The Wagner Hotel has already been the starting point for several posts on this blog. Today, will be yet another one. The Wagner family is just full of fascinating, if not notorious, stories.
One of the two daughters in the Wagner family was Rosalie Wagner. Since there were only two girls in the family, it is somewhat likely that one of the two younger ladies in this photo of the Wagner Hotel is Rosalie.
Although I cannot find documentation, I have been told that Rosalie married a Teacher Frederick Pieske who served the school at Salem Lutheran in Farrar. Frederick was previously married, and his first wife had died in 1918. Teacher Pieske later became the superintendant of the Lutheran Orphans Home in Des Peres, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis). Rosalie also worked at the orphanage. We can find documentation for some of these facts on their death certificates. Here is Frederick’s death certificate. He died in the Lutheran Hospital in St. Louis in 1931.
This leads us to this story which took place in 1935. In a previous blog, it was simply stated that Joseph Wagner’s wife, Fredericka (Estel) Wagner died in 1935. She died on April 28th, and her sister-in-law came to Perry County to attend the funeral. Then another tragedy occurred.
Traveling on the way back home to St. Louis in an automobile along Highway 25 about ten miles west of Ste. Genevieve, the car crashed, rolled over, and Rosalie was killed. Note: Highway 25 is now called Highway 61. Here is Rosalie’s death certificate.
What I find interesting is that the informant listed on this document is Joe Wagner. I have to wonder whether Joe Wagner was the driver of the car that overturned.
Rosalie was buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg. We previously posted this photo of Fredericka’s gravestone.
The stone to the left of Fredericka’s is that of her sister-in-law, Rosalie (Wagner) Pieske. This also illustrates Trinity’s procedure of burying people in the next available place in their cemetery.
This poor family had to go through back-to-back funerals in Altenburg.
Will this be the last of the Wagner stories? At this point, I am not going to commit to saying that it will be. This family just seems to keep giving me material about which to write.
For those of you who may be interested, here is a list of previous blog posts about this Wagner family:
I believe my grandmother, Marie Weyermann Pieske was injured in that same car wreck. Frederick Pieske was my great grandfather.