Josephine Bruhl is today’s birthday girl.  She was born on January 20, 1866 in Shawnee Township, Missouri.  She was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells.  She was the daughter of Johann and Elizabeth (Lehner) Bruhl.

Josephine’s father, Johann, arrived in America in 1853.  He was aboard the ship, Hindu, which landed in Baltimore.  He came from Austria, like so many others who settled in the New Wells area.

Johann was shown to be a messerschmied, or cutler (knifesmith) on this passenger list.  However, once he was in this country, he became a farmer.  In 1858, he married Elizabeth Lehner.  She was just 17 years old when she was married.  The 1860 census shows Johann and Elizabeth with several other members in their household.

There are other Lehner siblings in this household, as well as Elizabeth’s mother.  Stories have been previously written about some of these Lehner’s.  Josephine Bruhl first shows up in the 1870 census, where we find the Bruhl family living in the Apple Creek Township.

Between 1870 and 1880, Johann and Elizabeth moved their family to the Frohna area.  Josephine was confirmed at Concordia Lutheran Church in the spring of 1879.  We see the Bruhl family in this 1880 census from Brazeau Township.

What makes this census even more interesting is that Josephine’s future husband can be found not far above her name.  He was Theodor Palisch, the 15 year old in the Julia Palisch household.  Julia was a widow because her husband, Ernst, had died in 1876.

On May 6, 1888, Josephine and Theodore were married at Concordia Lutheran Church.  This is their marriage license.

The Palisch’s had three children.  Then in 1896, Theodor died leaving Josephine a widow.  The 1900 census shows her living with her three sons.

In 1902, Josephine found another Frohna fellow (or a Frohna fellow found her).  She married again on June 22, 1902.  Her second husband was Andreas Hilpert.  Below is their marriage license.

Andreas had also been married previously.  His first wife was Anna Ross, who had died in 1898.  When his second marriage took place, he had seven living children.  If you add Josephine’s three to that, you probably had a very full household right after this wedding.  In 1903, another child was born, but that child died after just two days.

Josephine died in 1918; Andreas died in 1924.  Josephine was buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna, but Andreas was buried in the St. Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery in Wittenberg.

One of Josephine’s sons, Ernst Palisch, was the main focus of a previous post titled, Tales from a Palisch Picture.  Ernst’s family can be seen in this photograph.

Those of you passing through Frohna these days may see the house in the background.  It is located next to the East Perry Pub.

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Today’s excerpt from Teacher Winter’s journal.  January 20, 1839

“On Sunday, the 20th, we saw the first ice since we left Europe.”