Yesterday’s story was about Anton G. Meister.  Today, we start with his father, Anton F. Meister.  Anton arrived in America in December of 1860.  We find him coming to this country all by himself aboard the Anna Delius.  He was 20 years old at the time.  He was born on October 22, 1840 in Germany.  This is the passenger list showing Anton arriving in New Orleans.

Anton arrived at the time when the United States was about to fight a war with itself.  Not even two years after his arrival, he was enlisting to fight for the Union in the Civil War.  This is a document showing his enlistment.

On August 3, 1866, Anton married Gabriele Hopfer.  There are only two angels that are given names in the Bible, Michael and Gabriel.  Gabriele is a feminine form of Gabriel.  Gabriele was the daughter of Michael and Justine (Quaas) Hopfer.  Maybe Michael wanted a daughter that carried the name of the other named angel.  She was the 7th of 12 children shown in our German Family Tree for the Michael Hopfer family.  Michael Hopfer was the main character in the post, Cooper Hopfer.  Gabriele was born on October 30, 1846 and baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown.

Anton and Gabriele were married at Grace Lutheran Church.  This is their civil marriage record for Perry County.

There are 13 children listed in our German Family Tree for this couple.  The first 7 children were baptized at Grace Lutheran in Uniontown.  The remaining children were baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells.  The oldest child, Lydia, died in 1879.  I mistakenly said yesterday that there were no death records for any of these children, but there is one in the Grace Lutheran books for Lydia.  In 1881, twin sons, Arthur and William, were born. This is their baptism record from Immanuel, New Wells.

As was noted in yesterday’s post, Anton was the postmaster in Shawneetown, Missouri in 1885.  Then in 1886, the last children born into this Meister family was a set of triplets, two girls and a boy.  Here is their baptism record.

In the 1900 census, we find Anton and Gabriele living in Capps Creek, Missouri, where Anton was a farmer.  Five children were living with them, including the two girls of the triplets.

It was a rare thing for triplets to survive very long in those days.  The fact that two out of these three triplets lived into adulthood is rather amazing.  Martha married a man who was a newspaper salesman in Capps Creek and Springfield, Missouri over the years.  Alma married Frank Speaker, who was discussed in yesterday’s blog.  He was a plumber in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

I find it interesting that the Meister children ended up in clusters around the country.  As was stated yesterday, several Meisters lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  I found two more living in Muskogee, Oklahoma for a while.  Several other boys ended up as farmers in Capps Creek, Missouri.  We even find a few of them dying in the San Antonio, Texas vicinity.

A plat map shows a piece of land near Pioneer, Missouri being owned by A.F. Meister.  That map is dated 1909.

Here is a present-day map of the area of Missouri that includes Capps Creek, Pioneer, and Purdy, Missouri.

Yesterday, I showed this census for 1910 showing Anton and Gabriele living in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  That situation is a little puzzling.

We do know that Anton and Gabriele were back in Capps Creek for the 1920 census.

Anton F. Meister died in 1923; Gabriele Meister died in 1934.  They are both buried in the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery in Purdy, Missouri.

While looking for information about the Meister children, I discovered that several of them, including a number of boys, had a bunch of children.  There must be plenty of Meisters from this family still walking the face of the earth.  There are 20 burials in the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery that include the name Meister.