Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Brennecke, Christian July 22, 1822 - ????
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Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

CHRISTIAN BRENNECKE,
a self-made man, and one of the most substantial and reliable business men of
Altoona, is a son of Christian, Sr., and Elizabeth (Acre) Brennecke, and was
born in the kingdom of Hanover, now a province of Prussia, July 22, 1822.
Christian Brennecke, sr., was one of Napoleon's veterans, and served under
the Man of Destiny until he was one of only twenty-one men that was left out
of the entire regiment. Leaving the army he followed farming until his death,
in 1836, at seventy-three years of age. He was a hard working man, and a
member of the Evangelical Lutheran church. He was a native and life-long
resident of Hanover, where he married Elizabeth Acre, who died in the latter
part of the year 1822.
    Christian Brennecke passed his boyhood days and grew to manhood in his
native country, where he received his education in the excellent public
schools for which Prussia has been noted for the last half century. Leaving
school he worked on a farm until 1845, when he came to the United States,
where he landed at New Orleans, and went up the Mississippi river to
Missouri, in which State he worked for a few months. At the end of that time
he became dissatisfied with the western country, concluded to return to
Hanover, and when he had come as far as Hollidaysburg on his way to
Philadelphia, to embark for Germany, he was induced to stop and work a while
on the canal dam, at fourteen dollars per month. He learned to speak the
English language, and becoming favorably impressed with the country, he
abandoned his idea of returning to the Fatherland, and on March 28, 1854,
came to Altoona, where he rented a farm of one hundred and nine acres, which
he tilled up to 1884. This farm is now within the city and is covered with
buildings. On a part of this farm, which Mr. Brennecke owns, he erected his
present large brick residence, which is one of the most comfortable and
substantial buildings in the city. This residence stands on the corner of
Sixth street and Eighth avenue, and is well fitted up and completely
furnished throughout. He owns some other valuable property in the city, and
has an assessed real estate value of over thirty thousand dollars.
    On April 10, 1849, Mr. Brennecke married Anna Mary Selbitz, of this
county, and to their union were born seven children, one son and six
daughters: William C., Anna Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Harmenia, Amelia, and
Jennie R. Mrs. Brennecke was a member of the Lutheran church, and died
January 3, 1892, aged sixty-two years.
    Christian Brennecke is a democrat in politics, and has been a member and
trustee for twenty-seven years of the St. James Evangelical Lutheran church
of Altoona. He has, by hard labor and judicious management, acquired a
competency in life, and within the last few years has retired from all active
business pursuits. He is a pleasant and agreeable man, and enjoys the respect
and good will of his fellow townsmen.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Linda M. Shillinger  LindasTree@AOL.COM

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