Johann Lipke (the surname was also spelled Lippke/Leipke/Lipka, etc.) was born in Güttland, Kreis Dirschau, West Prussia, in the territory of Danzig (Gdansk, Poland). Today the village is called Koźliny and is located in the countryside not far from Tczew, Poland. Found in the Catholic church records of Muehlbanz (LDS microfilm no. 1456852):

1867, no. 157, Güttland, 74th male, Johann son of Johann Lipke and Auguste Richard, born 5 November, baptized 24 November; sponsors Johann Krause, Wilhelmine Lange.

[His military record and U.S. naturalization paperwork confirm this birthdate.]

He was the grandson of Michael Liepke and Elisabeth/Louise Drabandt Liepke of Güttland.

He had at least four brothers: August (1866-1910), Franz Michael (1869- ), Michael (1872- ), and Andreas Gottfried (1874-1881).

Johann served from November 1889 to September 1891 during peacetime in the Prussian Army, 10th Company, King Friedrich I's Grenadier-Regiment Infantry (4th East Prussians, Regt. No. 5), attained the rank of Lance Corporal, and was discharged with a mark of good conduct.

He married Elisabeth Kraft on 20 and 21 May 1893, in civil and Catholic ceremonies respectively. They both worked as agricultural laborers in Czattkau and later in Brodsack (both small villages in the countryside around the Vistula River) and they had several children before immigrating to Syracuse, New York on the S.S. Chemnitz, leaving Bremen in November 1904. They would have eight children together, two dead before 1910: Johann Carl (who died in 1897 in Germany), another child who died before 1910, Franz/Frank, Magdelena/Lena/Helen/("Betty"), Anna/Anne, Johann/John/Jack, Anthony/Tony, and Leonard J. Lipke The youngest two boys were born in the U.S.

Johann Lipke had followed his older brother, August, in immigrating to Syracuse. He settled his family next-door to his brother's on West Division Street and became known as John Lipke in the U.S., working as a laborer in Syracuse for several years. By 1906 they were living at 716 North Alvord Street, where their first American-born child, Tony, was born. Around 1909 he moved his family out to their (mortgaged) farm in Taft Settlement just outside the village of North Syracuse. Their youngest son, Leonard, was born there in 1912. (This Lipke farmland passed to their son, Frank, when John died in 1926, and was eventually expropriated as an air base during World War II; today it is part of the northern edge of Hancock International Airport.)

The family remained members of Assumption Catholic Church in Syracuse. They raised pigs and crops and regularly drove wagonloads of produce, eggs, and chickens from their farm to sell at what was then known as the German Market on Syracuse's north side.

In his naturalization documents, John Lipke was described as being five feet, five or six inches tall, weighing 145 pounds, having a light complexion, brown hair, grey eyes, and a scar on his left cheek. He and his wife and minor children became naturalized U.S. citizens on 22 April 1916. According to family stories, he was a loving, kind, and affectionate father.

In the 1910 census the family was located on "Sand Road" (later, Taft Road) on their farm, with John Lipke listed with the occupation of laborer in an iron foundry. The 1920 census listed his occupation as farmer.

John Lipke died of pneumonia on his farm on 11 January 1926 following an illness that lasted nine days. He was buried 14 January 1926 in a family plot in Assumption Cemetery purchased by his wife. His wife gave the wrong (1864) year of his birth on his death certificate and his tombstone also displays an incorrect (1865) year of birth. At the time he died he was actually 58 years 2 months and 6 days old.

[CLICK on each photo to read caption and view full-size.]