Nicholas Guth was a quite notable resident of Perryville at one time.  Let’s take a little time to look at his life.  He arrived in America sometime around 1851 and after his family first were found in Illinois, they soon made their way to Perryville.  In 1857, he married Henrietta Karling.  This couple would have 6 children according to our German Family Tree.  No records of any baptisms are found in any local Lutheran church records.  One child was born before Nicholas went of to participate in the Civil War.  Another was born during the war.  The rest were born after the war.  I found two documents showing his military record.

On the first form, you see that around 1862, Nicholas had the rank of corporal serving under Captain Ochs.  The second form shows that by 1864, he had risen to the rank of captain.  We have this photograph of Nicholas Guth.

Nicholas’s wife died in 1868, and then he married Lucy Klinger in 1869.  That couple had 4 more children, all of which were baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville.  When Nicholas died in 1889, his obituary was printed in a local newspaper which gave other details about his life.

This post is going to focus on just one of the children of Nicholas and Henrietta (Karling) Guth.  His name was Karl Edward Guth, who was born on March 10, 1865, after his father had completed his Civil War service.  As said before, we have no record of a baptism for him.  We find Karl (Charles) in the 1870 census for Perryville at the age of 4.  His father was a blacksmith.

Next, we find Karl in the 1880 census for the same location.  He was 15 years old.

The first church record in which we find Karl is the record for his marriage.  Karl Guth married Mathilda Agnes Vogel on October 21, 1888.  Let’s take a look at the early years of Agnes.  She is the person who directed me to this story because she is today’s birthday girl.  She was born on July 8, 1865, the daughter of August and Catherine (Doering) Vogel.  Agnes was the baby of the family, and when she was just 3 years old, her father died.  She was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, Missouri.  Here is her baptism record.

Agnes is found in her first census in 1870 at the age of 5.  Her mother, a widow, was listed as the head of the household.

In the 1880 census, Agnes is shown as being the sister of August Vogel, who was the head of the household.  She was 15 years old at the time.  A little preview of later developments can be seen in the fact that the August Vogel family had an adopted son named Gottfried Dietrich shown in this entry.

That leads us up to the marriage of Karl Guth and Agnes Vogel in 1888.  Their wedding took place at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna.  Below is the church record for that marriage.

The German Family Tree lists 5 children born into the Guth/Vogel marriage.  Two of them died when they were very young.  All of them were baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville.  Shortly after their last child, Flora, was born in May of 1895, Karl Guth died.  I was unable to find a grave site for him in any local cemeteries.  The church record for Karl’s death say he died of consumption, which is another name for tuberculosis.

In February of 1899, Agnes succumbed to the same disease, so both she and her husband died in their early 30’s.  Agnes has a marker in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna.  It is one of those small markers that were placed in that cemetery at a later date, and the one for Agnes is not even spelled correctly.

What really fascinated me about this story was what happened to the 3 remaining children…Otto Charles (age 9), Edward (age 6), and Flora (age 3).  In the case of these three, they were not able to stay together.  They were each “farmed out” to different families.  One year after Agnes’s death, the 1900 census was taken.  Let’s start by looking at the oldest, Otto Charles.  He is found living in the Fountain Bluff Township in Illinois with his uncle, Henry Vogel, Agnes’s brother.  When he entered that family, it was already quite full of children.

Edward Guth was found living with his uncle, Salomo Vogel in Frohna.

It is easy to understand how those two boys ended up in the households of others in the Vogel family.  It is not so easy to understand how Flora ended up where she did.  She was found living in the Juergensmeier family in Hoyleton, Illinois, another place not that far from Perry County, Missouri.  In front of her name it is noted that she was adopted.

Margaret Juergensmeier’s maiden name was Twenhafel.  Margaret’s sister, Regina, was married to Henry Welp, the teacher at the Lutheran school in Frohna.  I think this is the connection that explains how Flora was taken into the Juergensmeier family.

Otto Charles Guth could be found in the Fountain Bluff Township until 1914 when he came back across the Mississippi River to be married in Shawneetown to Paula Fiehler (Fuehler).  Like his parents, however, Otto died at the early age of 31.

Edward Guth could later be found living in Chicago.  That is where his residence was when he completed his World War I draft registration in 1917.  This form also says that Edward had previous military service in the Missouri National Guard.

In 1926, Edward married Bernadette Butler in Winona, Minnesota.

The Guth’s would spend some time living in Mankato, Minnesota, but they eventually returned to Chicago.  Edward died in 1981 at the age of 88.

Flora Guth never got married.  I found her in several census records and find it interesting how she is described.  First, in 1910, we find her listed as Flora Juergensmeier, a daughter, at the age of 14.

Next, we find Flora once again called Flora Juergensmeier in the 1920 census.  This entry says she was born in Illinois, but that is not correct.

Henry Juergensmeier’s wife, Margaret, died in 1924, so when we look at the 1930 census, it just includes him and Flora.  This time, Flora is once again listed using her birth name, Guth.  She is also called a foster child.

There is evidence that Flora lived for a time in St. Louis, but she died in 1985 at the age of 89 and was buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Hoyleton.  However, Findagrave has no gravestone photo for her.

I cannot help but wonder if these three siblings had any opportunities to visit with one another over the years.  Because Otto died so early, he did not have many chances.  However, Edward and Flora lived very long lives.  Did they keep in touch with each other or get to see each other over the years?  I don’t think I will ever know.