Christian Frederick Boock Obituary: New Ulm Post

Darcy Kleeman Boock provided this German-language obituary for Christian Friederich Boock, who died on 9 December 1888. It is from the NEW ULM POST, Freitag, den. 16. Dezember. 1888, Page 8, Col. 3. I copied it several years ago at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. C. F. Boock died on 9 December 1888 in New Ulm, being 62 years of age. The obituary states that his marriage to Marie Albrecht produced three children: Mary (Mrs. August Friederich Raabe), George (m. Schriefer, who died in 1943 in California), and Gustav. However, a fourth child, Fred, who was their third child (between George and Gustav), who died when he was 14 [The Settler, 1982, p. 10).

Christ. Friedrich Boock, one of the founders of New Ulm, died last Sunday at an age somewhat more than 62 years, from a relapse of a nerve-fever (typhus), from which it was thought he just recovered. The deceased was born on 15 November, 1826 in Ostdorf in Schleswig. Later he learned the wagon-making trade and started his journeyman travels out into the wide world. At the beginning of the 50's he came to New Ulm. He married Maria Albrecht, a sister of Mr. Karl Albrecht of Lafayette, in 1856, who was taken from him by death in 1870. In 1871, he was married a second time, to Miss Wilhelmine Plath. She and 10 children, of which 3 are from the first marriage (Mrs. August Rabe, Georg and Gustav Boock) and 7 from the second marriage, mourn the so unexpected death of their husband and father. He was a ceaselessly active head of house, citizen and member of the Lutheran congregation, which held its first meeting in his house in 1865 and of which he was a founder. He often was an elder of the congregation and also proposed the founding of Dr. Martin Luther College, of which he was an enthusiastic supporter until the end. As a member of the town council too, he tried to promote the well-being of his fellow citizens.
His burial took place on Monday afternoon with many attending. An experienced and active life has now reached the goal what awaits all of us. May he find the rest of which he had so little during his life.