Over the years, I have witnessed a few special weddings in which either the bride or the groom was married by a pastor who was also part of the family. A wedding that took place on this day back in 1908 was such a marriage ceremony. I am going to begin by describing the beginnings of the bride and groom.
Ida Gerharter was the bride. She was the daughter of Charles and Amalie (Landgraf) Gerharter. Ida was born on December 11, 1883 and baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells, Missouri.
Arno Haertling was the groom. He was the son of Herman and Sophia (Koenig) Haertling. Arno was born on December 22, 1884 and also baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells.
Ida was confirmed at Immanuel in 1897; Arno was confirmed the next year in 1898. Their names appear close to each other in that church’s confirmation records.
The only census in which we find these two before they were married was the 1900 census for Shawnee Township. This census shows that Ida was the oldest child in her family. There was actually an older sibling, but that child died in infancy.
One interesting thing in the above census entry is the fact that Ida’s father was said to have been from Hungary. Normally, we would expect people in the New Wells area to be recorded as being from Austria. This can be explained by the fact that at about the time when the Gerharter name entered Missouri in 1870, there was an area of Europe called the Austria-Hungary Empire.
Arno was one of the youngest in his family. I need to show the Haertling household from the 1900 census in two images because it spills over two pages.
A later plat map produced in 1930 gives us an idea where the Gerharter and Haertling families lived. I am putting two maps side by side because, even though these families lived fairly near one another, they were on the edge of the grids, causing them to be shown on two separate pages.
In the case of the Haertlings, there were several parcels of land in that family located along the banks of the Apple Creek. I just put a box around the land which is attributed to Arno Haertling. A map of this general area as it looks today is shown below. The arrow points at the spot where Arno would have had his land. Highway C is on the right side of this image. Highway A is at the top, and the dashed line is the Apple Creek (also the border between Perry and Cape Girardeau Counties).
On Sunday, May 3, 1908, Arno and Ida were married at Immanuel Lutheran Church. Let’s take a look at their marriage license.
Rev. H. Winkler was the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in 1908, but his name is not on this document. Instead, the pastor listed was Rev. G.H. Haertling, who happened to be Arno’s older brother. Rev. Haertling, at the time of this wedding, was serving as the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob, Illinois. We have this photo of him.
The church record from Immanuel’s books does not refer to Rev. Haertling being involved in this wedding.
In the first census after they were married, Arno and Ida had one child and had a few other family members living in their household.
Arno had to fill out a draft registration for World War I. The person registering him was Charles Gerharter, who is undoubtedly either Ida’s father or brother.
Altogether, Arno and Ida had three children, all sons. Arno was a farmer all his life.
Arno died in 1957 at the age of 72; Ida died in 1978 at the age of 94. They are both buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in New Wells.
We have over 20 pages in our German Family Tree for people with the surname of Haertling. That name has spread out some, but its point of origin was in the area described today around New Wells, Missouri in northern Cape Girardeau County.
