What can I say? I never know what I’m going to find when looking for a story in our German Family Tree. I looked for events that happened on April 1st…which this year happens to also be Easter…and I found the birthday for Charles Egeling. That’s right, at least this year, he would be an Easter Egeling birthday boy.
Charles never lived in Perry County, but he did manage to find his wife here and was married here. Therefore, he shows up in the German Family Tree. He was born on April 1, 1869. The only fact I could find about his parents was that his father was also named Charles. I also could not find him definitively in any census, although there was an August Eggling in a St. Louis census in 1880 who was the right age.
On June 28, he married Amalia Grother at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Here is their marriage license.
The Immanuel church record for this marriage says that Charles was a brewer in St. Louis. Amalia was the daughter of Johann and Emilie Grother. The Grother family was originally part of a small number of people who became known as the St. Louis Group. They were folks who were already in St. Louis when the 1839 immigrants arrived. They were ones who decided to join the Gesellschaft and move to Perry County. Amalia was born on June 7, 1872 and baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church. By the way, Amalia’s father, Johann Grother, was confirmed on April 1, 1860.
It appears that Charles took his new bride with him back to St. Louis. That is where this couple lived for the rest of their lives. Over the years, Charles was involved in several different occupations. In the 1900 census, he is listed as a manager at F.P. Highland.
This 1899 city directory for St. Louis shows Charles as a storekeeper and living in Forest Park Highlands.
Then in the next census in 1910, we find that Charles is operating a saloon.
The census of 1920 has him in an entirely different kind of occupation. He apparently became involved in the telegraph business.
The last census in which he is found (1930) shows that he continued in that business.
In 1921, Amalia traveled back to Altenburg to help celebrate her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. The photo below was taken on that occasion. Amalia is shown with the red arrow.
The Egelings had two children…both boys. One also had the name Charles; the other was Walter. Neither of their boys are in the above photo. Charles died in 1936. He died on February 2nd. That’s right. He died on Ground Hog’s Day. Here is his death certificate.
Amalia died in 1943. Here is her death certificate.
These two were buried together in the St. Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in St. Louis, along with their son, Walter. Here is their gravestone. This is the only place I found Amalia’s name spelled as Amelia.
I guess you could say that most young people went searching for Easter eggs this morning. This old man, however, ended up searching for Easter Egelings…and found some.