Ella Fritsche was born on August 17, 1883 in Auerswalde, Germany.

In 1891, she arrived in America with her family.  Here is the passenger list for the Oldenburg which arrived in New York City that year.

It’s a little confusing that Ella is shown as being 6 years old in 1891.  Ella was the daughter of Heinrich and Bertha (Boehme) Fritsche.  These are photos of Ella’s parents.

Heinrich only lived five years in America before he died in 1896.  His oldest son, Max Fritsche took over the farm, which must have been located somewhere near Farrar.  If I have this figured correctly, Max may have come to America a year before the rest of the family arrived.  There was another Fritsche family in Perry County long before this Fritsche family showed up on the scene in the Farrar area.

That leads us up to April 18, 1909 when Ella Fritsche married John Brueckner, also of Farrar.  Here is their wedding photo.

John Brueckner was the son of Henry and Maria Brueckner who arrived in the United States in the 1870’s.  By the time of this marriage, John’s father had already died, so it was only mothers, not fathers, of the brides who attended this wedding.   The Henry and Maria Brueckner family was amazing in the fact that, according to Salem Lutheran church records in Farrar, Maria gave birth to three sets of twins.  Not all of them lived, but it is still quite amazing.  John was not one of the twins.

John was also a farmer.  He owned land in the Farrar neighborhood.  The red arrow on this map shows the Brueckner land.  It is listed under his mother’s name.

In 1918, John filled out this World War I draft registration form.

According to our German Family Tree, John and Ella had four children, one of which died at a very early age.  Ella died of pneumonia in 1946.  John lived another twenty years after that, with his death occurring in 1966.  Both are buried in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Farrar.  Here are their gravestones.