Today would have been the 206th birthday of Ottomar Fuerbringer. He was born June 30, 1810 in an area of Germany called Reuss. Ottomar’s chief claim to fame here in Perry County is the fact that he was one of the builders and also one of the first teachers of the Log Cabin College. He, … More Happy Birthday, Ottomar
June 29th was the day that Rudolph Johannes Meyr married Hedwig “Hattie” Josephine Schmidt at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. The marriage took place in 1920. By 1921, Rudolph and Hattie were living in Detroit, Michigan where Rudolph was teaching at Concordia Lutheran School. While in Detroit, this couple had their only child, Vernon Meyr. … More A Teacher’s Kid
This blog is the next in the series highlighting the people who make our site possible. Eleven years ago, at our initial planning retreat, I was conducting an exercise on “brainstorming” museum development. I said, “If Carolyn Schmidt says that our site will be a better place if we have chicken coops in the parking … More Chicken Coop Joy
This will be another story of some Perry County characters who made the decision to move away from here. This became a fairly common occurrence in a time when families were rather large, and the prospect of getting land in this area was getting harder. The story starts with the birth of Friedrich Wilhelm Gerler … More Same Birthday–Same Anniversary
Dena Dobberphul was born on June 25, 1887. That is not a Perry County name, and you might wonder what connection Dena has to this place. Well, in 1908, Dena married Martin Hemmann, and that certainly is a Perry County name. Martin was a great grandson of J.G. Hemmann who we wrote about a few … More Dakota Hemmanns
The fact that Catharina Christina Becker died on June 24th in 1849 attracted my attention to the Becker family. This girl died of cholera in St. Louis during the Cholera Epidemic. As is so often the case, this simple fact led to several other side stories. First of all, we find that Johann and Eva … More Not Quite as Planned
On this day, June 23, in 1864, as the Civil War was getting close to its end, Johann Gottfried Hemmann died. He was one of the most productive fathers in the history of Perry County, Missouri. Right before the immigration to America in 1838, Gottfried’s first wife, Maria (Bachmann) died. This couple had had eight … More A Prolific Father
In 1839, Johann Gottlob and Justine Ernestine (Bock) Fiehler arrived in America with their three year old daughter, Ernestine. They had sailed on the Copernicus. Not long after arriving in Perry County, on June 22, Ernestine gave birth to a son, and they named the boy Johann Gotthilf Fiehler. I am no expert on these … More A Handful of Johanns
Some years back, we had a visit from an incredible young man, H. Paul Moon. He reminded me on the phone today, that I showed some reluctance regarding him wishing to film me that day. What resulted was The Saxon New World documentary film. It is a beautiful piece of film literature when you experience … More The Saxon New World
On this date in 1969, Robert Fiehler died. However, it was not the Robert Fiehler who was a well-known resident of East Perry County and a huge supporter of the Lutheran Heritage Center & Museum. That Robert Fiehler would also be well known for his son, Gerard Fiehler, who is one of the members of … More Not the One You May Be Thinking, But….
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