularly around Bethany Church, was very definitely and exclusively rural. I wasn't at all sure I would like Berger, but I had to start somewhere. So this too was on my mind that day.
June 27 was a Sunday. The Ordination service would be that evening at St. Paul's Church in Eudora. Uncle Adolph Stoerker and Aunt Marie, with their daughter Joanne (now Kleuter), were there at the farm house from Aurora, Illinois, where he was pastor. Uncle Adolph was on vacation, and they were visiting my mother. Also there was Rev. Myron Ross, a friend from Eden (black) who had been ordained a year earlier. He was not yet married.
Uncle Fred Stoerker, pastor of Zion Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Aunt Hilda would come in that afternoon. He was to
Page 610
be the ordaining pastor. They would be bringing with them his student assistant for the summer, Lorenz ("Ike") Eichenlaub, another old friend from Eden who would be ordained two years later.
Rev. Karl Baur and his wife, Betty, would come from Kansas City in time for the service. Karl Baur had been pastor at Eudora during my teen years, and I had dated his daughter, Joan, who was now married and would not be with them.
Dr. Harold Barr, Dean of the School of Religion at Kansas University, was to be the preacher at the service. He only had to come from Lawrence so he would go directly to the church.
Rev. James McAllister, my roommate my Senior year at Eden, was also scheduled to be there but couldn't make it. He was a Methodist, and he was transferred to Roodhouse, Illinois, from Payson, Illinois, that week. So he was busy moving.
All the ministers mentioned above would participate in the Ordination service, along with Rev. Joseph Polster who was pastor in Eudora at the time. Rev. Polster was a half-educated, boorish, obnoxious man for whom I had little use, but as pastor of the church he could not simply be left out and ignored.
We went to church that morning as usual. It wasn't long before it became obvious that this was going to be a very hot day - and it would remain hot into the evening.
There was a lot of picture taking that afternoon. St. Paul's Church had given me a pulpit robe (Not the one I now have. That one long since wore out), and there was a lot of posing in it for the benefit of other people's cameras, I would wear the robe that evening at the service.
My mother continued with preparations for a reception at the house after the service that evening. With a large front porch and a large lawn on a summer evening, space was no problem.
The service was splendid. Dr. Barr was at his preaching best. Rev. Polster behaved himself. I was afraid he might decide to say "a. few words" somewhere along the line (something he could do with embarrassing frequency, and when he did so it usually was a display of ignorance).
When the time came for my formal Ordination, Uncle Fred called me forth and I stood before him. Uncle Fred was flanked by Uncle Adolph, Rev. Baur, Rev. Ross, Rev. Barr, and Rev. Polster. Uncle Fred asked me, and I accepted, the vows of service to God and to the Church. I then knelt for the laying
Page 611
on of hands. Uncle Fred's hand was on my head, and the hands of the others were on top of his. Uncle Fred then pronounced the words of Ordination.
I then rose and accepted the hand of fellowship and collegiality from each of the ordained pastors before me. I was one of them now. I said a few words of appreciation to them and to the assembled congregation, pronounced the benediction (my first official act as an ordained pastor), and the service ended.
I was very moved by it all, a highlight of my life.
The church was nearly full. St. Paul's congregation had turned out in force for me, only the second son of the congregation ever to be ordained. (Rev. Carl Schmidt was the other one a good many years earlier.) Other friends and relatives were there too. Among them was a surprise - Rev. Theodore Hauck from Higginsville, Missouri, who had baptized me years before when he was pastor of St. Paul's. He had arrived a little late, and we didn't know he was there or we would have asked him to participate in the Ordination.
A good many of them were at the house afterward for the reception, including Uncle Carl Altenbernd and Aunt Mattie, cousins of mine - Homer and Charlotte Altenbernd, Herb and Peggy Altenbernd, Helen and Al Wichman, Irene and John Vogel, and Frieda and Arthur Heck. There was also my father's hired hand when I was a boy, Oscar Russell. He was an old man by then, and I hadn't seen him in years.
I wished my father had lived long enough to have been there.
There was only one negative note in the whole thing. Connie Peters had said she would drive down for the Ordination. I was expecting her. But she neither showed nor called. That hurt a bit.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I was the second son of St. Paul's Church to enter the ministry. Carl Schmidt, brother of Ralph Schmidt, had been ordained in 1930.
( at St Paul's Church, Eudora, Douglas County, Kansas, USA, on 27 June 1955.)4
Photo of Helen and Al Wichman on 20 August 1991. Original photo in the possession of Sheila Altenbernd (#172.)5
He resided in Kansas, USA, before 18 January 1993.1
Albert died on 18 January 1993 in Eudora, Douglas County, Kansas, USAG, at age 87.1,6,2 He was buried on 21 January 1993 Eudora City Cemetery, Eudora, Douglas County, Kansas, USA, at.2,6
Last Edited=9 February 2023
Child of Albert D. Wichman and Helen Amelia Altenbernd
- Dona Mae Wichman7 b. 15 August 1933, d. 1 February 2011
Citations
- [S7] SSDI, unknown file number, Social Security Death Index (SSDI), unknown series (n.p.: Ancestry) . Hereinafter cited as SSDI.
- [S155] Albert Wichman (#157) unknown record type; unknown repository, unknown repository address.
- [S399] Wichman Service, Lawrence Journal World, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, USA, September 29, 1992,http://mobile.ljworld.com/news/1992/sep/29/wichman_services/. Hereinafter cited as Lawrence Journal World.
- [S1410] John Stoerker Altenbernd,"Ordination Day" in ME; Page(s) 609-611; Published:.
- [S157] Sheila Sue Altenbernd unknown date.
- [S194] Norma Wichman unknown date.
- [S477] Dona Mae Wichman Obituary, Lawrence Journal World, Lawrence, Kansas, February 2, 2011, www.ljworld.com on June 2, 2011 . Hereinafter cited as Lawrence Journal World.
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