Our story today starts in Austria with a wedding.  The marriage took place on May 7, 1833.  The record for this wedding comes out of a family book that we have at our museum for the Meyr clan who originated in Austria and settled in the New Wells area.  However, the marriage we start with today is the one where Joseph Litzelfelner was the groom and Anna Neubacher was the bride.  It was 20 years and 7 children later that this family came to America and settled in the New Wells area.

This Litzelfelner family came to the United States in October of 1853 aboard the Leontine which landed at New Orleans.  Here is the passenger list that shows this family.

The patriarch of the family, Joseph, is shown as being 50 years old at the time of his immigration with the occupation of mason.  The 1860 census would show him as a farmer, but this 1870 census shows Joseph once again as a stone mason at the age of 67 when he was a widower and living with one of his sons, Andrew.

In the early days of the Lutheran church in the New Wells vicinity, there was a controversy over the doctrine of millennialism which caused a split in the church.  For a while there was a church which called itself the New Jerusalem Church.  Even the name of the church indicates a belief in that doctrine.  That church established a cemetery between New Wells and Pocahontas, and several of the Litzelfelners are buried there.  I visited that cemetery a few years ago and took a few photos of some of the gravestones.  I just so happened to get a few of the stones in the Litzelfelner family.  I am out of town, so I could not return there to get all the photos I wish to have shown.  Some of the Litzelfelner gravestones in that cemetery can also be found on Findagrave.com.

Anna died in 1860, and Joseph died in 1874.  Here is a photo of Joseph Litzelfelner’s gravestone.

I do not have a photo of Anna’s gravestone.  Another gravestone that I happened to photograph was one of Joseph’s daughters, Anna, who would later marry a man by the name of Johann Adam Amos.  Here is Anna’s gravestone in the New Jerusalem Cemetery.

The oldest son in Joseph’s family was named Andrew.  Andrew served in the military during the Civil War.  Here are some of the records showing his service to the Union Army.  The first one shows Andrew as a private in Captain Charles Weber’s unit.  Andrew apparently got sick when he was at Camp Greason.

Later, Andrew would serve as part of Captain Tacke’s unit and had the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

Finally, this pension record from that war shows his service.  This record shows that he served for 4 years.

Before he went off to war, Andrew married Eva Marie Meyr in November of 1855.  Here is their marriage record.

The pastor who performed this wedding, Rev. Lehmann, was probably the pastor who was involved in the split from the church in New Wells.  He is listed as the pastor in New Wells from 1855-1856, but his successor at that church was Rev. Christoph Loeber, who was also pastor in Frohna, and was definitely not a believer in millennialism.

Eva died in 1898 and is also buried in the New Jerusalem Cemetery.  Here is her gravestone.

Andrew died in 1911.  Since he died after 1910, we have his death certificate.

It is interesting to note that this certificate says Andrew was born on May 10, 1833, which would have been three days after his parents’ marriage.  However, our German Family Tree indicates he was born on May 10, 1834.  We also see on this form that he is said to have been buried in “New House” Cemetery, not the New Jerusalem Cemetery.  This cemetery may have been referred to by different names over the years.  Here is Andrew’s gravestone in that cemetery.

It is not often that you see a curved inscription on a gravestone like you see on this one.

The oldest child in the Andrew Litzelfelner family was another Joseph Litzelfelner.  He is recorded as being a judge in Cape Girardeau County for a while.  He and his wife are buried in the Apple Creek Cemetery in Pocahontas, Missouri.

There were quite a few Litzelfelners who came from Joseph and Anna’s family.  There are still several to be found around here to this day.  I do not have any photographs of people today, but plenty of stones found in cemeteries.  I guess that is appropriate for the patriarch of this family who was a stone mason.