I am going to tell a story today that fits in with a recurring theme in the annals of East Perry County history. The theme is as follows: “Get married; leave town.” I have found quite a few of these types of stories especially among those who got married right about the time of World War I. Today is yet another one of those. It involved a Farrar groom and a Frohna bride.
Albert Schlichting and Sarah Bergt were married on February 11, 1917 at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. Below is the church record for that event.
Albert was the son of John and Mary (Stueve) Schlichting. He was born on May 12, 1892 and baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar. This is his baptism record.
Sarah was the daughter of Julius and Emma (Noennig) Bergt and baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. Below is her baptism record.
We also have this marriage license for Albert and Sarah’s 1917 wedding.
Today would have been their 102nd wedding anniversary. In a previous post, the story was told about Sarah’s brother, Otto Bergt, getting married. It was titled, Yet Another Photograph Story. The photograph below was featured in that story, and I have placed a red arrow to indicate the person I think is Sarah.
In that story, it was told that after this wedding, which took place in 1912, Otto and his bride, Paula, moved to Cheyenne County, Nebraska, not long after their marriage. Now we get to Albert and Sarah’s wedding in 1917. It must not have taken long after they were married for them to move to the same location in Nebraska. We find Albert filling out this World War I draft registration on which he is listed as living in Cheyenne County, Nebraska and working as a farmer.
The 1920 census shows Albert and Sarah listed right above Otto Bergt’s family in Davison Township, Nebraska.
I found a land ownership map from 1945 that shows the land farmed by Albert Schlichting.
You can see that he and Otto Bergt were neighbors. There are also some other Perry County names on this map, such as Aurich and Poppitz.
Albert and Sarah had five children. The 1930 census shows four of them. This image shows not only the Schlichtings, but also several other folks from Perry County….Aurichs, Bergts, Muellers.
Then in 1940, we find the family living in Sidney, Nebraska where Albert was operating a produce company.
Albert’s World War II draft card has him still living in Sidney.
The youngest son in this family was another Albert, which makes it somewhat trickier to keep the two straight in some other documents I found. The son, Albert, became a Lutheran teacher and administrator. I found this photo of him in a Concordia, Seward yearbook.
In the 1950’s, we find Teacher Schlichting at a Lutheran school in Sparks, Nevada, which is very near Reno. It must have been while he was there that his parents must have also moved to that city. We find Albert and Sarah in a city directory for Reno in 1957 with him shown as being a janitor. Another son, Gilbert, was also living in Reno.
A few Reno newspapers carried stories that included the Schlichtings. First, take a look at this one from 1962. Albert is shown to be an elder as well as a janitor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Sparks. Gilbert is mentioned also in leadership roles.
If we skip back to an earlier time, we find Teacher Schlichting in the same newspaper in 1952. He was principal at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church and is here shown as a director of a choir.
If Interstate 80 had been built back in the 1950’s, Albert would have been able to take it from his previous home near Potter, Nebraska all the way to Reno, Nevada.
Sarah died in 1967 in Sparks, Nevada. I was unable to locate a burial site. After her death, we find her husband living in Denver, Colorado. Here is a Denver city directory.
Both Albert and his son were living in that city. Teacher Schlichting was serving Faith Lutheran School. Albert died in 1979 in Denver. I also was unable to find his place of burial.
The story of Albert and Sarah Schlichting is yet another one that tells of a Perry County Lutheran couple that went on to live in several other parts of the country. It is also yet another story which includes a full time church worker coming out of such a family.
