The children of Erwin and Dorothy Wenk grew up working the land, like all Wenks, but also hunting and hiking in the woods, hiding in the corn fields, the stalks growing high over their heads, clomping around the barns with the livestock, and wandering the 148 acres of farmland and forest, chewing stalks of sweet Timothy hay and dreaming of the future, whether they pictured that future on Fletcher Road or elsewhere.
   Erwin Wenk died in 1982, and Dorothy would go on to outlive him by almost 30 years, running the farm with the help of her sons Don and Paul. Even at 90, she would wait impatiently into the night to greet us every summer on the farm, baking fresh cherry pies with the fruit she just picked from the trees, and we'd sit out on the stoop of the porch at sunset and count the deer shyly emerging from the woods, and then when it got too dark for that, watch the kids catch fireflies. Her place was the only working farm left on Fletcher Road, as Norm and Lorena retired to downtown Chelsea, and Ignatz's farm, which was passed down to Ernest, was auctioned off when he retired in 1993.
   Farming had gotten harder over the decades. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducts an intensive agricultural census every five years, which has found a slow but steady nationwide decline in the number of farms producing food crops. That decline has continued in Michigan for many years since the '50s. Erwin continued to work the land but eventually had to take a second job to support the family. After he passed, his wife and children continued to farm, but eventually started renting the land to commercial farmers. Many in the area sold of their land to be subdivided into suburban homes, leaving the lots too small to raise chickens, cows and other livestock due to zoning laws. By 2012, the county had lost over 60% of its farms. In 2018, the Wenk descendents sold off the property, leaving no Wenk farms left on Fletcher Road.

L-R: My Mom at various ages and stages: posing with sister Irene; which is the doll?; teeny-bopper; marrying Carl Hause; posing with the Wenk women, relatives, and doting husbands; Below, a sibling reunion from 2018 with L-R: Don, Velma, Irene, Jim, Chuck, Debbie, Jean, Marti, and Paul.

   My mother, MARTHA ELLEN, left the farm and married a teacher, CARLETON MARCHANT HAUSE, JR., in 1959, and they moved to the Southern California suburbs in 1961 (they did keep a small garden on their 1/2-acre property). Together they've had four children: Jeff, Kathleen, Eric and Michele. All of the children have inherited the Wenk work ethic, and remain close. A couple even dabble in farming, although only for personal consumption.
   The Wenk farm on Fletcher Road remained the home base and the touchstone for the ensuing generations of the family.
   Whenever we visited we were always a little intimidated by Erwin. The harshness of his German accent made everything he said almost sound like an order, and it would take you a minute—until you saw the twinkle in his eyes—to realize he was actually just teasing you. His favorite target was my brother, Eric—then just called Ricky (pronounced by Grandpa as "R-R-R-R-R-eeeeeeckeeeeeeeyyyyy").

CHILDREN OF CARLETON HAUSE, JR. & MARTHA WENK
  • JEFFREY CARLETON HAUSE was born on 7 June 1961. Just look at the cute kid in the photo at right! What a dreamboat! Jeff is a writer and social worker living in Napa, California. A true Renaissance man, and an inspiration to his family (all of whom adore him)! He is incredibly handsome, intelligent, witty and engaging, and wrote this bio. In 2007 he married LORI ANN DOTSON (b. 07 Oct 1973, the same month and day as my Mom. How creepy is THAT???) and they raised two children, ATTICUS LEE HAUSE (b. 02 Aug 2011) and PHIN LEE HAUSE (b. 1 Nov 2013). After living in Napa for a decade, they moved back down to Vista CA.
  • Click on the photo at right to access the Jeffrey Hause Genealogical Page.
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  • KATHLEEN ELLEN HAUSE was born on 12 Aug 1965. After suffering through a childhood dealing with her brother, Jeff, she somehow survived and married HALDEN LARSEN (b. 27 Oct 1964) on 29 June 1985 in Vista, Ca., and have three children: SASHA ELLEN-MARIE (b. 14 Jul 1987; m. COLE AKINS), DYLAN JEFFREY-LEE (b. 28 Apr 1990, m. EMMA FORD) and CAMILLE LARSEN (b. 4 June 1998).
  • Click on the photo at right to access the Kathleen Hause Genealogical Page.
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  • ERIC DONALD HAUSE was born on 15 Sep 1967 in Oceanside, CA. As the photo clearly shows, this kid was trouble. He attended Cal State Long Beach, then a seminary school in Colorado and is now a pastor in Ithaca, New York. Eric married MARY MOONSAMMY (b. 29 Sep 1966) on 23 Mar 1996 in Bonsall, San Diego Co., CA. They have one child, MADELINE HAUSE (b. 10 Aug 1997) and currently live in the same New York state that the Hause family finally escaped 150 years before. Nice going, Eric. Now we're right back where we started.
  • Click on the photo at right to access the Eric Hause Genealogical Page.
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  • MICHELE MARIE HAUSE was born on 14 Sep 1968 in Oceanside, CA. Just look at that little punk play to the camera! After a childhood full of torture from Jeff, Kathy and Eric, she decided to make her life's work torturing other children. So she became a teacher, like Carleton Jr., Carleton Sr., and Carlisle before her, and currently lives in San Diego, CA, with her husband JOHN HOUSTON and daughters SARAH and AVERY HOUSTON.
  • Click on the photo at right to access the Michele Hause Genealogical Page.
    		•

      The Wenks have disappeared now from Fletcher Road, and their descendants have spread across the country. But we are still close in our hearts. Locales change: Baden was left behind for Michigan, and Michigan was left behind for California—but there's a Wenk reunion in Michigan every other year, and we always hope to attend, to honor Dorothy and all of the Wenks—and my Mother, now the matriarch of our family. Times have changed and the family-oriented communities like the one the Wenks created on Fletcher Road are a thing of the past—the farms are disappearing, the land is being divided up into small suburban lots, and the roads are actually paved now! But even though all of the Wenks are gone from Fletcher Road, it just makes you realize that home isn't a house or a town or a country—home is where your Mom is!!!

    Genealogy
    JOSEPH WENK (? - 1736) married MARIA DIETSCHIN (1705 - 1779) and begat...

    JOSEPH WENK (1733 - 1797) who married MARIA BAHOLZER (1743 - 1800) and begat...

    JOHAN MICHAEL WENK (1772 - 1827) who married KATHERINA FALLER (1776 - 1843) and begat...

    JOHAN WENK (1801 - 1867) who married IDA GASSMANN (1802 - 1854) and begat...

    IGNANZ GASSMANN WENK (1823 - 1897) who married EVA CATHERINE MANTZ (1837 - 1923) and begat...

    MARTIN WENK (1876 - 1962) who married MARTHA CAROLINA GRIEB (1880 - 1937) and begat...

    ERWIN WENK (1910 - 1982) who married DOROTHY PRITCHARD (1918 - 2010) and begat...

    MARTHA WENK (b. 1940) who married CARLETON MARCHANT HAUSE, JR. (b. 1939) and begat...

    JEFF (who married LORI ANN DOTSON), KATHY (who married HAL LARSEN), ERIC (who married MARY MOONSAMMY), and MICHELE HAUSE (who married JOHN SCOTT HOUSTON).

    Photo: The entire family poses together at a Wenk Reunion during the early 1920's, an event held annually up to the present day. Sitting in the center of the group are Eve Catherine and Olive Wenk, the widows of Ignatz and Joseph Wenk, respectively.

    CHAPTER 1: WENKS FROM FROM BADEN TO WORSE, 1705 - 1849

    CHAPTER 2: IGNATZ WENK, 1850 - 1997

    CHAPTER 3: MARTIN WENK, 1876 - 1962

    CHAPTER 4: ERWIN WENK, 1910 - 1982

    CHAPTER 5: THE WENK FAMILY TODAY, 1940 - PRESENT

    APPENDIX A: WENK FAMILY REUNIONS, 1923-PRESENT

    APPENDIX B: CENSUS REPORTS, 1870 - 1950

    APPENDIX C: FAMILY TIMELINE, 1700-PRESENT

    SOURCES FOR THIS GENEALOGY


    The church in Oberwihl as it looks today.