Many thanks to Gail Ferguson for sending me a scan of this Christmas card. Richard & Anna (Kunkel) Rachuig sent it to Otto & Martha (Bernhardt) Krueger, Gail's grandparents sometime in the early 1950s. (That's my best guess.) Rich & Anna lived in the Rio Grande Valley. They mention that their son Hubert and his family (who lived in Michigan) paid them a recent visit.
This picture shows Uncle Rich and Aunt Anna on their 50th anniversary. The date is November 11, 1956. I don't know the location, but I assume it's McAllen, Texas. Pat Walker told me they celebrated their 74th anniversary the year Uncle Rich died. Amazing.
Uncle Rich's grand-daughter, Pat Walker, sent me this picture of him taken in 1897. You'll recall that I had posted a picture of his brother Frederick and mistakenly said it was of Uncle Rich. I'm glad we've finally corrected this.
Notice the wicker chair in this picture. It's very distinctive and appears in many of our family pictures. The photo studio in Clifton made good use of it.
(UPDATE) I got notes from Mike Chandler and Elizabeth Egbert who pointed out that the young man in picture below is not their grandfather, Richard Henry Rachuig. (I'm going to leave it here until I get another picture of Uncle Rich as a young man.)
This is actually Frederick Julius Rachuig, Richard's older brother. He was born on September 13, 1876 and died on March 24, 1899. He died very young and never married. He has no direct descendants. I'm glad we have pictures of him. Mike and Elizabeth have sent me another which is posted above. I think it's great.
Click the following link to view Rich Rachuig's family history. I've formatted it in simple text to avoid retrieval problems. It may not look pretty, but virtually everyone can read it without any problems.
He begins with a brief discussion of his parent's lives in Posen and their emigration to Washington County. He talks about their life in Clifton, but he also recounts how he and his brother Gus (August William, Jr.) traveled through West Texas and New Mexico to find a place to farm.
It is fairly long, but well worth reading.
Rich Rachuig's Family History.
Here is a picture of Uncle Rich as a young man, taken when he was 17 years old.
