I am going to tell the story of Charles Leimbach today, but I know I will not have any Leimbach descendants from Charles who will read this post.  Charles had two wives during his lifetime, but there were no children born to either of them.  However, that does not mean they had no part in raising children.

The setting for this tale is The Ridge.  Three names that show up in this story are ones that would be called Ridge names…Leimbach, Seibel, and Weber.  All three of these names, however, have counterparts found in places other than The Ridge.  There is another clan of Leimbach’s that originated in the Shawnee Township of Cape Girardeau County.  There were two Seibel brothers who were part of the New York Group.  One of them left Trinity Lutheran Church with Rev. Schieferdecker when he formed Immanuel Lutheran Church.  That Seibel branch had members who settled on The Ridge.  As for the Weber name, there are too many Weber clans in this area to go into detail today.  The Weber clan that shows up today is part of what we call the “Ridge Webers”.

Charles Adolph Leimbach was born on August 5, 1867, the son of Paulus and Louise (Schreier) Leimbach.  A story about Paulus Leimbach has been published on this blog.  It was titled, The Inaugural Ridge Leimbach.  Charles was the first child in Paulus’s second marriage.  He was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg.  Here is his baptism record.

Charles can be found in his first census in 1870 at the age of 3.  His older siblings were children of his father’s first wife.

Next, we find Charles in the 1880 census at the age of 12.  As you can see, Paulus was quite the prolific father.

Charles’s first wife would be Clara Seibel.  She was born on January 28, 1876, the daughter of Conrad and Anna (Grother) Seibel.  Clara’s baptism record below is also from Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg.

We find Clara in the 1880 census at the age of 4.

That leads us up to the marriage of Charles Leimbach and Clara Seibel which took place on June 17, 1894 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg.  So, today would have been their 126th wedding anniversary.  Here is the church record for this marriage in two images.

We can also view this couple’s marriage license.

The only child listed in our German Family Tree for this couple was a child named John Leimbach, and the only church record we have for this child is a death record which is shown below in two images.

The German phrase shown below the name, Joh Leimbach in the first box says angenommen kind, which means “adopted child”.  That explains why there is no baptism record for this child in the Immanuel records.  Sadly, this child died at just 3 1/2 months old.  The probability of a child that lived only 3 1/2 months getting listed in a Federal census is microscopic, but that is what happened in this case.  John Leimbach is listed in the 1900 census.  I have included 3 other Leimbach households that must have lived rather close to one another in 1900.  One household is Charles’s father, and the other two are brothers.  No doubt that they lived on The Ridge.

We find Charles and Clara in the 1910 census with no children.

When the 1915 plat maps were produced, we find a 10 acre piece of property owned by C.A. Leimbach.  Other Leimbach land is nearby.  There is also a nearby farm owned by Joseph Seibel, Clara’s brother.

When the 1920 census was taken, we once again find an adopted child.  This time it was a 10 year-old boy by the name of George Jungclaus.  George’s parents, John and Emma Jungclaus, had died in 1911 and 1912, leaving young George as an orphan.  As near as I can figure, he must have become part of the Leimbach family shortly after those deaths.  Then, in 1916, Clara Liembach died, leaving Charles alone with a very young boy.  Her death certificate says the cause of death was stomach cancer.  This was a difficult form to find because it says her name was Clara Leimpach.

Charles found a second wife, Wilhelmina (Hoffmann) Weber, who had become a widow in 1917 when her husband, Herman Weber, died.  Wilhelmina had been born and raised in New Wells, but she had lived with her husband and raised her family on The Ridge.  Charles and Wilhelmina were married on September 19, 1918.  Here is their marriage license.

Here is a wedding photo of Charles and Wilhelmina.

So, when we see the 1920 census, the household consisted of Charles, Wilhelmine, and George.

When the 1930 census was enumerated, we once again find just Charles and his wife.

In that same year’s census, George Jungclaus was a farm laborer at age 20, living in the household of Otto Weber, one of Wilhelmina’s sons by her first marriage.

Wilhelmina Leimbach died in 1936 at the age of 64.  Here is her death certificate.

Charles died in 1938 at the age of 71.  We can also view his death certificate.

We also have the obituary for Charles.

Charles and both of his wives are buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg.

Charles Leimbach and his two wives may not have left behind any Leimbach descendants, but they did leave us with a fascinating story.

***I apologize for the late posting of this story.  Altenburg was without internet access for about 3 hours today, and it slowed me down.