Meixner Family History #15 - Frank Meixner's Legacy

I suppose you could look at Frank's life and see a life of tragedy and misfortune.  He left his homeland, friends and family members, and sailed to a new land where he was swindled out of all his money.  He had to work on a plantation, lost at least two children to disease, scratched out a living, and died at the young age of 41.

I think looking at his life that way would be totally missing several very important points.  Here is the way I look at Frank's life:

First, just making that momentous decision to leave home with a wife and six children and go thousands of miles to a new land seeking a better life took a great deal of courage and determination.

Second, many thousands of immigrants were swindled out of their money and taken advantage of in many ways.  The fact that he overcame this extremely discouraging event of losing his money by coming up with an alternate plan and moving forward shows a lot about his character.  He didn't quit, he keep moving forward.

Third, he made a change after the loss of his little girls and his own illness and moved his family to a more healthy location with better opportunity.  He continued to improve their way of life.  He went from having no property at all on the 1884 tax roll to having a wagon, 2 horses, and 2 head of cattle at the time of his death in 1890.

The last point I would make is he had made his application for citizenship of the United States.  He achieved what must have been his dream ever since he made the decision to come to the United States years before.

Webster's New World Dictionary defines legacy as:  1) (law) money or property left to one by a will,         2) anything handed down as from an ancestor

Frank's legacy comes from the second, and I think most important, definition.  Part of the legacy is in the genes he passed down.  What I saw in my dad growing up was strength, both physical strength and strength of character.  I saw determination and a will to succeed.  I think that's what he got from his father, Harmon, and his grandfather, Frank.  I  can only hope I got a little tiny bit of that.

The other part of the legacy, again, much better than money or property passed down in a will, is each and every descendant of Frank and Theresia.  I am here because he brought his family here and started his  children out in a new life in this country. Five of them got married and had families.  One of those was my grandfather Harmon.

I am here and I am a citizen of the United States of America.  What better legacy could I have asked for?

 Next time:  What does Theresia Meixner do now?