I have often written about people who were in a clan that we refer to as the “Frohna Muellers”.   There was another family that lived in Frohna that had three sons who became millers.  This trio spent their lives operating flour mills in East Perry County.  Two of them ran a large mill in Frohna, and one of them ran a mill in Wittenberg.  Today, I will focus on one of the Frohna millers.

Martin Weinhold was born on this day, August 24th, in 1846.  Martin was the son of Johann Heinrich and Johanna Christiane (Walther) Weinhold.  He was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, Missouri.  I am not in Altenburg today, so I am not able to acquire any images of church records from our research library, so I cannot show you Martin’s baptism record.  The first census in which we find him was the one taken in 1850.

The last three sons in this census are the trio that became millers, Joseph, Martin, and Gotthilf.  Sometime before the 1860 census was taken, this family moved to St. Louis.  Although Martin’s father was called a machinist in the above census, it does not indicate that his skills were used at a mill.  It is when he is in St. Louis that we see his occupation being called a miller.  The oldest son, Joseph, is also called an apprentice to a miller.

The 1870 census has this family back living in Perry County.  By 1870, the eldest son, Joseph, was already running a mill in Wittenberg.  Martin and Gotthilf are both called millers in this census, and would have been running the mill in Frohna with their father.

On May 14, 1872, Martin Weinhold married Magdalena Noennig.  We have the civil marriage record for this marriage, but not a church record.  They were married by Rev. J.F. Koestering, who was serving both the congregation in Frohna and the one in Altenburg.  I am guessing that this wedding took place in Altenburg for two reasons.  One is that weddings usually took place in the church of the bride, and Magdalena’s family were members at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.  Secondly, Altenburg had a fairly new church building by 1872, and Concordia, Frohna would not get their new and larger church built until 1874.  Here is the Perry County marriage record.

Magdalena Noennig was the daughter of Gottfried and Johanna (Poppitz) Noennig.  She was born on August 10, 1854 and baptized at Trinity, Altenburg.  We first find Magdalena in the 1860 census for Brazeau Township where her father was listed as a farmer.  As you can see, this Noennig family had a houseful of children.

Next, we find her in the 1870 census.

We have this photo of Martin and Magdalena Weinhold.

After they were married, the first census in which we find this couple was the one taken in 1880.  By then, they had two children of their own, and it looks like they may have adopted a girl by the name of Maria.  Her baptism record, however, just says she was the daughter of Martin and Magdalena.

That would just be a beginning of filling their household with children.  Our German Family Tree lists 14 of them, most of which lived into the 1900’s.  Because we do not have the 1890 census, the next census for this family was the 1900 census.  Now their household was overflowing with children.

We also have photos of Martin and Magdalena taken later in life.

The 1910 census would be the last one which included Martin. He was 63 years old and still called a miller.

Martin died in 1913 of typhoid fever at the age of 67.  We have his death certificate.

The 1920 census shows Magdalena as a widow and living by herself.  Nearby was her brother-in-law, Gotthilf, who by that time was a widower also.  They likely lived in the two large houses located near the flour mill where each had raised very large families.

As you can see on the 1915 map below, these two Weinhold families not only lived near the flour mill, but they were also quite near their church.  They were within walking distance to their church and school.

Magdalena Weinhold died in 1935 at the age of 80.  She died in St. Louis.  Here is her death certificate.

Both Martin and Magdalena are buried in the cemetery located right next to their property in Frohna.  Their gravestones can be found in Concordia Lutheran Cemetery.

Some very interesting stories come out of the children of Martin and Magdalena Weinhold.  For example, three of their sons went on to become Lutheran ministers.  I happen to be in the state of Minnesota for a few days, and two of those Rev. Weinhold’s died in this state where they served Lutheran congregations over the years.  I may have to write a few more stories about these descendants of Martin and Magdalena someday.

One of the daughters of Martin and Magdalena, Martha Weinhold, will be showing up as a character in my next book, Wittenberg ’04.   However, you may have to get that book when it is published to find out more about her.

I almost decided not to publish this story today.  I know that we recently were blessed with quite a few photographs from this Martin Weinhold family.  However, they are now all located on the computer I use in our research library in Altenburg.  I had planned last week to add them to a folder we have on the “cloud”, but alas, I never got that task accomplished.  Maybe someday when I do not have the time to research a new story, I might do a quick post and call it “Martin Weinhold Photos”.