There were four children born into the John and Johanna (Walther) Weinhold’s family.  I think once I finish today’s post, I will have written stories about all four of them.  Here are photos of the parents and children in this Weinhold family.  Today, I tell the story of the baby in the family.

Gotthilf Weinhold was born on March 26, 1849, so today would have been his 171st birthday.  He, like all his siblings, was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, Missouri.  Here is his baptism record.

Gotthilf was born and baptized at a time when Concordia’s pastor had taken a call, and Rev. Gotthold Loeber from Altenburg was serving both the Frohna and Altenburg congregations.  In the fall of that year, 1849, Rev. Loeber would die and for a brief time, both congregations were vacant.  Gotthilf can be found in his first census in 1850 as a youngster.  I think his age is inaccurate here.

We next find him in the 1860 census.  His father had been a machinist in the 1850 census and now is described as a miller.

The last census in which we find a single Gotthilf was the 1870 census.  In this entry, we see the father and both remaining sons as millers.

The oldest son, Joseph Weinhold, would run a mill located in Wittenberg, while the other two brothers, Martin and Gotthilf, operated the mill in Frohna.

Below is an early photo of the Frohna Mill which was built in 1863.

Gotthilf’s wife would be Bertha Thomas.  Let’s take a look at her early life.  Bertha Thomas was born on June 7, 1854, the daughter of George and Sophia (Paesler) Thomas.  She was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown.  Here is her baptism record.

We find Bertha in the 1860 census for Cinque Hommes Township.  Her father was a farmer.

Next, we find Bertha in the 1870 census living in the Brazeau Township.

That bring us up to 1872 when Gotthilf Weinhold married Bertha Thomas on November 7th.  The marriage took place at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown.  I have the civil record of their wedding.

Here is the wedding photograph for this couple.

Our German Family Tree says that Gotthilf and Bertha had 13 children.  I’m sure you have heard that 13 is often called a Baker’s Dozen.  Several of those children born into this family did not live long, but they still had quite a houseful of kids.  We find this couple in the 1880 census.

Before I display the next census from 1900, I am going to show a photo taken of the Weinhold family the year before that census, 1899.

Here is the 1900 census.  The children in the front row of the above photo were still living in this household.

The last census in which we see both Gotthilf and Bertha was the one taken in 1910.  I included the family of Martin Weinhold family also so you could see what the neighborhood around the mill looked like.

Bertha died in 1917 at the age of 63.  Her death certificate says she died following an operation at St. Francis Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

Gotthilf can be found in his last census in 1920.  Gotthilf was a widower, and his neighbor, Magdalena Weinhold, was a widow because her husband, Martin Weinhold, had died in 1913.

Gotthilf Weinhold died later during that census year, 1920, at the age of 71.  We also have his death certificate.

Gotthilf and Bertha Weinhold are buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna.

In an earlier blog post titled, Grandson of “The Face”, I described Friedrich Florian Petzold as being “The Face” because his gravestone in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg has a carved image of his face.  Perhaps Gotthilf could be the Frohna version of “The Face”.  It is not a carved image, but there is an image of Gotthilf on his gravestone.

It appears that there may be a similar image on the top Bertha’s gravestone, and on any other day, I might take a drive to Frohna to get a closer look.  However, we’re supposed to be staying at home.  I feel a little guilty for going up to the museum earlier to get the Weinhold book from our library so I could include more photographs.

I have several other photographs that pertain to this story to show you.  In fact, I could display more than I will.  If I displayed all the photographs in the Weinhold book, no one would have to come to our research library to look at that book.  We like visitors.  I am going to place these photos in a clickable gallery.  The thumbnails may be enlarged by clicking on them.

I do enjoy writing stories about people from this Weinhold family.  One of the reasons is that the Weinhold family book is so full of wonderful stories and photographs.  That book was produced by Michael Bardon and Heather (Bardon) Euler in 2017 on the occasion of the bicentennial birthday of Gotthilf’s father.  All of the photos in this post that have their own captions were ones I used from that book.