There is a birthday for today’s story, but it is not for the individual mentioned in the title. Today’s birthday girl is Pauline Ernestine Jacob who was born on March 18, 1844. She was the daughter of Michael and Marie (Hopfer) Jacob, who were two of the original immigrants that were part of the Gruber Group. She had an older brother, Heinrich, who came with that group as a baby. We claim Heinrich was the last of the original immigrants to die. Heinrich’s story is told in the post, Which of the Original Immigrants Was the Last to Die? Part 2.
Ernestine was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. Below is her baptism record (in two images).
Ernestine’s future husband would not arrive in America until 1867. We find Herman Etzold arriving in New York aboard the ship, Stella, in that year. Here is his name on the passenger list. According to this list, Herman was 30 years old when he arrived, and as near as I can tell, he was the original Etzold to show up in this area.
About two years after Herman arrived, he married Ernestine Jacob on November 17, 1869 at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. Here is the church record for that marriage.
There is also the civil record of their marriage shown below.
What is interesting about this record is that whoever wrote this document wrote Herman’s surname as Petzold, not Etzold. The surname, Petzoldt, is a common name around here.
Even though this marriage took place in Uniontown, it appears that Herman was a farmer near Farrar, Missouri. When this couple had children, they were baptized at Salem Lutheran Church. Here is the baptism record of their firstborn, a girl named Martha. She was born in 1871.
The only other child born to this couple was a son named Martin, born in 1874. Here is his baptism record from Salem.
We find the Etzold family living in the Salem Township in the 1880 census.
I have highlighted Martha Etzold in this entry, along with her future husband, Henry Soehl. They must have been close neighbors. Those two were married in 1894.
Martin Etzold married Bertha Selma Stueve in 1898. Then in 1904, Herman Etzold died. In his church death record, it appears that the cause of his death had something to do with stomach problems. I can tell the word in the fourth box from the left begins with “magen” but the end is puzzling to Gerard and me.
Herman was buried in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Farrar, Missouri.
In the 1920 census, we find Ernestine living in Salem Township with her son, Martin’s, family. She was then 75 years old.
In this land map produced in 1915, we can see where the Etzold farm was located.
Sometime before 1925, Martin and Selma, along with Martin’s mother, moved to Kansas not far from Sylvan Grove. We find them in this 1925 Kansas state census. Ernestine was then 81 years old.
I am guessing that there might have been two “magnets” that drew the Etzolds to Kansas. First of all, Ernestine’s brother, Heinrich Jacob, was still living there where he once had a son who was the pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Sylvan Grove. Secondly, Selma was a Stueve, and there were Stueve’s who had settled in the Sylvan Grove area also.
Ernestine died in 1929 at the age of 85. She was buried in the Bethlehem Lutheran Cemetery in Sylvan Grove.
One of Herman and Ernestine’s grandsons, another Herman Etzold, one of Martin’s children, was a Lutheran pastor. He was also the Dean of Students at Concordia, Ft. Wayne, Indiana for a while. I found this photo of Herman Etzold while he was in Ft. Wayne.
When the Etzold’s moved to Kansas, their oldest son, Alfred, stayed behind. He had married Bertha Hadler in 1923.
When Herman Etzold arrived in 1867, he was alone, so he was the only one around with the surname, Etzold. In the next generation, Martin was the only son, so it was only his children that would carry the Etzold name to the next generation. After the Etzold’s moved, there was only one son left here to carry on the Etzold name in Perry County. We still have Etzold’s around, and they must have come from Alfred Etzold. Many people near here know the Etzold name because there is an Etzold Meat Processing business located near Perryville. That is why I chose today’s title. Premier was as close as I could come to the “first” or “the prime cut of beef” Etzold.
In February of 2020, my husband, Richard, and I bought the property (and section of land) near Sylvan Grove, Kansas. Both Richard and I grew up in Lincoln county, but I grew up going to school in Sylvan, and he went to school in Lincoln. I have attended Bethlehem Lutheran Church my whole life. I remember Erich Etzold when I was little in church. I don’t remember much, but I do know he was a quiet bachelor. I was looking through history books at church during our annual pancake day and found a picture of Erich and my father.
Thank you for this piece of history. It makes me feel like I know the family a little better. I did meet Erich’s two great-nephews from Missouri by chance at the property as they were there to pick up a few things before closing on the property. Wonderful people and full of history about the place. I’m still trying to find more history on the original homesteaders of the property!
Warren, My guess is the death cause for Herman is “Magenentzündung or Stomach inflammation”. Not sure if this is an example of poor penmanship or spelling. Wayne
This article was of special interest because of family connections. Rev. Herman Etzold and his wife, Mabel Marie Traugott Etzold lived in the Seward NB area during their final days on earth. Rev. Etzold departed this life on July 19, 2003. Mrs. Etzold, whose childhood home was Cole Camp MO, departed this life on June 28, 2013.