“I , John Adam Rueckert was born in Hochbach, Kreis, Mittlefranken, Bavaria, Germany on September 27, 1866.  My father was a big strong man and my mother was middle-sized.  My family consisted of six boys and two girls.  My sister Babetta was born one year before me, so she was the oldest one in the family.
	My parents told me, when I was born I was not healthy.  I had the English Rickets.”  It is a bone disease.
	When he was old enough to walk, he couldn’t.  His legs were not strong enough to hold him.  One day someone told his mother to bathe him in wine.  This she did and after some time, he did walk.  The wine was to strengthen his body and legs.  He was six years of age before he could walk.  Previous to walking, Dad would scoot on his seat.
	As children, they had to break rock.  This rock was used in the making of roads.  “When I was about 5-6 years of age, my brother Fritz and I went on the lake.  I broke through the ice.  I sent Fritz home to get some help.  It was very hard to hold on the ice with my fingertips until assistance came.”  It was quite a distance for Fritz to run.  Dad surely had great strength in his fingers for a boy of six years.
	“One time I went with my father to Burgbernheim and I fell off the wagon and one wheel ran over my head.
	My body was developing very slow, but as I turned 17 years of age, I remember, there was a change took place in my body.  When I was eleven years of age, I became very sick.  The doctor gave me medicine but I did not take it.  My mother wanted me to take the medicine.  She said, “When the doctors ask me about you, I don’t know what to say.” I threw the medicine away, and said that I took it.  My condition got more serious.  I knew my very self that I was near death.  My parents, my brothers and sisters, stood by my bed with folded hands.  I saw my body, my parents, brothers and sisters that proves to me, that my spirit left my body for a while.  
	After I got well, at the age of about 12 years, I had a wonderful dream.  I will never forget this dream.  I dreamed I was in a beautiful land.  The scenery was beautiful.  Everything was green and nice.  I saw lions, snakes, tigers, and bears but there was no hostility among them.  I saw children playing near the tigers. 
	In Germany, the doctors made their visits every two years free of charge just to check on his patients.
	I started school at Burgbernheim in 1873 but because I was very slow in developing, my father sent me to the Real-Schule at Rotenburg, by Steinach at 12-13 years of age.  I graduated in 1880 from this school.”
	He was trained to do clerical work and he had perhaps the best formal education of anyone in the family.
	“Later I was sent to the Judge’s home in Windsheim as a writer for the courts in Windsheim.  From Windsheim I went to Nurnberg.  I wanted to get a job there but I could not find one because I was too small and weak and no one would hire me so I was forced to learn the trade as a painter.  From 1886 until 1891, I was a driver for the Gotenhofer Brotfabrik, (bakery), under Kanalstrasse #1, by Nurnberg.  Then I went home and helped my father in his grocery store until we immigrated to America.”
	When he grew up his parents wanted him to become a Lutheran Pastor.  Because he was a small man, his parents thought hard labor would be too much for him.  This was not to his liking and he got a job delivering bread for a bakery.
	John was a backward boy with the habit of hanging out in inns and pool halls with his brothers.  They played cards and drank beer although he could not smoke because he could not stand tobacco.
	On Sunday afternoons, Dad would go for walks and, as usual, would end up in the beer parlor for a glass of beer.  Dad would take the coasters from his beer glass and slide it across the table to someone else, just for a little excitement.  This would always end up in “Feud” of “Ruckus”.  So we can see John Adam Rueckert was just a typical young man, out for a little adventure and fun.
	When Dad was 14 years of age, he and a group of fellows went to have their fortune told.  The woman was called Die Alte Hex, meaning old witch.  As she was proceeding to tell his fortune, she took an egg and started winding string around it.  She told Dad he would go across the ocean to a far away land.  When you get to this land, you will encounter many hardships.  You shall lose your father and other members of your family.  After being in this strange land for a few years, you will again return to your native land.  You shall marry but in later life.  When this time comes, you shall raise a family.  The last few years of your life, you shall have it easy.  After telling the fortune, she closed her eyes, threw the egg in the fire, and burned it.  Dad laughed at this fortune because he only did it for kicks.  Strange as it may seem, every bit of it came to pass.  (Retold by Hilda Rueckert Baker.)
	In the year of 1875, my father sold his ranch in Hochbach and we moved to Lanthuven Steinach.  In 1876, we moved to the village of Steinach.  Here my father built a house and a barn and they lived there until they moved to America in 1896.
	John and his family were devout Lutherans and were very religious.  Through the efforts of his brother Leonard the message of the gospel of the restored church was told to them.
	May 16, 1895, John  and his mother was baptized and confirmed together by Elder Heber Merrill.  “Another wonderful episode happened when I and my mother was baptized.  It was about noon, between 3 and 4 o’clock when two stars were shining in the heaven above us.”  This gave them the assurance that everything was all right, that the Lord was really pleased.  
	They sold everything when he was 30 years of age, and still unmarried,  John started out for the United States of America on September 16k 1896 with his parents.  They sailed on September 24, 1896 on the Ship S. S. City of Rome from Glasgow, Scotland.  The ships in those days were very slow moving. It took four weeks to get to New York City.  They arrived on October 11, 1896.  On this particular journey, the sea was very rough and the ship was tossed fiercely.  As they were sailing on the ocean, his Dad said, “Why did we old people ever leave our home?  Why do we want to go to America?  When the ship goes down I will open my mouth real wide so I will drown quickly.”  Johann Andreas was 59 and Margarette was 54.  In 1896 they didn’t have such beautiful ships.  He died two months later of exhaustion.  The trip was just too much for him (Hilda Rueckert Baker)
	George Rueckert met them in New York and came with them to Salt Lake City, Utah by railroad.  They arrived at 6 o’clock in the morning on October 11, 1896.
	Upon arriving in Salt Lake They looked for property to rent and finally rented some ground and a house.  They lived between 4-5 North and 900 West.  In this little place they encountered many hardships.  On the property was a flowing well which gave them the precious water to irrigate their garden.  They were barely settled when it was said that this well had typhus germs but this could not be proven.  “We had some very trying time to endure.  At first my eldest sister, Babette took sick, as she got well  my youngest sister took sick.  As she got well my father got sick and then my youngest brother, Franz Julius, and on Christmas my oldest sister got sick too.  On December 29,k1896, just two months after arriving here my father died on January 7, 1897 my sister died and my youngest brother died on January 21, 1897.  The end of March 1896 we received a message that my brother, Fredrich, had died in a hospital in Munich, Germany at the age of 29 years.”  This was a very trying time.
	When Franz was so ill, Brother Schleckman came to visit.  Franz had typhoid fever and was not allowed anything to eat but could drink.  Brother Schleckman asked Franz how he felt.  He answered, “I feel better but am so hungry.”  Brother Schleckman gave him a slice of dry bread.  The doctor came next morning.  He entered the door and looked at Franz and said, “For heaven's sake Franz, what did you do?”  Of course Franz said he had eaten.  The doctor said there was nothing more he could do for him.  Franz lost all his blood while going to the bathroom.  Dad picked Franz up in his arms and carried him into his room and put him to bed.  Franz died in Dad’s arms.  (Hilda Rueckert Baker)
		Death of family members were recorded as follows:	
		Andreas Rueckert		Exhaustion	1896
		Barbara Haaf  (Babette)	Typhoid Fever	1897
		Franz Julius Rueckert	Typhoid Fever	1897
		Fredrich Rueckert			1897
	Between the years 1896-1897 work was very hard to get, because business was very poor, and under these circumstances, it was hard to make a living.  About this time John started a milk business.  Grandmother and Dad bought a cow and sold the milk for 5 cents a quart.  Dad walked more than twenty blocks just to sell one quart of milk.  They hardly knew where the next meal came from.  When his other brothers came to the United States the business was divided among them.
	Dad wrote his brother, Johann Friedrich Rueckert, a letter.  At the time he was in the army in Germany.  My father did not know that he was ill.  Dad told of the deaths in the family.  The shock was too much for him.  He died March 22, 1897.  (Hilda Rueckert Baker)
	
	After awhile, Dad and his mother rented the Speir’s farm at 1726 South 700 West.  Although not being able to speak English, Dad always went to church and bore his testimony in his native tongue.  His mother died on August 8, 1900 of Gastritis.  While George lived at 17th South 6th West in the old Smith home and Ludwig lived at the bend of the river at 17th South 10th West.
	“After I was here a few years, I went to Patriarch John Smith, and had him give me a blessing.  He gave me some wonderful promises, which all were fulfilled, thru my obedience to God’s laws.”  This blessing was always considered as a true treasure and a standard by which he lived. 
	In 1902 he sold his business which was just getting prosperous to answer a call for a mission to his native land, Germany.