A while back, a post was written titled, Stories from a Wedding Photo – Part 2. In that story, the wedding tradition involving men called hochzeitsladers (or wedding inviters) was described. The paragraph below was included in that post.
I found a photo showing what a present-day hochzeitslader might look like.
The wedding photo which inspired that post was the one shown below. The red arrows point out two hochzeitsladers from that wedding.
The hochzeitslader on the left in this photo was John Dreyer. I will attempt to tell his story today. As it turns out, John’s wedding took place on this day. Today would have been his 109th wedding anniversary.
John Dreyer was born on April 12, 1886. He was the son of Johann Friedrich and Maria (Lohmann) Dreyer. John was born in the Hanover area of Germany, and a few census records indicate that he came to America in 1900. The first census in which we find him is the 1910 census, but I will show that later. I need to set up the situation first.
John’s bride was going to be Bertha Boehme. However, that was her married name. Her maiden name was Bertha Hecht. She was the daughter of Henry and Wilhelmina (Lorenz) Hecht. Bertha’s parents were highlighted in a recent post titled, Fives are Wild. She was born on December 4, 1875. That made her about 11 years older than John Dreyer. Bertha was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. Below is her baptism record.
The first census in which we find Bertha was the one taken in 1880. It was that infamous census that was lost for many years and recently found. Bertha was 4 years old at the time.
Then we can find Bertha 20 years later still living with her parents at the age of 24.
One year after this 1900 census was taken, Bertha got married. She married Gustav Adolph Boehme of Farrar, Missouri. Gustav was a part of what I call the Farrar Boehme’s. Gustav was the son of Friedrich and Caroline (Eichhorn) Boehme. He was born on April 6, 1875 and baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar, Missouri. Here is his baptism record.
Gustav can be found in the 1880 census for Salem Township.
Next we find Gustav in the 1900 census.
Gustav Boehme married Bertha Hecht on October 24, 1901. However, Gustav died in 1909. Therefore, he and Bertha never were seen in a census record together. Here is the marriage record from Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown for this wedding.
Here is the marriage license for this couple.
Now we finally get back to the first census in which we find John Dreyer. In fact, that 1910 census also included Bertha Boehme and her children from her marriage to Gustav.
Bertha is called both a widow and a servant. There was also a Fred Cornelson living in this household who was called a hired man. John was called the head of the family, and he was a farmer. The land upon which they lived must have been in the vicinity of Trinity Lutheran Church in Point Rest. It was there that John married Bertha on August 28, 1910. Here is the transcription of their marriage record in the Trinity church books.
We also have their marriage license.
For a few reasons, I believe that John and Bertha moved their family back to Union Township not long after their marriage. First of all, we find a parcel of land in Union Township on the land maps produced in 1915 that is labeled with John’s name.
Secondly, the 1920 census shows this family as living in Union Township. There was one child born to John and Bertha.
John had a World War I draft registration completed in 1918.
The rest of the census records in which we find this family have them living in the Brazeau Township. Here is the one for 1930.
The 1940 census has John and Bertha living in the household of their son, Alfred and his wife. It extends over two pages.
1940 census – Brazeau Township, MO
Even though he was getting well up there in years, John also had to fill out a World War II draft card.
John died in 1956 at the age of 70; Bertha died in 1957 at the age of 81. We have both of their death certificates. First, here is John’s.
Next, here is Bertha’s.
Both John and Bertha are buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna.
Out of all the information I found concerning the people involved in this story, the only photograph I could find for anyone was that wedding photo including John where he was a hochzeitslader.
