{"id":4731,"date":"2026-01-08T22:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therabbithoel.com\/?p=4731"},"modified":"2026-01-07T20:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:15:21","slug":"uncle-william-brockman-immigrant-and-carpenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therabbithoel.com\/?p=4731","title":{"rendered":"Uncle William Brockman, immigrant and carpenter."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">William Brockman was born on January 29, 1853 and died on January 9, 1931. He is Walt&#8217;s second great uncle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">William was born in Prussia on January 29, 1853, and I have very little information about his life before he came to the United States. According to Georgina, Walt&#8217;s mom, He came over in 1867 with an aunt and uncle named Jumpherman. They lived near the fairgrounds in West Point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 1870 census shows him working as a farm laborer for the family of Ralph Geeseka. Ralph was also from Prussia, and that may have been how he found the job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I found an index that shows that his date of naturalization was April 21, 1875. It does not give much detail, but I hope to eventually find the full record. Naturalization records often have a great deal of information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"627\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/naturalization.jpg?fit=627%2C399&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4735\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/naturalization.jpg?w=627&amp;ssl=1 627w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/naturalization.jpg?resize=300%2C191&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 627px) 100vw, 627px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">William Brockman married Mary Kempker on Jun 15, 1880 in West Point, Iowa. He was a carpenter, and built a home for his wife&#8217;s sister and brother in law, <a href=\"https:\/\/therabbithoel.com\/?p=4669\">Teresa<\/a> and Isadore Link. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"629\" height=\"345\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/family-at-the-farm.jpg?resize=629%2C345&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1057\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/family-at-the-farm.jpg?resize=1024%2C561&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/family-at-the-farm.jpg?resize=300%2C164&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/family-at-the-farm.jpg?resize=768%2C421&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/family-at-the-farm.jpg?resize=900%2C493&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/family-at-the-farm.jpg?resize=1280%2C701&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/family-at-the-farm.jpg?w=1460&amp;ssl=1 1460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Isadore Link family in front of their home, built by William!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">William and Mary had 6 children. In 1926, they moved from West Point to Quincy, Illinois. William died on January 9, 1931 in Quincy. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Quincy, Illinois. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1391\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?fit=629%2C342&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4736\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?resize=300%2C163&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?resize=1024%2C556&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C417&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C834&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1112&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?resize=900%2C489&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?resize=1280%2C695&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therabbithoel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/headstone-scaled.jpeg?w=1887&amp;ssl=1 1887w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>William Brockman was born on January 29, 1853 and died on January 9, 1931. He is Walt&#8217;s second great uncle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[18,44],"class_list":["post-4731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","tag-family-history","tag-west-point"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Uncle William Brockman, immigrant and carpenter. - Down the Rabbit Hoel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"William Brockman was born on January 29, 1853 and died on January 9, 1931. 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