Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad in middle, Eugene on left
(just passed), Maurice on right

My Dad would be 93 if he were still with us. I find myself quoting him often to my children. Here are some sayings and things that have come to mind this past year.

1. "Anything worth doing is worth doing right."

2. Also, "Good enough for who it's for" (I don't remember this one until after he retired).

3. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." I remember him saying that my uncle Paul Myers helped him see that if you don't speak up, you shouldn't expect anything to change and you certainly won't get what you really wanted at a restaurant.

4. "Anything but instant obedience is disobedience." :-)

5. "A man convinced against his will is of the same mind still." That one came from a Dale Carnegie course that he took.

6. "More accidents happen in parking lots than anywhere else." He was an insurance adjuster for years. :-)

7. "There's no time better than the present." "Why put off to tomorrow what you can do today?"

8. "I don't understand how a guy as educated as you are doesn't carry a pen around." I have now for about 10 years, along with a Moleskin. He always had a "pocket secretary," which was too bulky for me. A student laughed at me a couple weeks ago when I pulled the Moleskin out of my pocket (instead of taking notes on my phone). :-)

9. Dad used to add up the individual receipts at certain restaurants to see if he could predict the bill. When I was old enough I would do it too. Come to find out, Uncle Eugene who just passed did that too. Dad was really good at adding numbers. I was thinking it probably came from their Dad's store. He had a slide rule too, although I'm not sure he ever used it in my lifetime.

10. Dad liked liver. No one else did. I did like baloney and Braunschweiger, two meats he would eat. He used to deep fry tacos sometimes on Sunday nights when I was a boy.

11. I heard someone say Saturday that you have to drink coffee if you're in the army. Certainly my Dad did... very much. Uncle Eugene did too. My wife Angie says I slurp coffee like he did.

12. Dad would give off a little growl when he was frustrated. I do it too sometimes. "Shoot" was about as wordy he got.

13. I was also remembering recently an incident that happened when he was working out of an MIC office on US1 getting down toward the Ft. Lauderdale airport in the 70s, south of Sears. A drunk man came in and asked him for some money. His snap response was, "What you need is to sober up." The man responded haltingly, "Thank you for those kind words." Dad felt bad and bought him a meal.

There's a few memories. Happy Birthday, Dad!

A Tale of Two Schencks

One of my Dad's cousins sent me an obit for someone who passed away this week in Clinton County at the age of 80. The person's maiden name was Schenck.

That's quite curious, since my great grandfather Schenck lived in Clinton County when he died in 1930. This person was born in 1936 in Clinton County.

                My tree                                                        Their tree
1. Ken Schenck was born to
↓
2. M. Lee Schenck, who was born in 1924
in Boone County, Indiana to
↓                                                                                    This person was born in 1936
                                                                                      in Clinton County, Indiana to
3. Dorsey Schenck, who was born in 1898                          ↓
in Carroll County, Indiana to
↓                                                                                    Arthur A. Schenck, who was born in 1903
                                                                                      in Lebanon, Indiana to
4. Samuel Schenck, who was born in 1871                          ↓
in Montgomery, Indiana to
↓                                                                                     Ethan A. Schenck, who was born in 1854
                                                                                       in Boone, Indiana to
5. Henry Schenck, who was born in 1833                            ↓
in Butler, Ohio to
↓                                                                                     Daniel Schenck, who was born in 1820
                                                                                       in Butler, Ohio to
6. William S. Schenck, who was born in 1804                     ↓
in Monmouth, New Jersey to
↓                                                                                     Samuel Schenck, who was born in 1786
                                                                                       in Monmouth, New Jersey to
7. Garret Koertse Schenck, who was born in 1777               ↓
in Monmouth, New Jersey to
↓                                                                                     John Roelofse Schenck, who was born in 1766
                                                                                       in Monmouth, New Jersey to
8. Courtenius Schenck, who was born in 1751                     ↓
in Monmouth, New Jersey to
↓                                                                                     Roelof Janse Schenck, who was born in 1742
                                                                                       in Monmouth, New Jersey to
9. Garret Koertse Schenck, who was born in 1725               ↓
in Monmouth, New Jersey to
↓                                                                                     Jan Schenck, who was born in 1721
                                                                                       in Monmouth, New Jersey to
10. Kortenius Schenck, who was born in 1702                     ↓
in Monmouth, New Jersey to                                  
↓                                                                                     Roelof Schenck, who was born in 1692
                                                                                       in Flatlands, New York to
                                                                                           ↓

11. Garret Roelofse Schenck, who was born in 1671         Jan Roelofse Schenck, who was born in 1670
in Flatlands, New York to                                                  in Flatlands, New York to
↓                                                                                       ↓

Roelof Martense Schenck

Who emigrated from the Netherlands in 1650

Six "Wise" Generations

So I like genealogy stuff.

Wise Cemetery west of Camden, Indiana










1. Samuel Wise, great, great, great, great grandfather

• Buried in Carroll County
• Born in 1783 in Woodbury, Pennsylvania
• Owned land from Camden to Delphi along Deer Creek. 
• Helped found the German Baptist Brethren Church in Camden in 1828 
• Died in 1841.

Site of German Baptist Brethren
Church founded 1828

2. Leonard Wise, great, great, great grandfather

• Born 1810 in Montgomery Ohio
• Came with father to Carroll County, Indiana in the mid-1820s
• Died in Camden, 1889

3. Elias Wise (great, great grandfather)

• Born in 1850 in Carroll County, Indiana
• Went with the split away from the group that would become the Church of the Brethren in 1889. The group he went with called themselves the Old German Baptist Brethren  
• Died in 1929, Buried in Camden

4. Salome (Wise) Miller (great grandmother)

• Born 1878 in Carroll County, Indiana
• Married Amsey Miller in 1900
• They stayed with the Old German Baptist Brethren in 1919 when a group they call the "horse and buggy" brethren split off opposed to cars and electricity.
• In 1912ish, moved from a brick house west of Camden to a house on the northwest corner of Camden itself.
• Died in 1946 in Camden

Deer Creek Old German Baptist Brethren Church

5. Esther (Miller) Schenck (grandmother)

Dorsey and Esther Schenck, 1920

• Born in 1902 in Carroll County
• Married Dorsey Schenck in 1920 in her home in Camden
• Got saved in a tent revival in Delphi and was Pilgrim Holiness until the merger that formed the Wesleyan Church in 1968.
• Died in Indianapolis in 1977

6. Lee Schenck (father)

• born in Thorntown, 1924
• Married Helen Shepherd in 1947 in Frankfort
• Pilgrim and Wesleyan
• Passed in 2012

Dad, me, and son Tom