From Pigsty to Pulpit: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Ernest Frederick Messmann

By Ernest Frederick Messmann and Critically Unacclaimed

On the farm there was a pigsty with a barbed wire fence surrounding it. Ernie climbed inside. When a sow charged him, he retreated and cut himself as he ducked under the barbed wire. With blood all over his eye, his mom took him to the nearest medical facility, which was a tuberculosis sanitarium. A doctor there saw the injury was to the eyelid, not the eye. He sewed up the eyelid leaving a small scar. So Ernie was one of the few people in the world who was an outpatient at a tuberculosis sanitarium. It was a busy year for Ernies guardian angel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491869734

Ernest Frederick Messmann

Ernest Frederick Messmann lives in San Jose, California. He is semi-retired, devoting his time to genealogy and encouraging others through his church work. He enjoys trips to San Francisco, a charming city 50 miles away, and trips to the beach to watch the waves crash into the shore and hear the ocean’s roar. He also enjoys watching his grandsons, Scott and Jonah, crash and roar.

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© 2015, 2016 . All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/18/2016

ISBN: 978-1-4918-6975-8 (Soft Cover)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-6974-1 (Hard Cover)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-6973-4 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014920904

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

All biblical scriptural references are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Copyright © 1979 by Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 – Wilmer and Margaret

Chapter 2 – World War II

Chapter 3 – The Pigsty

Chapter 4 – Dottie Schroeder

Chapter 5 – After the War

Chapter 6 – Ernie and Warren

Chapter 7 – High School and College

Chapter 8 – Ernie and Carol

Chapter 9 – Singles Wards

Chapter 10 – Ernie and Suzanne

Chapter 11 – Ricky

Chapter 12 – Becky

Chapter 13 – Manda

Chapter 14 – Religious Experiences

Chapter 15 – The Pulpit

Chapter 16 – Literary Compositions

Chapter 17 – Relationships

About the Author

Reference to people, living or dead, is not coincidental. This is not a work of fiction, although some people may think so.

The song, In My Life by the Beetles says, I know I’ll never lose affection for people and things that went before. I know I’ll often stop and think about them. The song, Indiana Christmas by Straight No Chaser says, I remember those who are gone, looking down on my home from above. These lines inspire those who are involved in family history.

Malachi 4:6, the last verse in the Old Testament, says, And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their father. Some people feel this scripture is being fulfilled in our day.

Preface

Like so many members of his generation, the seven decades on this planet for Ernest Frederick Messmann (Ernie) included many situations that seemed commonplace at the time but, upon reflection, were unique and at times life changing.

Ernie was very helpful in proofreading the manuscript for the author. He was always willing to review experiences and suggest ways to express events more clearly while, at the same time, providing specific insights when emotionally charged events occurred. Most of all, he was often willing to express his feelings by talking to himself, so I could write down his innermost thoughts, to which I had unrestricted access.

In Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony states, The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones. The author’s intent is to highlight the good done by Ernie’s ancestors and descendants.

John Steinbeck is reported to have said that writers are [thought to be] a little below clowns and a little above trained seals. The author hopes you will find that his contribution is closer to that of a clown than that of a trained seal.

--The Author

Chapter 1 – Wilmer and Margaret

June 22, 1941 was an important day in world history. On this date in World War II, Hitler launched an attack on Russia. This became known as the Eastern Front. Since Nazi Germany was fighting in Western Europe at the time and was unable to support troops on two fronts, this was a precursor of the Nazi defeat.

Far away at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Margaret Messmann was not concerned about the Eastern Front. She was having her second son, Ernest Frederick Messmann, born that night at 10:26 p.m.

The baby was named after Ernest Gallmeyer, the baby’s grandmother’s niece’s husband and a member of the board of directors of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. The baby was also named after Frederick Wyneken, one of three founders of the synod. (See figures 1 and 2.) When he was 35 days old, the baby was baptized into the Lutheran Church, with Ernest Gallmeyer and his uncle, Elmer Albersmeyer, as his godfathers. (See figure 3.)

The mother, Margaret (Margarete in German) and her husband, Wilmer Messmann, were descendants of ancestors from Prussia. Many of their ancestors had lived since 1600 in the farmland surrounding Windheim, Prussia. About 1840, many of the area’s inhabitants immigrated to the farmland around Decatur, in Adams County, Indiana, where they homesteaded, with each family purchasing eighty acres of land for $6.30 an acre. They cleared and farmed the land and built homes and barns, happy to have their own property, which had not been the case in Prussia. All of these pioneers were Lutherans and they soon built churches and many of them are buried in little cemeteries next to Lutheran churches.

Wilmer’s great-great-uncle, Conrad Scheimann, became a naturalized citizen in 1845. Conrad states his journey to America took fifty-six days. Having lived on a farm all their lives, he, his wife, or at least one of their five children probably experienced seasickness at some time during the trip to New York on the sailing ship Copernicus, especially if they encountered rough seas. (See figure 4.) He declared, I do solemnly swear that it is bona fide my intention …to renounce and abjure forever, all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign Prince, [potentate] state or Sovereignty whatever, and more particularly to Fredrick William 4th King of [Prussia,] whose subject I am. (See figure 5.) It is ironic that, 141 years later, Wilmer and Margaret’s only grandson was named Frederick William Messmann.

The hearty group of pioneers from Prussia farmed the land, growing corn, oats, hay, wheat, and sugar beets and raising chickens, pigs, beef, and dairy cows. They continued the German tradition of eating distinctive foods, including blood pudding, brains, Braunschweiger, horseradish, Limburger cheese, liver, and tongue, all of which Ernie also ate as a youth. The settlers continued to speak German. A postcard written in German about 1910 shows Wilmer as a young boy holding his puppy. (See figure 6.) When the United States entered World War I in 1917, it became expedient for Wilmer and Margaret to also learn English and this became the second language for both of them.

Subsequent years found some of these immigrants settling in nearby Allen County, Indiana, and also in Champaign County, Illinois and Seward County, Nebraska. (See figure 7.) When the dust bowl hit the Western United States in the 1930s, many of the settlers in Nebraska returned to Indiana, including Margaret’s parents and her brothers Albert, Paul, and Arnold and her sisters