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Mecklenberg, Max
| Last Name: | Mecklenberg |
|---|---|
| First Name: | Maxmillian |
| Dates: |
10.6.1875 (Date of Birth)
14.10.1920 (Date of Death)
|
| Biography/History: | Maximillian Ferdinand Mecklenberg was born on 10 June 1875 in Elblag (Elbing), Kingdom of Prussia (now in Poland) to Carl Ferdinand Maximillian Mecklenberg (1834-1909) and Fredericka Maria Pahnke (1839-1910). Maximillian was the seventh of nine children. The family immigrated to the United States in 1885, settling on a farm in Lincoln County, Washington, where they appear in the 1889 Washington Territorial census. In 1902, Maximillian married Georgia G. Barnes (1885-1982) of Spokane in Medical Lake, Washington. The couple’s first child, Marie Elizabeth (1904-1968) was born in Washington, but at some point, before 1918, the family moved to the vicinity of Bend, Deschutes, Oregon, where Max was a farmer and stock raiser. The couple’s second child, Edward (1918-1983) was born in Bend. The family appears in the 1930 census in Portland, Oregon. Prior to moving to Oregon, Max was a successful farmer and stock raiser on Bachelor Prairie in Lincoln County, Washington. A 1911 U.S. Indexed Land Ownership Map shows the Mecklenberg farm comprising 120 acres in the Waukesha area. It was during this time that Max Mecklenberg was working with aviator and blacksmith Reuben Bowers in Bowers’s efforts to fly a plane that he had built. In news articles Max is referred to as a wealthy farmer and Reuben’s partner. Reuben Bowers’s untimely death in 1912 ended the partnership and Max Mecklenberg’s involvement in aviation. Upon returning to Washington around 1932, the Mecklenberg family settled on a farm in Creston, Washington, west of Davenport in Lincoln County. Max died on 14 October 1960 in Spokane. Georgia spent the remainder of her life in Davenport, where she died in 1982. Sources include records available on Ancestry.com including U. S. Census records, Washington Territorial Census records, birth and death records, land ownership records and newspaper articles available through Newspapers.com. Prepared by Mella Rothwell Harmon, volunteer, 16 June 2020 |