While not a famous man, nor a great one, nevertheless Ernest A. Buek typified the dedicated, devout (his family were members of St. Michaels in Hamburg, Germany), often forgotten common people whose sturdy leadership gave our rural areas the strength to grow and flourish.
The eight of eleven children, born October 28, 1802, to Casper Hornet Buck (a gardener, florist and insurance agent) and Frederike (Voight) in Hamburg, Germany, Ernest received a complete education in history and law. Beginning secondary school at the age of 15 in 1817, his diligent, continued efforts resulted in the conferring of honors in Canon and Civil Laws, together with the degree Doctor of Law, on May 21, 1826.
On October 28, 1829, he married Elizabeth Henrietta Knauth. In the 1800s many Germans immigrated to America because of compulsory military service, lack of available land and political reasons. Dr. Buek and his family were among them. By mid June 1838, the Plymouth was anchored off Sandy Hook, the approach to New York Harbor. On board were Ernest, Elizabeth and their five children, the eldest eight years old, along with prospective pioneers and soldiers of fortune.
Besides household belongings, Ernest bought along his law library, the works of Shakespeare, Schiller and Goethe and this Heidelberg degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence. All these were loaded on a boat, floated up the Hudson, transferred to a barge, towed on the Erie Canal (during which time the children learned their first words of English, “Low Bridge”) and by boat again from Buffalo to Detroit. A stagecoach from Detroit finally brought them to their destination- Hamburg in Livingston County.
Already many from Germany had settled in Hamburg and Genoa townships, which was perhaps a inducement to buy 40 acres in Section 15 of Hamburg Township in the 5800 area of present day Cowell Road on August 2, 1838. On the 40 acres of woodland running back into the high hills on the shore of beautiful Pleasant (Winans) Lake, a typical log house was built with the little family moving in on October 26. Over the fireplace, the German pioneer set a board in which he had carved “Frolich in Hoffnung, Geduldig in Truubsal, Haltaeam Gebete: (Be joyful in hope, patient in suffering, constant in prayer. ) (During the years to come, he would have full need of this philosophic admonition.)
Dr. Buek knew both French and Italian in addition to his native German, but lacked a speaking command of the English language. He had come to America to practice his profession, but found no law business or such as he.
In 1838 the well -educated Dr. Buek and his family arrived in Hamburg Township to build a new home and future for themselves. Unable to practice his profession as a lawyer because of the language barrier, the family endured a precarious existence. Dr. Buek paid for the land and for the first supplies for his family out of his dwindling store of German gold. Receiving in change “wild cat” currency, much if which was practically worthless, his money soon vanished and their only visible means of support was his garden. The love of gardening, inherited from his father and grandfather now stood them in good stead. This supplied the family with many necessities of the table. In winter the daily fare was usually “Schwarzbrod, Speck und Pelkartoffel”, with molasses in place of butter. Once a week, on Sunday, they treated themselves to white bread and butter.
But the woods were full of wild game and the lakes teemed with fish and hunters and fishermen among their neighbors always remembered that German family with all those little children living there on the north side of the lake. Wise and motherly Susan Galloway, who lived down the road on the way to Brigthon, was an ever-present help in time of trouble. Like most pioneer women, she was more than generous with advice, sympathy and something to eat.
Because of the lack of speaking command of the English language, he pursued his inherited passion for horticulture. Cultured and wealthy guests of Major and Mrs. Edwin Cust, nearby neighbors, marveled at the doctors formal beds of flowers and the artistic manner of landscaping, faithful to that left behind in his native Hamburg. His pioneer neighbors, who by tremendous toil, had cleared their land solely for purpose of raising crops of wheat, corn and potatoes, viewed his efforts as a waste of good land. Not content with the products of his craft, Dr. Buek transplanted colonies of the various wild flowers, found everywhere in the woods, to a certain spot at the edge of his garden. It is said that in memory of him who forsook the courts of law, with their unpredictable ways, for the gentle art of gardening and the happy ways of flowers, they bloom annually.
Probably the little mother, Lisette, often wondered where their next meal was coming from but the children were frolicsome and happy and like the young wild creatures of marsh and woodland, grew to be sturdy and reliant. In spring and summer they helped in the garden or tramped the virgin forest for wild flowers. A daily evenings chore was going for the cows that in an almost wholly unfenced country, stray afar, often seeking some distant swampland where finding them was a real adventure.
In the early 1840s there were less than thirty families in the whole township of Hamburg; roads were mere trails through the woods, Indians begged at the door, bears carried off the little pigs and the distant howling of wolves at night was a familiar sound. On one occasion when the Doctor had gone to Brighton, a dreadful cry was heard by those at home from across the lake. They felt certain it was a panther or Indians on the war path. Mother and children sought shelter and refuge in the rootcellar, back in the hillside, and cowered in fear until a familiar and reassuring whistle announced that the head of the household had returned unharmed. The hidden came forth from their sanctuary and learned the maniacal clamor that had sent them scurrying for safety had been made by a harmless waterfowl, a loon.
Autumn days brought crops to harvest and nuts to gather. When storms sent the white-caps racing across the lake (present day Winans Lake) or when the north wind piled snow deep around the little cabin, they all gathered before the great fireplace and listened enthralled while their scholarly father read aloud of the fearsome ride of the Erl Konig, pages from King Lear or appropriately enough, chapters from the Last of the Mohicans.
Within a few years his devoted “Lizette” died in childbirth, 1846, leaving the three hour old baby and its older siblings entirely in his care. She was buried on “Holy Hill” overlooking the lake(Later to be reintered in St. George Churchyard in Genoa Township in April, 1850). The Doctor and Lizette had nine children of which the first 5 were born in Germany and the last four in Hamburg Township in the cabin on the lake.
In 1833 Michigans first Lutheran pastor, Rev. Friedrich Schmid, from Basel, Switzerland, preached his first sermon in Michigan. Riding his horse, using his axe to clear a path, and carrying his blanket roll, Rev. Schmid preached his first sermon in Genoa Township in 1842. Due to the shortage of pastors in the wilderness, Rev. Schmid pressed into service every professional person he found in the area, of which Dr. Buek was one. By 1845, St. George Ev. Lutheran Church was organized with Dr. Buek as Secretary of the vestry. That year, he returned to Germany and solicited donations from classmates, friends and Lutherans for the construction of a building to house the new congregation. Along with $600 in cash, he also brought back a communion set, baptismal font, church seal, offering plate and a register book. In April, 1849 the church was built. The several children were confirmed there and several of the girls married other German pioneer who located in the nearby townships. Dr. Buek served as Pastor (except for two years in Detroit) until he died July 2, 1860 on the farm in Section 28 in Genoa Township on land to which he had moved in 1850, now a part of Burroughs Farms. He and his Lizette are buried in the St. George cemetery in Genoa Township, where once stood the little church to which he gave his lifes devotion.
Condensed and edited from “A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Ernst Adolph Buek, compiled by Robert Lee Watson”.