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ANSEL’S
INTRODUCTION
In 1949 after spending over 25 years in Honolulu, Hawaii, where I
met and married my wife and our two children were born, I returned
with my family to the Mainland U.S.A. Shortly thereafter my son
asked me who were our Dekle ancestors. At the time I knew my father
and only of my grandfather. Afterwards I made quite a number of
inquiries of the Dekles with whom I came in contact and learned
that they too could only go back to their grandparents. In fact
there were some who didn’t know their grandfather. In this same
area for example there were some Dekles who had spent all their
lives within a few blocks of each other and didn’t know they were
second cousins, or related at all.
In 1955, as a guest of Dr. Marcus Dekle of Macon, Georgia, my
family and I attended a reunion of the descendants of John (Squire)
Dekle - Mary Mercer marriage. At this reunion I learned of John
Dekle the immigrant who married Sallie Grisson, a Welsh woman.
Through information that was later presented we learned that the
immigrant’s full name was John Leonard Dekle and records show he
used the Sr. following his name, after his eighth child was named
John Leonard Dekle, Jr. Also it was later learned that Sallie’s
correct name was Sallie Grissom (instead of Grisson) a daughter of
William Grissom. From the marriage of John and Sallie there were
five sons and three daughters. Following pages of this book will
depict as much as we have learned or gathered from other members
of the family, from newspaper articles, cemetery records, family
Bibles, family records, marriage licenses, census records, land
grants, county histories and family tradition.
In Germany in the 18th century there was a Baron named Charles C.
Deckel (Baron Von Deckel) who lived in the city of Hanover. Baron
Von Deckel served during the rule of Charles VI (1711-1740).
Charles VI was a son of Leopold I who was the ruler of Germany
from 1658 to 1705. Another son of Leopold I was Joseph I who was
the ruler from 1705 to 1711. This Baron Von Deckel was the father
of Charles and John Deckel. When the sons, Charles and John, were
nearing manhood they were faced with the ordeal of going through
the severely harsh military training program that all German youths
of that era were put through. The survivors of the program were
the survival of the fittest, so to speak. Sons Charles and John
with a cousin Friedrich all with the name of Deckel decided that
they didn’t want any part of the military training and left Hanover.
They stowed away aboard a sailing ship and eventually arrived in
the Harbor at Savannah, Georgia. Shortly afterwards they jumped
ship and escaped to the countryside. After gaining the safety of
the countryside Charles and Friedrich decided they wanted to go
north which they did. John chose to remain in the south and
settled in Effingham County near Savannah.
In the 1790 census of Chester County, Pennsylvania (West Chester,
Pa., is the county seat) Friedrich Deckel is listed as head of
family. Nothing has been learned to date about what happened to
Charles Deckel.
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