Johanna Rosa (Hannah) Engelking (1879-1966) was born in Millheim Texas in 1879 to Sigismund Engelking (1843-1905) and Anna Zimmerman (1851-1908). Her father encouraged her to take the state teacher’s examination – not surprising from a family much concerned with education2. In fact he tutored her to the point where she could take the state teacher’s examination3. Johanna’s pioneer grandfather had in fact founded the first grammar school (gymnasium) in Texas in Millheim conducted by Ernst Gustav Maetze, a highly educated political refugee from Germany. Her brother Sigismund Jr. apparently was so passionate about Shakespeare that he would deliver the Bard’s words standing on his dining-table chair.4 So she grew up in an atmosphere of education and intellectual pursuits.
She initially taught near Brenham Texas at Watson Lake. However, love threatened to get in the way of her career when she was engaged to a pharmacist. She was devastated when she found that he had been unfaithful to her and she never became involved in a relationship after that – staying single for the rest of her life.
Subsequently she studied Summer Normals to gain her B.A and then an M.A. at Baylor University (her Master’s thesis is the source of this book).
Upon qualifying she embarked on what was to become a very successful teaching career over a period of fifty years. She was a highly active and assertive woman and involved herself in the Baptist Church and alumni and the Baylor Historical Society. From 1924 onwards she lived in the Rice Hotel in Houston.
The Engelking family has a treasured cemetery in Millheim and she was a key figure in ensuring its preservation. This cemetery was awarded a historical marker in 2003 and is maintained to this day by the family. Apart from it holding the graves of her own ancestors it is also remarkable and unique for also having the grave of an old slave name “Uncle Wash”, who had saved her father’s life and probably the rest of the family when attacked by Indians. It may be that this historical event influenced her to choose the subject of slavery for her thesis.
Upon her retirement in 1950, she travelled around visiting relatives and collecting data for a family history. Later she was involved in the Cat Spring Agricultural Society and was decisive in the production of their important historical publications. In the Acknowledgements to The Cat Spring Story we read: “Members of the Cat Spring Agricultural Society are indebted to Johanna Rosa Engelking for months of effort in gathering facts on the families of the early settlers of Cat Spring and their descendants”.
One of her famous colleagues during over 27 years teaching in Houston was Lyndon B. Johnson who was teaching at the Sam Houston High School and who she had introduced to her second cousin and son of the famous Robert Justus Kleberg, Richard Miffin Kleberg. This was in 1930 after he had graduated from Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, He briefly taught public speaking at Sam Houston High. After Kleberg was elected to the U.S. Congress, he hired Johnson as his secretary, who then moved to Washington DC in 1931. Johnson wrote to Johanna later, after he had been elected President, telling her that she was one of those responsible for his success in politics. After Johanna Rosa Engelking died at the age of 88, Johnson sent flowers to the funeral. Martha Rutherford relates that LBJ invited J. Rosa to the White House and was going to send a Presidential plane to fly her there. Unfortunately, she passed away before that trip could happen. President Johnson, who was not able to attend, sent a huge bouquet of yellow roses to the funeral.
It is a strange matter of fact that whilst Johanna was living in the Rice Hotel5, President J.F. Kennedy attended a conference of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) there on November 21, 1963 – the day before he was assassinated in Dallas! Kennedy used a suite at the Rice Hotel to hold meetings, which was supplied with caviar and he had been there on a number of previous occasions, where he would be served champagne, and his favorite beer. Whether he knew Johanna via President Johnson and was able to take time out to visit her on that or one of the previous occasions is a matter of speculation.6
Money had never played an important role in her generous life and her assets did not even suffice to pay for her funeral. We hope this book will play some tribute to a life lived well for Texas education and culture.
Stephen A. Engelking