Herman Leimbach was child #9 in a family of 9.  Ida Palisch was child #12 in a family of 12.  Actually, in Ida’s family, there was a child #13, but that child died in infancy, so Ida was basically the baby in the family.  As you likely figured, Herman married Ida, and it is their story that I will attempt to tell today.

Herman is today’s birthday boy.  He was born on January 19, 1879.  He was the son of Paulus and Louise (Schreir) Leimbach.  He was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg.  Below is his baptism record.

In the first census in which we find Herman, we see he is living in quite a large household of Leimbach’s in 1880.  A Leimbach child was born about every two years into this family.

The Leimbach’s lived on The Ridge.  In a previous post, this map was published in 1915 which included several pieces of property in the same vicinity near the Mississippi River which were owned by members of this family (blue arrows).

Two years after Herman was born, a girl by the name of Ida Palisch was born.  She was also baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church.  Her parents were Bernhardt and Louise (Seise) Palisch.  Below is her baptism record.

Most of the Palisch families lived in what was once called the Dresden community to the south and east of Altenburg.  In this 1880 census, we see Ida’s family one year before she was born.

There were 13 children born into this family, but several of them died as infants, including a set of twins that were the topic of the post titled, The Palisch Twins.  When the 13th child was born and died in 1884, the mother, Louise, also died, leaving Bernhardt as a widower with several children.  However, the oldest ones could certainly help with the younger ones.

On October 22, 1905, the babies of these two families were married at Immanuel.  This is their marriage license.

The first census where Herman and Ida are a couple was the 1910 census.  It stated that Herman was a saloon keeper in Altenburg.  There were two children in the family.

Gerard and I discussed this, and our best guess is that Herman may have operated the tavern that was once run by Gabe Lottes, and later by Pete Lueders, known as Pete’s Place.  When Herman filled out the World War I draft registration, he was still living in Altenburg in 1918, but it says he was the proprietor of a light plant.

I was unable to find Herman in a 1920 census, but in 1930, he and his family were living in St. Louis.  He listed his occupation as a machinist with his industry described as “bakers machinery”.

Herman and Ida had two daughters.  There are records that say two other children were born into this family, but they died.  Herman died in 1958 in St. Louis at the age of 79.  This is his death certificate.

Ida died in 1966 at the age of 84.  Here is her death certificate.

The Leimbachs, both babies in their families, came back home.  They were both buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg.

I just cannot end the story here.  That is because I ran across a reference in the Palisch family binder that we have in our research library.  One of the Leimbach’s daughters, Ora, married a man by the name of Robert Mayfield in Washington County, Arkansas in 1939.  I used to live in that county.

The story that got my attention, though, was the fact that Robert Mayfield was killed in a plane crash in India on July 17, 1950.  I found this record of that plane crash in a New York Times story.

Robert was one of the Americans on that flight.  He is buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis.

Herman and Ida were both still living when they found out that their son-in-law was killed in this crash.  It must have been horrible for them to hear about such tragic news.

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For the next week or so, I plan to post entries from Teacher J.J.F. Winter’s journal as he traveled up the Mississippi River aboard the Knickerbocker.  I will also post them on a Facebook group page that I administer called C.F.W. Walther.  Here is the entry I put on that Facebook page today.

180 years ago, the steamboat, Knickerbocker, was making its way up the Mississippi carrying passengers who were part of the 1839 immigration to Perry County, Missouri. Aboard that ship was Teacher J.J.F. Winter, who kept a journal of his trip. Over the next few days, I hope to post his entries for the dates in January that were in this journal. I start today with this entry for January 19, 1839.

“On the 19th, we landed at the city of Vicksburg, where we lay over for a day, as our captain had some merchandise to unload there.”

P.S. It just so happens that the 1839 calendar had the same days of the week corresponding with today’s dates. So the 19th of January in 1839 was also a Saturday.

You can find that Facebook group page at this link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/188418527862273/