Duerksen, Jacob Arthur (1895-1986)

Jacob A. Duerksen at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., 1976.
Mennonite Library and Archives Photo 2019-0013

Jacob "Jake" Arthur Duerksen: mathematician and genealogist, was born 17 October 1895, in Marion County, Kansas, USA to Gerhard J. Duerksen (13 May 1871-28 December 1943) and Marie Woelk Duerksen (19 May 1872-15 December 1936). He was the second oldest child in a family of eight sons and five daughters. On 7 September 1921 he married Louise May Schmidt (27 March 1899-1 December 1980); they had three daughters, Eleanor, Sylvia and Vera Mae. Jacob Duerksen died on 2 April 1986 at the Hermitage, a retirement home in Alexandria, Virginia. Jacob and Louise Duerksen are buried at the Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, Maryland. Jacob used "Jakob" for his given name for much of his life, and was generally known as "Jake."

Jacob Duerksen graduated from Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, in 1922, and also attended Pomona College, Claremont, California, where he completed his senior year of college (1921-1922). While in California he participated in the Pomona Solar Expedition to Catalina Island. He remained at Pomona from 1921 to mid-1923. Then he continued his work in Los Angeles from July, 1923 to August, 1924, then in San Diego from August, 1924 to June, 1925, and briefly back in Los Angeles in July and August, 1925.

In September, 1925, Jacob joined the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in Washington, D.C., where he served as mathematician and geodesist until his retirement in 1963. He was the author of several government publications, including Pendulum Gravity Data in the United States Manual of Geodetic Astronomy, and Deflections of the Vertical in the United States.

He was a life member of the Mathematical Association of America and the American Geophysical Union. He was also a member of the Philosophical Society of Washington, D.C., the American Congress of Surveying and Mapping, and the Washington Academy of Science.

In 1930 Jacob and Louise Duerksen transferred their church membership from the Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church near Goessel, Kansas, to the First Congregational Church in Washington, D.C., where they were active members.

In 1963 Jacob Duerksen received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Bethel College.

Jacob assisted many of his nieces and nephews with college tuition loans and gifts. He also inherited and/or purchased farmland in the Goessel/Hillsboro area and leased it to his brothers to farm. The family correspondence includes discussion of these and other financial relationships.

The Duerksens built their house on Monroe Street near the border of Washington and College Park a few months after they moved to Washington and their two single daughters continued to live there until they moved to retirement homes.

Louise May Schmidt Duerksen was also from the Alexanderwohl community and the daughter of Peter U. Schmidt (10 January 1874-1 November 1970) and Anna Unruh Schmidt (11 August 1874-18 March 1954). Louise was primarily a homemaker and no information about work outside of the home after her marriage was found (she worked at the laundry and in the kitchen of Bethel Hospital while Jacob was a student at Bethel College before their marriage). She was active in the church and community organizations, but primarily served as a hostess for the many people who visited and stayed at their Washington D.C. home. In addition to friends and family from Kansas, their home was open to Mennonites serving in Civilian Public Service and later church programs and especially to Mennonite Central Committee workers throughout the years. Hundreds of letters inquire about spending some time visiting the capitol or thank the Duerksens for hosting a stay.

During retirement Jacob did extensive research at the National Archives on various aspects of Mennonite history and genealogy. Several papers were printed in Mennonite publications. He especially focused his work on ship passenger lists and church membership records, making many copies from microfilm at the National Archives and producing indexes.

Bibliography

GRANDMA (The Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry) Database, v.19-07 ed. Fresno, CA: California Mennonite Historical Society, 2019: #34157.

Archives

Jacob A. Duerksen and Louise Schmidt Duerksen Papers, MS.598, Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas.

Publications by Jacob A. Duerksen

Duerksen, Jacob A. "Prussian and Polish Mennonite, Hutterite and borderline names." Mennonite Life (December 1981): 8.

_____. "Przechowka and Alexanderwohl." Mennonite Life (April 1955): 76.

_____. "Some Remained Behind." Mennonite Life (October 1970): 175.

_____. "Transition from Dutch to German in West Prussia." Mennonite Life (July 1967): 107.

Duerksen, Jacob A. with John F. Schmidt. "Passenger shiplists in the National Archives." Mennonite Quarterly Review 42 (July 1968): 219-224.

Duerksen, Jacob A. with John F. Schmidt. Summaries of Passenger Lists of Mennonite Immigrants to America, 1873-1900. North Newton, KS: Duerksen and Schmidt, 1981.

Duerksen, Jacob Arthur. Deflections of the vertical in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1941.

Duerksen, Jacob Arthur. Pendulum gravity data in the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949. Reprinted 1965.

Hoskinson, Albert J. and Jacob Arthur Duerksen. Manual of geodetic astronomy; determination of longitude, latitude and azimuth. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government, 1948.

Author(s)	David A Haury
Date Published	November 2019

Cite This Article

MLA style

Haury, David A. "Duerksen, Jacob Arthur (1895-1986)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. November 2019. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Duerksen,_Jacob_Arthur_(1895-1986)&oldid=166188.

APA style

Haury, David A. (November 2019). Duerksen, Jacob Arthur (1895-1986). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Duerksen,_Jacob_Arthur_(1895-1986)&oldid=166188.

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