Today would have been Paul and Edna Heise’s 95th wedding anniversary.  This couple was married at Zion Lutheran Church in Crosstown, Missouri.  Yesterday’s Weibrecht family were also members of that church.  I do not often find stories from this congregation, but in this case, I found two in a row.

Paul Heise has an interesting story that intersects with the Kirmse and Hacker families, and even has a family history that intersects with some original Gesellschaft immigrants who were later living in Baltimore.  Paul was born on December 7, 1899 and baptized at another Zion Lutheran Church, the one in Longtown.  When you look at the Zion, Longtown history, you will find both the Heise and Hacker names on the list of charter members.  In fact, you can find this paragraph in that history.

The William Heise mentioned here married Andrew Hacker’s daughter in 1898.  It was the second marriage to be conducted at this congregation.  The first two brides at Zion were Hacker women.

William and Emilie Heise would later have a son named Paul, who was mentioned at the beginning of this story.  However, I want to go back a few generations.  Just where did this Heise name originate?  Well, it goes back to Baltimore in the 1860’s.  Andreas Heise came to America in 1863 at the age of 19 aboard the Albert, which landed in Baltimore, Maryland.  Here is his passenger list.

After he landed in Baltimore, Andreas must have managed to find the Lutheran church at which Rev. E.G.W. Keyl was the pastor.  Rev. Keyl was part of the 1839  Gesellschaft and the first pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna.  Sometime before 1867, Andreas Heise married Anna Keyl, one of Pastor Keyl’s daughters.  Anna was the daughter of Rev. Keyl and his second wife, Katharine Popp.  Andreas and Anna’s first child, Gerhardt, was born in Baltimore in 1867, not long after the Civil War.

This 1870 census shows Andreas and Anna Heise living in Frohna, Missouri.

Anna had been born in Frohna in 1844 when her father was still pastor at the church there.  Now, after marrying Andreas Heise, she was returning to her place of birth.  Her husband was a cooper.  The 3-year-old in this census (Jere) was Gerhardt, but it mistakenly says he was born in Missouri.  Below is his confirmation record from Concordia that states he was born in Baltimore.

I will add here that Anna Keyl had a half-brother, Ernst Daniel Keyl, who was the son of Rev. Keyl and his third wife, Amalie Vogel.  E.D. Keyl became a Lutheran teacher and served the school in Wittenberg, Missouri from 1877-1880.  So I know of two of Pastor Keyl’s children who came back to Perry County later in their lives after spending much of their early lives in Baltimore.

Wilhelm Heise was born in 1875.  I was having trouble finding the baptism records for several Heise children.  Their baptism records are not shown under the Heise name in our German Family Tree.  I eventually solved this problem.  You can see the issue in Susanna Heise’s baptism record below.  She was born in 1870.

As you can see, Susanna’s last name is clearly written as Heisser.  In fact, all of the children who were born in Frohna to Andreas and Anna were listed with the surname Heisser.  That is where you find them in our German Family Tree.  Lynn Degenhardt and I have yet another situation to discuss concerning making changes to GFT.

For some reason, William Heise had migrated to the Longtown area by the end of the 19th century.  Let’s return to William and his wife, Emilie (Hacker) Heise.  On December 7, 1899, not long before the turn of the century, their first child was born, a boy by the name of Paul Andrew Heise.  His baptism record from Zion, Longtown is shown below.

On August 31, 1902, another son was born by the name of Eugene Alfred Heise.  Here is his baptism record from the same church.

In 1903, William Heise died.  He is buried in the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Longtown.

On June 23, 1907, Paul’s mother married again.  Her second husband was August Carl Kirmse.  They, too, were married at Zion Lutheran Church in Longtown.  I have no photograph of Wilhelm Heise, but I have this wedding photo of Carl and Emilie Kirmse.

After Emilie married Carl, we find them living in the Salem Township near Crosstown.  This couple had two children, one of which died right away.  These two babies were baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar, but when the only Kirmse daugther living was confirmed, that took place at Zion Lutheran Church in Crosstown.

When Paul filled out his World War I draft registration, it said he was working for his step-father.

The 1920 census shows this listing for the Kirmse family.  By all rights, Paul and Eugene should be listed with the surname Heise.

My best guess is that the Kirmse farm, and later the Heise farm, was located where the red box is indicated on this map.

Finally, we get to the marriage that took place on this day in 1923.  Paul Heise married Edna Stueve at Zion Lutheran Church in Crosstown.  Edna was the daughter of John and Mary (Bess) Stueve.  Forgive me, but I am not going to go into much detail on the Stueve connection in this story.  We have a Stueve family binder in our museum that is over 800 pages long.  Paul and Edna can be found in two paragraphs on page 222.  I don’t have the time to delve into the Stueve labyrinth today.

Paul and Edna had three children.  Paul was a farmer all his life.  A family story says their home outside Crosstown never had running water or electricity.  Paul and Edna must have spent their final years in Perryville because they are buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery there.  Paul died in 1976; Edna died in 1978.

I found a few interesting photos connected with this story.  I am going to share these photos of children in the Heise/Kirmse family.  First, here is a photo of Paul and his brother, Eugene.

Next, we have their half-sister, Amanda Kirmse.

In closing, I want to mention that there is a Dr. Rev. Matt Heise, who is the executive director of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation.  Recently, the pastor at Concordia, Frohna, Rev. Rod Benkendorf, took a call to be a part of that ministry.  I would like to know if Rev. Heise is a descendant from the Perry County Heise’s.  If he is, he can trace his ancestry back to one of the original pastors of the Lutheran Church/Missouri Synod.  Considering the name of the organization for which he works now, that would be very appropriate.