On this day in 1912, four babies were buried in the Point Rest Cemetery in Perry County, Missouri.  These four babies were born prematurely one day earlier on January 21, 1912.  As far as I can tell, this is the only set of quadruplets that are recorded in any of the church record books from this area of East Perry County.

The parents of these Maisel children were George and Emma (Klobe) Maisel.  George was a farmer in the Menfro, Missouri area.  The Maisel surname shows up in Grace, Uniontown, Peace, Friedenberg, Immanuel, Perryville, and Trinity, Point Rest church records as early as 1843.  George and Emma were married at Peace Lutheran in Friedenberg in 1892.  Here is their marriage license.

The Klobe surname is another one that showed up in the early days of Lutherans settling in Perry County.  We even have one record in our German Family Tree that has a Klobe here in 1838, before the major Lutheran immigration a year later.  We mostly find Klobes in the Friedenberg records.

This couple started having children in 1893.  Their first three children were baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville.  Starting in 1899, records state that their children were baptized in Point Rest, Missouri, but at that point, the congregation had not officially formed yet.  Pastors from Perryville and Farrar were serving the Lutherans in that area.  The first Maisel to show up in the Trinity Lutheran Church, Point Rest church books was Irma Anna Maisel, born in 1904.  By the time the quadruplets were born in 1912, there were nine children born into this family recorded in various church books in the area.

The quadruplets would be the last children born into this family.  The names of the four babies were Anna, Benjamin, Johann, and Josephine.  Some questions arise when you look at the records we have of their births and deaths.  We have transposed records of the Point Rest congregation here in our research library.  Here we see the Maisel baptisms.

I have highlighted the only two of the quadruplets that show up in the baptism records.  One has to wonder why only two of these babies show up in the baptism records.  Another question has to be asked when we look at Missouri death certificates.  Here are the death certificates that I was able to find.

As near as I can tell, Rudolph must have been another name for Johann.  In this transcription of the Point Rest burial records we find this information on the Maisels.  I have highlighted the quadruplets.

I could not find a death certificate for Anna.  That is another puzzling question about this whole situation.

On the day of the burial of the quadruplets, a photo was taken at the cemetery.  It is included in a book published by the Perry County Historical Society about the history of the Menfro area.  Here is that photo and caption.

I would argue that this book has the date wrong for the burial.  The death certificates and the Point Rest records state that this burial took place on January 22, 1912.  The quads are buried in the Point Rest Lutheran Cemetery, but Findagrave.com does not have them listed on their website.

The two boys shown as pallbearers in this photo would both later serve their country in World War I.  Here is the draft registration form for their oldest son, Herman.

This is an image showing his military record.

Their second-oldest son, George Ferdinand, also served.  Here is his draft registration form.

This is his military record.

This son ended up in the same training facility in McArthur, Texas, that Adolph “Audie” Kuehnert had spent time.  Audie’s story was a recent blog post.

George Maisel died in 1948; Emma died in 1952.  They are buried together in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville.  Here is their gravestone.

Before I quit, I wondered who the pastor was that was serving at Trinity, Point Rest when the quadruplets were born.  His name was Rev. Herman H. Norden.  He was at that congregation from 1900 until 1919, when he died after over 40 years in the ministry.  He also is buried in that same cemetery with the quadruplets.  His gravestone is on Findagrave.com.  Here is an image of that gravestone.

Maybe with the advancements that have been made in the medical field, these prematurely born quadruplets might have survived if they were born today.  We do know that such babies did not have much of a chance back in those days, especially in such a rural area.