Emma Hacker entered this world on July 18, 1880.  Her parents, Johann and Anna (Hornberger) Hacker, took Emma to Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg to be baptized.  When she was 21 years old, she married another young man who was a member of the Friedenberg church.  His name was Martin Rauh.  I don’t know if Emma pursued Martin, or Martin pursued Emma, or Emma enticed Martin to pursue her.  Whatever the case may be, on October 14, 1901, Martin married Emma, and they were married by their pastor, Rev. H Guemmer.  Here is their marriage license.

Martin was the son of John and Maria (Lang) Rauh.  Here is a photo of that family.

It may have been right away after these two married that they moved to Oklahoma and became Sooners.   Someday I may figure out for sure who the first people were that moved to the area around Alva, Oklahoma.  I know that these Rauhs must have been some of the first.  Zion Lutheran Church records that 1899 was the year that it started.

Martin became a farmer there.  One need only look at a map made in 1906 to conclude that this area of Oklahoma is quite flat.  It is one of those locations where land is partitioned off in perfect squares with a road encircling what is often called a section.  I found three Rauhs who owned land near Alva in 1906.  Each of them had a quarter section….160 acres.   I’m going to show two images of maps.  You can see that all three were adjacent to each other with Martin’s the farthest south.  They are surrounded by red boxes.

One page out of the 1940 census lists a host of Rauhs, indicating that they must have lived close to one another.

Martin and Emma had four children, three boys and a girl.  The girl, Edna, married Walter Schuessler, another transplant in Oklahoma from Perry County, Missouri.  Some of the other names found in this area of Oklahoma from Missouri were Lohmann, Bodenschatz, and Groh.

Between the 1940 census and the time when Martin had to register for the World War II draft in 1942, Martin and Emma had moved one county to the east into Alfalfa County where their daughter Edna and Walter Schuessler lived.

Martin died in 1959;  Emma died in 1977.  Here is their gravestone in the Lutheran Cemetery in Alva, Oklahoma.

Not long ago, Walther and Edna Schuessler’s son visited our museum.  It is always special for us to be able to welcome people from far away who have ties to East Perry County.