Recently we wrote posts about a few members of the Jahn family, two of which were married on the same day in May of 1858. Today we tell the story of another Jahn wedding which happened on this day, May 22nd, in 1851, seven years before the double wedding. This marriage was performed by Rev. Georg Schieferdecker, the second pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. If the marriage took place at church, it would have occurred in the 1845 church building which is now a gallery at our museum.
The bride and groom at this wedding were Sophie Jahn and Rev. Johannes Rennicke (Rev. Schieferdecker spelled his name without the “c” in the Trinity record). At the time of this wedding, Rev. Rennicke was a pastor in Columbia, Illinois. I do not know the answer as to how this couple may have gotten to know one another. What we do know is that Rev. Rennicke became the second pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown in 1858, the same year as the double wedding. Rev. Gruber, the first pastor in Uniontown didn’t die until September of 1858, so Rev. Rennicke was not the pastor in Uniontown yet when the double wedding took place in May.
Pastor Rennicke also must have served a congregation in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area because he is listed there in the 1870 census and is described as a minister of the Gospel. The Rennickes apparently spent the last years of his ministry and of their lives in Wayside, Wisconsin, not far from Green Bay. They are both buried in the Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery in Wayside.
Here is a photo taken of Sophie and Johannes not long before the pastor’s death in 1900.
Over the years, there were several reasons why some people left Perry County to live elsewhere. One of the reasons was that someone either became a church worker or became married to a church worker. That was the case with Sophie Jahn.
This past Friday, we had some visitors show up in the museum who came to find out about their ancestors. The family they came to research was the Jahn family, and more specifically, Rev. Johannes and Sophie (Jahn) Rennicke. It was unbelievably coincidental that we had just done two blog posts concerning the Jahns and that another blog post is now showing up just days later. I am still kicking myself for not getting a photo of the four members of the Jahn family that visited us. They were from the states of Mississippi and Georgia. Gerard and I had a great visit with them. When we showed them the church records of the Jahn weddings, you could see the looks of delight in their eyes. It was one of those days when we could really see the benefit of having our research library with all of its resources.
Just one more note: A “j” in the German language is usually pronounced like a “y”. So the German pronunciation of Jahn would be “Yon”.
The previous blog posts about the Jahns were When Did Jahn Schuessler Die? and Another Multiple Wedding in Altenburg.
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