Today’s post really does not have much connection to East Perry County, but I want to write it anyway for a couple reasons.  It will be a story that illustrates how my research often takes me down some side roads.

We start with a confirmation record.  The Salem, Farrar church books say that Anna Wilhelmine Caroline Henrietta Koenemann was confirmed on May 6, 1883.  That record also states that Henrietta’s birthday was November 25, 1870.  She was the daughter of the teacher at that congregation, Dietrich Koenemann.  Her mother was Louisa (Biester) Koenemann.  Teacher Koenemann was at Salem from 1873-1888.  Here is a photo of Teacher Koenemann.

This leads to a side trip.  I found it interesting, especially after a few recent posts, that Teacher Koenemann was married in Joachim Township in Jefferson County, Missouri.  Here is his marriage record.

This record is found in a book which has numerous marriage entries.  Believe me when I tell you that this is the only one that you can possibly read.  This marriage took place on December 9, 1867 and was conducted by Rev. C.R. Riedel.  He was the pastor at the Lutheran church near Otto, Missouri.  If you look at the 1870 census record that includes Pastor Riedel, you find an interesting coincidence.

Right below Rev. Riedel’s family is the Hesse family.  Recently, Cal Eggers discussed at detail how some of the women from this Hesse family married Perry County men.  In that same census you find Dietrich Koenemann living nearby and listed as a school teacher.

Here I went off on another wild goose chase.  I thought I had recalled writing a previous blog post about a Rev. Riedel.  I was right.  That post was titled, Dos Cinco de Mayos.  In that post Rev. Erhardt Riedel married Theresa Gruber, the daughter of the first pastor at Grace, Uniontown, Rev. Carl Gruber.  Was this the same Rev. Riedel?  As I discovered, the answer is “No”.  I am not even sure if that Rev. Riedel is related to the one marrying the Koenemanns in today’s story.  I did manage to track down where these two Rev. Riedels were buried.  One is buried in Concordia Cemetery in St. Louis, and the other is buried in the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Plum Creek Township, Iowa….near Algona.  Here are their gravestones.  I guess you could say that this is definitive proof that they are not the same person.

The Hesse girls started finding Perry County men around 1880.  This Koenemann connection to that same area is one that occurred earlier than that.  It makes me wonder if this is another way that folks from Perry County began being involved with folks in Jefferson County.

Back to Henrietta Koenemann.  I do not know how she got to Colorado, but sometime around 1892 she married Friedrich Mathies in Flagler, Colorado.  Friedrich had been married previously and had several children by his first wife.  We find this Mathies family living in Cornelius, Oregon in the 1900 census.  Cornelius is located near Portland.

This entry shows that Fred and Henrietta had been married for 8 years by the time of the 1900 census.  The first child to come from this marriage was Henry, who was born in Colorado in 1892.  Fred is shown as being a general merchant.  However, sometime in the early 1900’s, it appears that Fred and Henrietta divorced.  She married again, the second time to Julius Picalomini Petersen.  We see Henrietta (Etta) and Julius in the 1910 census in Cornelius.

Two more children have been added to the family, one to her first husband and one to her second husband.  Here is a photo of the only son born to Henrietta and Julius.

Other information in that census indicates that Julius was a painter and Henrietta was a miliner with her own shop.  Here is a photo of Henrietta.

Believe it or not, Julius’s mother had the maiden name, Gruber.  I don’t think she has any connection to the Perry County Grubers though.  Julius came from a family full of many painters.  Many of his brothers were also painters.  Several of them lived in Oregon, even though the oldest ones, including Julius, were born in Kansas.  Julius and Henrietta later would move into the city of Portland.  Henrietta, who was 9 years older than Julius, died in 1940.  Julius died in 1949.  I could not locate where they are buried.  Teacher Koenemann also died in Oregon.

The fact that Henrietta and Fred Mathias married in Flagler, Colorado makes me wonder if their presence in that city may have attracted other Perry County residents to that area later.  We know two Blancken brothers settled there in the 1910’s.  A story was told about them in the post, The Blancken Brood.

I know I was diverted down all kinds of side roads today.  It happens more often than you might think.  Today, I just happened to find some interesting things when I went off the beaten path.  Plus, how can you resist a story with a character that has the name “Picalomini” Petersen?