I took a different approach today.  Instead of looking for a story that corresponds with today’s date, I chose to highlight a donation that our museum recently received.  And yet, despite that approach, I still managed to find a trivial connection to today’s date.

The donations we received are photographs from a Boehme family, so before I get any further, let me say a little about how that name is pronounced.  When I lived in Minnesota, there were some Boehme’s located nearby, and they pronounced their name using two syllables, and they would say their name was Boe-Mee.  Local folks will not have to be told this, but around here, the name Boehme is pronounced using just one syllable as if it rhymed with “name’.  Thus, the title to this post.

When you enter the research library in our museum these days, you will be confronted with the two framed photos shown below.  I have included some beer mugs that are under these pictures to give you an idea of just how big these photos are.

The donation of these two photos came from the George Fiehler family.  George Fiehler was a grandson of the two persons in these frames.  The two people in the photos were passengers aboard ships that were part of the Gesellschaft in 1839.

The woman on the left is Ernestine Schlimpert.  She was the daughter of Christian Gottfried and Johanna Christiane (Poppitz) Schlimpert.  She was born on August 15, 1835.  We see her family on the passenger list from the ship, Copernicus.  Ernestine is shown as being just 3 years old.

The man in the right framed picture is Charles Boehme.  He was the son of Wilhelm August and Johanna Christiane (Weineck) Boehme.  He was born on December 22, 1832.  Charles came to America aboard the Republik.  Below is his passenger list.  Charles was just 5 years old.

We find a few similarities between these two characters.  First, both of them have mothers by the name of Johanna Christiane.  Second, both Charles and Ernestine lost their fathers almost immediately after arriving in America.  Charles lost his father before his family even came to Perry County.  He died in St. Louis in early 1839.  Ernestine lost her father in May of 1840.  The story of her father’s death was told in the post, Early Schlimpert Deaths.  Both of the mothers remarried.  Ernestine’s mother married Gottfried Schmidt.  We find Ernestine living in the Schmidt household in the 1850 census for Brazeau Township.

Charles’s mother married John Darnstaedt.  I told that story just about a month ago.  It was titled, Seelitz Sweethearts.  So Charles was one of those children who spent much of his childhood growing up in the Darnstaedt Cabin.  We find Charles in the Darnstaedt household in 1850.

On November 1, 1855, Charles married Ernestine at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.  A civil record of this marriage is shown below.

We find this Boehme couple in the 1860 census for Altenburg.  They had two children, and Charles was a cabinet maker.

Here is where we find a connection to April 14th.  Living in the Boehme household was a young man by the name of Henry Jacob.  He was part of a triple wedding that took place on April 14, 1864 at Trinity.  That story was told in the post, Three in One at Trinity.  Three Kramer siblings were married on the same day, and one of them married Henry Jacob.

Charles Boehme enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War.  He started out as a sergeant, but by the time the war was over, he had the rank of captain.  Here is a document showing his service.

This Boehme couple had 11 children.  Only 3 of them were boys.  Several of the children died right away.  The 1870 census shows this Boehme household.  Charles was a carpenter.

Charles and Ernestine had property on the west end of the village of Altenburg.  Although by 1915 Charles had died, a plat map made in that year shows a parcel of property labeled as Mrs. E Boehme.

Even farther west, we find a few more parcels of land owned by Chas A Boehme.  That was one of the sons of this Charles Boehme.

Charles A. Boehme married Susanna Grosse, a daughter of John Grosse, who was a neighbor.

Charles died in 1899.  A Trinity death record says he died from liver suffering.  The death record indicates he would have been buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, but no gravestone is found on Findagrave.com.

Ernestine is found in the 1900 census as a widow.

Ernestine died in 1919.  She was buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, and in her case, we do have a photo of her gravestone.

Let’s return to the two framed photos.  Below are closeup views of them.  First, here is Ernestine.

Next is Charles.

These images are a combination of a photograph and a drawing, with an artist embellishing the photograph with charcoal, I believe.  They are very high quality images.

Not only are the photographs impressive, so are the frames.  Take a look at these photos with their frames.

I suppose it is rather appropriate that a carpenter/cabinet maker would have high quality wood frames.

Just one more final comment.  When I am sitting at the computer where I work at the museum, I see Charles staring at me.  I am always reminded of that episode from the Andy Griffith Show which takes place in a haunted house.  I think Charles’s eyes are following me every time I move just like the photograph in that TV episode.