I wrote a post about one of today’s characters three years ago, titled The Birth of an Angel, that was 123 words long.  I was in the first year of this blog-writing passion of mine, and I was still very much in the learning process.  I checked this year’s stats for these posts, and my average post this year has been 953 words.  Since that post back in 2016 was so short and contained almost no documents, I decided this story could be revisited.  I also will attack this post from the perspective of a marriage, not a birth.  So here goes.

The two surnames involved in a wedding that took place on this day, Mangels and Miesner, are ones that have shown up in plenty of previous posts.  The wedding anniversary couple for today had Johann (John) Claus Miesner and Engel Sophia Mangels as the bride and groom.  Both of them had their origins at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar, Missouri.  Let’s start with the bride.  She was the one highlighted in the story I wrote back in 2016.

Engel Sophia Mangels (she went by Sophia) was born on April 24, 1881, so when she was married on April 26th, it was just two days after her birthday.  She was the daughter of John and Engel (Mahnken) Mangels and baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar.  Here is her baptism record.

We do not see Sophia in any census records until after she was married in 1900 because she was born after the 1800 census and there is no 1890 census to look at.

John Claus Miesner was born 6 years before Sophia on July 20, 1875.  He was the son of Claus and Margaretha (Ehlers) Miesner.  Like Sophia, he was baptized at Salem Lutheran Church.  Below is his baptism record.

I am going to take a little side trip to discuss John’s father, Claus Miesner.  Claus was married three times.  His first wife was Anna Meier, and he had one child by that marriage.  However, Anna died only about a year after they were married, probably because of childbirth complications.  Claus then married Margaretha Ehlers.  Nine children were born to this couple, including John.  Margaretha died in 1890, and Claus once again got married.   His third wife was Margaretha Rathjen, except this Margaretha had been married to Claus Ehlers.  That means Claus Miesner married two different women with the name, Margaretha Ehlers.  And Claus’s third wife, Margaretha, was married to two different Claus’s.  It’s enough to make one’s head spin.

Here are photos of John’s father and mother, Claus and Margaretha.

 

And below is a photo of Claus and probably the other Margaretha.

Because John was born before the 1880 census, we find him in that document.  He was living in the Salem Township.

Let’s move back to the marriage between John Miesner and Sophia Mangels.  They were married on April 26, 1900.  They were married at Salem Lutheran Church.  We have this church record for that marriage.

We also can show their marriage license.

I found a wedding photo of John and Sophia in a Mangels family history book that we have in our research library.

About two months after they were married, they were recorded in the 1900 census for Brazeau Township.

When the land atlas was made for Perry County in 1915, it showed a parcel of land owned by J.C. Miesner not far from Wittenberg on what is called The Ridge Road.  That land was also not far from the Mississippi River.

John and Sophia had 7 children who lived to adulthood.  We find those 7 children in the 1920 census for Brazeau Township.  John was a farmer.

When 1940 rolls around, we see John and Sophia living in Perryville where John is a carpenter.  Only their youngest child, Wilma, is still living with them.

Sophia died in 1949; John died in 1950.  They are buried together in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville.

We are less than one week after Easter Sunday, when we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (J.C.).  As the Bible tells of the events that surrounded the Easter story, several angels show up to carry out God’s wishes.  In the German language, engel is the word for angel.  The J.C. in today’s story managed to be surrounded by a few angels (Engels) of his own.  One was his wife, and one was his mother-in-law.  I am sure that both of these women were real blessings to him.