The wedding day for August Theodore Lichtenegger and Ottilie Meyr was March 28, 1910.  Their wedding photo is shown here.

Before I get any farther, let me describe the beginnings of the bride and the groom.  Ottilie Meyr was the first to be born.  She was born on March 7, 1888 in the New Wells area of North Cape Girardeau County.  Her parents were Gustav Adolph and Clara Louise (Scholl) Meyr.  Ottilie was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells.

About a year and a half after Ottilie was born, August Theodore Lichtenegger was born on October 5, 1889.  He was the son of Joseph and Anna Maria (Pilz) Lichtenegger.  A fairly recent post titled, The Pioneer Lichtenegger, told the story of August’s parents.  August was baptized at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Pocahontas, Missouri.  We do not have images of the original church records for that congregation in our museum, so I cannot show that baptism record.  What we do have is a rather early photo of August, possibly his confirmation picture.

The earliest census in which we find August was the one taken in 1900.  He was 10 years old and attending school in Shawnee Township.

As mentioned below, August married Ottilie in 1910.  They were married at Ottilie’s church, Immanuel Lutheran in New Wells.  Here is their marriage record from that congregation’s books.

Apparently, the 1910 census was gathered after this wedding took place because we find August and Ottilie together in that document.  He is listed right below his brother, Fred.  Both Fred and August are recorded as being blacksmiths.

During the time when August lived in Shawnee Township, he participated in a group called the Jolley Boys Band.  Another post in the past that was about this band was titled, The Jolley Boys.  I have three photos of that band.  One was shown in that previous post (and I will put another one in a gallery of photos later).  Below is yet another photo of that band.  August is identified by the initials A.T. above a trombone player.

In 1917, August filled out his World War I draft registration, and it said he was a merchant in Dutchtown, Missouri.

The 1920 census also documents August’s presence in Dutchtown.  By then, he and Ottilie had 3 sons.

I do not think August was in Dutchtown much longer after 1920 because several photos that I will share later were taken in the 1920’s and showed August and his business in Cape Girardeau.  The rest of the census entries we can see show August having a business on William Street and a home on Hanover St.  Those two streets intersect and that is where the Lichtenegger’s lived and operated their business.  Their house was right behind their store.

Their store was a neighborhood grocery market.  It started out as one of those establishments that had an entrance on the corner.  We see an early picture of it here.

The store was remodeled in 1929.  After that work was done, the store looked like this:

The Red & White Company began in 1925 and was headquartered in Chicago.  The stores were still independently owned, but the Red & White Company helped provide the food to put on the shelves.  Those were the days before the advent of supermarkets.

August and Ottilie had four children, three boys and a girl.  We see the whole family in this photo.

We can find several Lichtenegger names in this 1937 Cape Girardeau city directory.  All of the children are shown here….Otto, Wilmer, Melvin, and Helen.

Ottilie died in 1967; August died in 1977.  I do not have August’s obituary, but I do have Ottilie’s.

A quick note:  I shook my head when I read this document.  I could not find any reference in this obituary to the name Ottilie.  I don’t know how it could ever happen that someone’s obituary could get written without the deceased’s first name.

In another obituary I read of their son, Melvin, it said he was the proprietor of a grocery store in nearby Jackson, Missouri.

August and Ottilie are both buried in the Cape County Memorial Park in Cape Girardeau.

 

I want to give a shoutout today to Diane Anderson.  She is a descendant from Joseph and Anna Maria Lichtenegger and also an outstanding researcher.  Many of her photos shown in this post are from her Ancestry.com family history.  She is also a great friend of our museum.

I have so many photos that I want to show that I need to put some of them in a gallery to conserve space.  The thumbnails in this gallery can be clicked to enlarge.