A few days ago, I wrote a post titled, Frohna Fischers.  That story highlighted the lives of Ferdinand and Martha (Weinhold) Fischer.  One of the main characters of today’s story will be one of their daughters, Susanna Fischer.  She was married on July 14, 1887.  As the previous post’s title indicates, she was a Frohna Fischer.  However, she managed to find her husband in Altenburg.  Of course, you could also make the point that her husband, Fred Koestering, found his wife in Frohna.  What makes this even more interesting is that during the growing up years for these two, Fred’s father was the pastor at both Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg and Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna from 1864-1877.

Fred’s parents were Rev. Johann Friedrich and Louise (Boese) Koestering.  Here are photos of those two.

Fred had been born in 1862 when his father was a young pastor serving in Indiana.  It was when Fred was 25 years old and Susanna was 21 years old when these two were married at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg with Fred’s father performing the ceremony. This was the last year of Rev. Koestering’s service in Altenburg.  Here is their marriage license.

This marriage license says that not only was Susanna from Frohna, but so was Fred.  In this 1880 census, we find Fred listed as an apprentice miller.

Perhaps Fred was learning the milling trade in Frohna where the Weinhold family ran a large flour mill.

Our German Family Tree has records for eight children born into this Koestering family.  However, when their youngest child, Eleonora, was not even one year old, Susanna died of pneumonia in 1905.  Fred would never remarry.

In another previous blog titled, Koestering Store, the story was told about the store run by Fred in Altenburg.  Here is a photo showing Fred standing on the porch in front of his store.

This store was located where the Altenburg City Hall and Fire Department are now located.  The house where the Koesterings lived can be seen next to the store in the background.  Here is another photo of that house.

In this photo taken later in his life, we see several of the Koestering children.

Three of Fred’s daughters are shown in this photo.  Susan is the girl in the middle of the back row.  In the front, Martha is on the left, and Eleonora is on the right.

In 1927, Eleonora Koestering got married.  Like her father, she would also marry a Fischer.  Her husband was Theodore Fischer, who was the doctor in Altenburg for many, many years.  According to my reckoning, Eleanora and Theodore were second cousins.  Here is the marriage license for Eleonora and Theodore.

Sadly, Eleonora would die of cancer in 1956 at the age of 52.  This couple would have four children.  Then in 1960, Dr. Fischer married one of Eleonora’s cousins, Anita Koestering.

In this photo showing a Koestering family reunion, Dr. Fischer is standing in the middle of the photo.  I have added an arrow to point him out.

This group is standing in front of the old Koestering Store.

Fred Koestering managed to get connected to the Fischer family through his marriage.  The Fischers had connections to stores in both Frohna and Altenburg.  Meanwhile, Fred’s father was the pastor in both these villages and was involved in the building of the two church sanctuaries that are still used in these towns to this day.

Some of the information I used in this post came from a book that we have in our research library which was put together by Kathryn Klosterman Miesner, who is also related to this family through Dr. Fischer’s second wife, who was previously married to a Klosterman.  Here is the cover of that book.

My thanks go out to Kathy Miesner for her resource which I have found very useful on several occasions.