In the mid-1700s, Johann Nicolaüs Rechten’s family was well established in Trupe, a municipality of Lilienthal, Germany, located just outside the town of Bremen. As cloth makers they most likely raised their own sheep, created cloth, and tailored clothing, which they sold in Bremen where they had established a business. For over 100 years the business succeeded and expanded, eventually making its way to Manhattan. There it continued until tragedy struck, ending the long line of Rechten clothiers. As a victim of one of the greatest train disasters of the time, young Philipp Rechten’s last hours of life was witnessed and documented in detail by a news journalist.
Throughout their history, Rechtens were no stranger to hardships, but the stories uncovered and documented in these pages tell of hard work and determination despite these difficulties. There is the gunsmith turned inventor who earned patents around the globe for a whaling apparatus he designed. From England, to the United States, Greenland, and the Caribbean, his life was lived mostly at sea demonstrating the instrument which incorporated electricity long before it was used for the common light bulb. And as he was impressing those in the whaling trade, another Rechten bravely traveled to America where he courageously fought for the voiceless in the Civil War, dying just months after his arrival, in one of the deadliest battles in Fredericksburg, Virginia, leaving a young family behind to struggle for survival in Manhattan.
If Johann Nicolaüs Rechten, born nearly 300 years ago, is your ancestor, these stories reveal the adversities your forebears overcame which eventually led to your existence today. While their lives were a part of Germany’s past and America’s history, as a descendant, this is part of your story and your legacy.