Today would have been the 155th birthday of Anna (Kuehnert) Noennig. I have written a previous post about the Noennig family which included Anna. It was titled, Apples and Appliances. However, in that article, almost all the attention went to the men in the family. Today, I hope to focus on Anna, the matriarch of a pretty impressive family.
Anna Kuehnert was born on January 26, 1863 and baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. I find it interesting that one of her baptismal sponsors was my great grandfather, Gottwerth Schmidt. Anna was the daughter of Christian and Elizabeth (Seim) Kuehnert.
On October 20, 1885, Anna married Gottfried Noennig at Trinity Lutheran Church. One must not get confused when looking at men with the name Gottfried Noennig. There were two Gottfried Noennigs who were in the list of original immigrants, one a senior, and one a junior. Anna’s groom was the next in line, but he had a different middle name, Gottfried Paul Noennig. He was the ninth and last child of Gottfried and Rosine (Poppitz) Noennig. His birthday was November 29, 1858. He was also baptized at Trinity.
According to Zion on the Mississippi, the original Noennigs who arrived in 1839 were assigned property to the south of Altenburg. The arrows on this map show where those parcels of land were located.
The 1915 land atlas which shows ownership of property has Gottfried in a different location. His land can be found north of Altenburg, along what is now called Highway Y. It is shown on this map with a red arrow.
I have also noted with a blue arrow where the Kuehnert land was located in the Seelitz area.
Between 1886 and 1903, the Noennigs had ten children. Only the last one born in 1903 died early, about one month after birth. The 1910 census show Gottfried and Anna still living on the farm outside Altenburg.
This is a photo of the farmhouse on the old homestead.
By 1920, they were living in the town of Altenburg, where they built a home. Here is what that home looks like today.
It was in the town of Altenburg that several of the Noennig children became involved in the numerous businesses described in that previous post. This is a photo showing three Noennig buildings as they appear today.
In the forefront is the old Noennig Appliance Store. Next door was the home of Theodore Noennig. Then you can see the Gottfried Noennig house in the background.
Compare that photo to this old one showing the Noennig Store back in its heyday.
We are also blessed with some other photos which include Anna Noennig. Here are two photos showing the Noennig family in the process of making apple butter.
Anna is doing the stirring. Gottfried is standing with his back to the camera. To the left is Verna Noennig, a granddaughter. In between are Emma Wichern, one of their daughters, and Clara, a daughter-in-law married to Theodore. Verna is wearing a hat with the winged horse which was the logo of Mobil Gasoline.
Another photo apparently taken on the same day is shown below.
In 1935, Gottfried and Anna celebrated their 50th wedding anniversay. Several photos were taken on that occasion. One of those photos was shown in the previous post. Here are a few others. First, we have one taken of just Gottfried and Anna.
We also have this casual shot of several family members sitting around the front porch with Gottfried. I do not see Anna in this photo.
Finally, we have this one which shows Grandma and Grandpa Noennig with the grandchildren that attended their 50th anniversary celebration. If this grandma is anything like the grandma who is my wife, this picture must have been very precious to her.
Gottfried died in 1942; Anna died in 1949. They are both buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg. Here are their gravestones.
Just this branch of the Noennig family takes up four pages in our German Family Tree. What is amazing to me is the fact that there are no more folks with the surname Noennig living around Altenburg anymore.
Grandma Noennig must have been very proud of her family, and she must have been an incredible woman.
My great grandma Martha Scholl owned the Noennig house that had the old store in front, from around 1967 for thirty years or so. Her son Howard built the rock wall out front.
Thanks Warren for this wonderful write-up of the NOENNIG family. I tend to spend too much time collecting the data and not enough time writing up the summaries so you save me a lot of time on this exercise. In fact at the October conference I hope to finish a report on all the land transfers of how they went from the original land Grants up until the last properties they owned in the town. that last picture with the children is all of their grandchildren taken at the 50th anniversary party. For all those who descended from this family, all these people in the pictures are identified in the family history book at Zion roots. Thanks again Warren, for putting together a concise story.