The last child born to Andreas and Caroline (Anders) Estel was born on December 16, 1843 in Altenburg.  His name was Philipp Samuel Estel.

When Philipp was eight years old, his twelve year old brother, Elias, died in a horse-drawn wagon accident a day after Philipp’s birthday, December 17, 1851.  I would think that a memory like that would stick with you for a lifetime.

Philipp (who often simply signed his name as Ph S Estel), became a Lutheran pastor.  On May 17, 1868, he married Catharina Sophia Knapp in St. Louis, Missouri.  I am guessing that these two were married at the time when Philipp was finishing up his studies at Concordia Seminary.  Here is the page included in the Missouri marriage records which included the Estel/Knapp wedding.  All of the records on this page were recorded on October 16, 1868 by the same pastor, Rev. J.F. Buenger, who was the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Louis at the time.  After marrying many couples, he got around to going to the proper place to record them all.  It is possible that Philipp is not the only young seminarian listed on this page.

The Estel wedding can be found on the lower left.

The 1880 census finds the Estel family living in Pierce, Nebraska with Samuel shown as the pastor of a Lutheran church….probably Zion Lutheran Church.  By then, he and Sophia already had eight children, including a set of twins, Flora and Lydia.

The children are listed as being born in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska.  Rev. Estel had apparently already served several congregations before 1880.

In 1882, the Estels moved to Jacob, Illinois, and Samuel became the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church.  Christ Lutheran was actually a daughter congregation of the East Perry County churches and is located just across the Mississippi from Perry County.  You will find a lot of Perry County names in the records of that congregation.

1883 became a terrible year for the Estels and other families in the Jacob area.  Four of her children died during that year, all within a two week period, as a result of diphtheria…..Lydia, Flora, Gustav, and Rosa.  Then in 1889, Samuel lost his wife, Sophia, who died in childbirth.

In 1904, Pastor Estel took a call to Trinity Lutheran Church in Nokomis, Illinois.  He only served there until 1905 when he retired.  Upon retirement, he came back to Jacob, Illinois and lived with his son, Dr. Gottfried Estel.  Rev. Estel died in 1920, and is buried in the Christ Lutheran cemetery in Jacob.