Lutheran Heritage Center & Museum

Yesterday’s story highlighted Juliane (Popp) Bruhl.  It just so happened that I ran across another story that includes a Juliane Bruhl for today’s post.  Today, Juliane’s maiden name was Juliane Bruhl, not her married name.  And she married today’s birthday boy, Christian Schaefer.

Let’s begin with Christian.  He was born on July 17, 1835 in Germany.  He came to America around 1851.  He and other members of his family arrived on different ships, but by the time of the 1860 census, we find Christian at the age of 25 in this entry for his family.

Not long after the above census was taken, Christian Schaefer got married.  This is where we run into the name, Juliane Bruhl.  She was born on “Pi Day”, March 14, 1841, the daughter of Jacob and Nettie (Young) Bruhl.  Bruhl is an Austrian name, and that is where she was born.  Her family probably arrived in the United States in 1853.  We find Juliane in the 1860 census living in the same township as Christian Schaefer.  She was 19 years old and the oldest child in her family.

We have a Perry County marriage record for this wedding that says Christian Schaefer married Juliane Bruhl on October 30, 1860.  These two were married at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown.

The church record, however, states that this marriage took place on the 29th of October.

Christian’s later obituary would state that his marriage resulted in 12 children being born, but our German Family Tree has only 10.  We find the Schaefer family in the 1870 census with 4 children.

The next census in which we see this family was the one taken in 1880.  There were 8 children in this entry.

In 1890, we find Christian Schaefer in the Veterans Schedules indicating he had served time in military service during the Civil War.  This list also shows his brother, Henry Schaefer, who had served in the same unit during that war.

All of the Schaefer children listed in our German Family Tree were baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown except for two of them.  Those two were born during the Civil War years.  Perhaps, Juliane was attending church with her Bruhl family at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells during the war.  That is where those other two were baptized.

I do not know when these two photos were taken, but they show Christian and Juliane Schaefer.  It looks like these images were extracted from a larger photo, possibly a family photo.  Unfortunately, I have not found the entire photograph.

We have a death record from the books of Grace Lutheran Church that says Juliane Schaefer died on February 19, 1897.

She was buried in the Upper Cemetery of Grace Lutheran Church.

Here is what is really puzzling.  When the 1900 census came out, it shows Christian having a wife named Juliane who was born in March of 1841.  We have no record of Christian getting married to a second wife, and even if he did, what are the chances he would have married another woman by the name of Juliane who was born in the same month of the same year as his first wife?  Yet, if Juliane was already dead, why would she be listed in a census 3 years after her death?

Christian is listed as a widower in the 1910 census where we find him living with one of his daughters, Paulina, who had married Michael Bock.  They lived in the Union Township of Perry County.

A similar situation existed in the 1920 census, only Christian is 10 years older at the age of 84.

Christian Schaefer died in 1922 at the age of 87.  Below is his death certificate.

An obituary for Christian was printed in a local newspaper at the time.

Christian was buried in the same cemetery as his wife, the Upper Cemetery of Grace Lutheran Church.

When I saw that a surviving child was living in Buhl, Idaho, it piqued my interest.  Here is the death certificate for Henry G. Schaefer.

So, a son of a woman who began life as Juliane Bruhl ends up being buried in a town named Buhl.  Yesterday, we saw the name Bruhl lose its “H”, thus ending up as Brul.  Today, we see a Bruhl descendant being buried in a location which looks like the name Bruhl has lost its “R”.  Not only that, this son who died in 1963 also died on his mother’s birthday, March 14th.  And my crazy Math brain will always see that as “Pi Day”.