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Allow me to introduce ourselves, for most who read this probably aren't very familiar with us. I am John Raymond Dudeck, my wife is Pamela Jean Hubbling Dudeck, and our daughter is Jennifer Louise Dudeck. My father was John Hans Dudeck, who died in 1996, and my mother was Edna May Mathis Dudeck, who died in 1998. I will write more about our family history on another page.

I was born in Wisconsin, but we moved away because the winters were too cold for my mother. We left there in 1956, and the last time I went back for a visit was in 1966. That's 35 years, 40 for some places. I still had childhood memories of Wisconsin. My world was small at age 5, but certain things were anchored there in my memory, and stayed that way forever after. I have an aunt in Milwaukee, the last living sibling of my father.

So I wanted to go back to Wisconsin, visit my aunt, and see if the things I remembered were still there. We decided to drive up there this summer of 2001. We live in Charlotte, North Carolina. We drove up through Kentucky, across the corner of Cincinnati, Ohio, and into Indiana. As we were driving north from Indianapolis I asked Pam to see if we were going anywhere near Monon, Indiana.

Monon, Indiana is where my Father preached when he was a seminary student. He went to Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago, graduating in 1949. That's where he met my mother, and they were married in 1947. During the weeks leading up to their wedding, my father lived in Monon, and my mother went back to Scottsdale, Arizona, to prepare for the wedding. I have letters that they wrote to each other between Monon and Scottsdale in 1947. Mom addressed the letters to John Dudeck, Monon, Indiana. That's all it took.

In Search of my Dudeck Wisconsin Roots

We found that Monon was just a few miles off the interstate, so we drove through it. It seems to be a thriving farm town, a whole different world from what you find in the cities and along the interstates. We didn't take the time to stop and look for the Baptist Church where dad preached.

We continued on through Chicago (Chicago#2, Chicago#3, Chicago#4) and up to Milwaukee. That is where my aunt, Gertrude Dudeck, lives. She will turn 80 this year, and I was amazed to realize that I hadn't seen her in 35 years! She was just like I thought she should be.

While Pam and Jennifer went to Old World Wisconsin, a historical site, I stayed with Gertie and we talked about family history. I set up a camcorder and recorded over an hour of interviewing her. Our family history is a whole story in itself.

It was Pam and Jennifer's first time to meet Gertie. It was a delightful time. Gertie's apartment, Gertie with Pam.

My grandmother and uncle had Dudeck's Bakery in Milwaukee. At one time they had three or four stores around the city, but the only one I ever saw was at 28th and Lincoln. My uncle sold the business when he retired in 1975.

We drove to the corner of 28th and Lincoln, and there it was, just as I had remembered it. Now the sign says Papi's Bakery. We found that it is closed, and there was another sign saying it would reopen soon as the "Wild Flour Bakehouse". Bakery#2, Bakery#3, Bakery#4.

Milwaukee is a city of broad streets layed out in a grid pattern. I noticed the Frank Lloyd Wright Middle School.

We drove down to the center of town, to the edge of Lake Michigan. That weekend there was going to be a circus parade put on by the World Of Circus Museum in Baraboo.

We walked around and looked at the animals and circus wagons that were on display. Camel#2, Carousel, Giraffe, Kangaroo.

I was born in the town of Reedsburg, Wisconsin in 1950. Reedsburg seems to be unknown, even to many Wisconsonians I have met around the country. It is near Baraboo and Wisconsin Dells, which are better known. It's in the lower middle of the state, a little north of Madison.

My father pastored the First Baptist Church of Reedsburg. The church is still there. Not much has changed in the town, except that it has grown some.

One of my earliest memories is watching the red light come on in the evening on top of the water tower. At Christmas they put a lighted star in place of the red light. I walked around the town looking for the vantage point from which I used to see the tower, and finally found it.

The apartment where we lived is no longer there, having given its space for the expansion of a grocery store. We found a couple of old-timers, but neither were living there in 1950-1955, and couldn't remember who had lived in those two houses that were torn down.

Next to the water tower is the Reedsburg Brewery. In the center of town is a park with criss-cross sidewalks that I remember. There is the old Reedsburg Hospital where I was born.

Next we headed out to western Wisconsin to look for a little crossroads called Eureka Center. We drove to St. Croix Falls, which is on the St. Croix river that makes the border with Minnesota. From St. Croix Falls we drove north six miles, and saw the sign for Eureka Center.

Eureka Center consists of Eureka Baptist Church, the parsonage, the garage where the county snow plow is parked, an old creamery now turned into a bar, and a couple other houses. That's it.

Eureka Baptist Church was founded in 1881. My father pastered there in 1955 and 1956. We left just before their 75th anniversary, and we had a commemorative plate from that event. When we drove up we met the current pastor, and told him my name. He knew it from the church history, which he seemed to know by heart. He dug out a commemorative plate from the 100th anniversary in 1981 and gave it to us.

It's interesting how little things change around a place like that, and when there are changes, everyone remembers. Everything that I mentioned that I remembered from 1956 the pastor knew about.

This storybook parsonage is where we lived in 1955-1956. We learned that there had been a tornado that blew down all the trees in the front yard, and there had been a fire in 1978. After the fire they had to replace the walls, floors, windows, doors, furnace, etc. But everything looked like I remembered it, but just updated a little. When we moved in there in 1955 they had just remodeled the kitchen to put in a gas stove instead of a wood stove, and had put in an indoor bathroom. This time the kitchen had again been remodeled and enlarged.

This is pastor Karl Helwig and his wife Lynn. They have been pastoring there for 12 years. This picture is in the living room of the parsonage, the very place where I prayed to give my heart to Jesus on January 19, 1956.

It was amazing to me to learn that I was the third son of former pastors who had come back to visit the church this year!

We went to the morning service on July 15th. We found a couple of old timers who remembered our family. One, Goodwin Hanson, remembered that the deacons had given me a sled for Christmas, 1955. I remembered the sled, and told him that we took it with us when we moved to California, and eventually sold it to somebody.

That afternoon they were having their annual picnic and a baptism, but unfortunately we needed to get on the road and so couldn't stay. We drove the 1200 miles back to Charlotte, getting home Monday evening.