STAFF REPORT
Nearly 50 descendants of late 19th century settlers Fritz and Auguste Ficke gathered at a Kyle church on March 19 for their annual reunion.
Thinking they were coming to a paradise, Fritz Ficke emigrated from Germany in 1883 and his wife, Auguste, arrived a year later with five young children. Despite a hard life, the family made a successful life farming in Redwood, adding three more children to the brood. Seven of the eight children survived to adulthood and established careers in Buda, Kyle, Lockhart, Redwood and San Marcos.
Local reunion attendees included Ernestine Hofmann, Rex and Mary Wiegand, and Sharon and Everett Wilkinson of Kyle; Franz and Linda Hofmann of Lockhart; Wallace and Lila Dockall, Don Hofmann, and Alice Ruth Worley of San Marcos; Katherine Benson, Maxine Stautzenberger, Marilyn Altwein and Stephen Parker of Seguin.
Other family members came from Austin, the Houston and Dallas areas, Harlingen, San Antonio, and the states of Florida, Louisiana and Georgia.
After the reunion, several members attended a memorial service at the San Marcos Cemetery for Mary Lou Ficke Leinweber Perras, who died on Dec. 30, in Phoenix, Ariz. She grew up in Redwood.
