August William Rachuig, Jr. & Family

I've started fleshing out the family tree with branches of August & Henrietta Rachuig's children. The first branch I've added is their 4th child and 2nd son, August William, Jr. He died in 1945, so I never knew him -- or knew much about him. What I've learned is interesting.

He married Otillie Mathilde 'Tillie' Harmel in 1896. I've learned that Aunt Tillie was a Bernhardt, so according to my records she and August were 1st cousins. Richard Rachuig's history of the Rachuig family says he and August, Jr. ('Gus') worked in Olney, Texas, where Uncle Gus met Aunt Tillie. Gus, Tillie and Richard moved around West Texas quite a bit, looking for land and work. In fact, they went as far as New Mexico, which was withering in a drought, so they moved back to West Texas.

Richard says Gus suffered from poor heath, particularly a bad stomach. He always looks very thin in the pictures of him I've seen. He and Tillie lost their 3 children at very early ages. I don't think any of them lived past age 2.

I did some searching on the Find A Grave Web site, and learned that Gus and Tillie are both buried in Matagorda County, Texas. The site says August enlisted in the US Army at Matagorda during WWI, so they must have lived there for a considerable amount of time.

Link to diagram of August & Henrietta Rachuig & their children.

Link to diagram of August William Rachuig, Jr. & Otillie Mathilde Harmel & their children.

Link to Find A Grave info on August Rachuig, Jr.

Link to Find A Grave info on Otillie Mathilde Harmel.

Here's a photo of theirs son's graves in the Pioneer Cemetery in Olney. Their daughter Ella is buried in Clifton.

Caroline Bernhardt Harmel

Pat Walker sent me this picture of Henrietta Bernhardt Rachuig's sister. The notation on the back was written by Caroline's great-niece (Pat's aunt), Frieda Rachuig Flair. As she says, she didn't know her grandmother Henrietta, so she fondly remembers her great-aunt as a 'substitute.'

I've posted pictures of Frieda in earlier entries. She's the young girl holding the reins in the picture of Richard Henry Rachuig's family taken at their home in Olney. (I think that's the location. Maybe Pat, Mike or Elizabeth will known.)

Anyway, I'm always glad to get pictures of people born in the 'old country' - in this case Posen.

August William Rachuig, Jr. and Telia Harmel Rachuig

Here's another photo from Lanelle Schminke Sonntag that I've never seen before. I think it could be a wedding picture, but I'm not sure. If I'm right, it was probably taken around 1900.


Gus's younger brother, Richard Rachuig, talks a lot about Gus and Tillie in his history of the Rachuig family. Rich moved around West Texas and New Mexico with his brother and sister-in-law before settling down in Olney, Texas and later in the Rio Grande Valley.

I'm not sure where Gus and Tillie (my mother says they always called her Aunt Tillie) finally settled. I think Tillie finally settled in Clifton after she became a widow because my mother says they visited her every time they went to Clifton during the 1930s and '40s. My records show that all of Gus and Tillie's children died very young.