Those of you that know me, know that I am a retired teacher whose supposed expertise was in the area of mathematics. I am even teaching one Math class each day this year on an interim basis. So it is true that I did not spend much time teaching history. However, now that I am … More Tales from an Old Newspaper
Rev. William Zschoche became a pastor in 1866 after graduating from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. His first call was to a church in Paola, Kansas. Not long after graduating, he married Emily Richter. After serving there, he took his next call to Atchison, Kansas. Finally, Rev. Zschoche’s last congregation was Concordia Lutheran Church in … More A Zschoch-ing Wedding
Recently, Trinity Lutheran Church in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis installed their new pastor, Rev. Joshua Hatcher. I do not know how many pastors have served this congregation over the years, but today I would like to focus on the first two. Yesterday, our blog post discussed the arrival of the Olbers in New … More Soulard Spiritual Shepherds
Before I discuss the arrival of the Olbers in New Orleans on January 20, 1839, I want to tell a little tale of an artist who for a while lived in St. Louis. His name was Henry Lewis. After being born in England in 1819, his family came to America. Eventually, Henry became a carpenter … More Olbers in New Orleans
Seventy-eight days after departing Bremerhaven, Germany, the first members of the Gesellschaft arrived by steamboat in St. Louis, Missouri. They had voyaged across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Copernicus to New Orleans, Louisiana, and then had traveled up the Mississippi aboard the steamboat, Rienzi. Now, on January 19, 1839, they had finally arrived at that … More The First Stephanites Arrive in St. Louis
The Mighty Mississippi River has been an important part of the German immigration to East Perry County from the very beginning. Throughout the years, it has been a major form of transportation for these surrounding communities. Commerce still takes place on the river and there are people from this area who still consider it a … More Preacher on the River
A rather obscure member of the 1838-1839 immigration was a furrier by the name of Johann Traugott Bolz. On this day, January 17th, in 1841, he married Auguste Wirth. Their marriage is recorded in the Old Trinity Lutheran Church books in St. Louis, but at that time, that congregation did not have its own church … More My Bologna Has a First Name – It’s O-S-C-A-R
I was having trouble finding a story involving some sort of anniversary, so today, I choose to embellish a topic that showed up in yesterday’s post about the Ice Storm of 1930. In that story, I commented that Altenburg had an abundance of fences back in those days which are no longer a prominent feature … More Fences
Any credit for today’s blog post should go to Gerard Fiehler, a vital member of our Research Crew. Gerard is not a writer and never wants any credit, but he is an important contributor to almost every post that is written on this blog. Yesterday, Gerard pointed out to me that our museum has photographs … More Ice Storm – 1930
One of the prolific patriarchs in East Perry County history was J.G. Palisch. Many blog posts that have been written here have been about people who are attached to J.G. Palisch in some way. And yes, today will be another one. January 14, 1853 was the day that J.G. Palisch became a grandfather for the … More First of Many
