If you place the German words of today’s title into Google Translate, you will find the English translation to be “master farmer”.  A girl’s birthday led me to share the story of her and her husband, whose surname was Meister, a farmer from Frohna.  I will begin with the Meister.

Emil Meister was born on April 17, 1862, the son of Valentine and Christine (Pfau) Meister.  Emil was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown.  Below is his baptism record.

Emil is found in his first census in the one taken in 1870.  He is shown to be living in the Brazeau Township, but not long after this census was taken, Union Township was formed and the farm on which he was raised would be mostly part of that new township.

This Meister family is found in the Union Township in 1880, but they are included in the long-lost records that were only recently found.  This portion of the 1880 census still cannot be found in Ancestry’s census records.  However, it can be found on a different website.  Emil was 17 years old in this entry, and his name is butchered as Ameal.

Emil’s first wife was going to be Marie Christliebe Schilling.  Marie was born on November 20, 1866, the daughter of August and Marie (Schoenborn) Schilling.  A previous story was written about these parents titled, A Nativity Name.  Marie was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna.  Here is her baptism record.

Marie is found in the 1870 census where she is shown to be 4 years old.

Next, we find Mary in the 1880 census.  Mary’s father was a cooper.

On Mary’s 26th birthday, November 20, 1892, she was married to Emil Meister.  This marriage took place in Mary’s church, Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna.  Here is the marriage license for this couple.

We can also view the church record for this wedding.

It seems it was this marriage that resulted in Emil Meister becoming a member of Mary’s church.  All of Emil’s children were baptized at Concordia, Frohna.  The only child born to Emil and Mary was a son named Rudolph Meister who was born in 1893.  However, when Rudolph was just 2 years old, his mother died.  Mary’s death record in the church’s books says she died of tuberculosis (schwindsucht).

That leads us up to today’s birthday girl.  Her name was Friedricke Marie Bertha Pohlmann.  Bertha was born on August 7, 1872, the daughter of Christian and Fredericke (Neumeier) Pohlmann. Bertha was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim, Missouri.  Here is her baptism record.

In the 1880 census for White Water Township in Bollinger County, we find Betrtha at the age of 7, only in this entry, she is called Mary Fred. B. Pohlmann.

On August 29, 1897, Emil Meister married Bertha Pohlmann at her church, Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim.  Here is the marriage license for this couple.  Rev. F. Meyr performed this ceremony, and he had his roots in the New Wells area.

We also can take a look at the church record for this wedding.  I found this entry because I knew the date for the wedding.  Soon, we should have the records for this congregation indexed in our German Family Tree, which will make it easier for me to locate the records for this congregation.

When the 1900 census rolled around, we find this entry for the Meister household.  Bertha is called Burdie on this form.  One child had been born to Emil and Bertha in 1899, but that child died in infancy.

Three more children, all girls, were born into this family according to our German Family Tree.  One more that was born in 1900 did not live till her first birthday.  The last girl was born during the year of the 1910 census shown below, but she was not born till after the census was taken.  I chose to show two other households.  Hulda Meister, Emil’s sister, was the head of the household which included their mother, Christine, and another brother, Martin, whose name looks like Meister Meister on this form.  This entry says he was divorced, but there is other evidence indicating that his wife had died in 1899.  I suppose there is a possibility that he was both a widower and also divorced.  Then, we also see the household of Gustav Schilling, who was Mary (Schilling) Meister’s brother.

When the 1915 plat maps for Perry County were produced, we find Meister parcels of land shown on two different images.  That is because his land was mostly in Union Township, but a smaller piece spilled over into Brazeau Township.  First, here is the larger portion, which also shows an adjacent property belonging to his sister, Hulda Meister.

The smaller slice shows that his land was not far from the village of Frohna.  Also, if you look toward the top of this image, you will see a parcel said to be owned by Fred. Schilling.  That is likely where Emil’s first wife was born and raised.

The last census in which we find Emil Meister is the one taken in 1920.  Right above Emil, you will see his son, Rudolph’s, family.  Rudolph had married Ida Weseloh in 1916.

Emil Meister died in 1921 at the age of 59.  His death certificate says he died at the age of 58, but if you do the math, it should have said 59.  One of the contributing causes of death was tuberculosis.

When the 1930 census was taken, we find Bertha Meister listed as an inmate at the State Hospital in Farmington, Missouri.  I have no idea why she was placed in that institution.

That is where Bertha died in 1935 at the age of 63.  Below is her death certificate.

Emil and both of his wives are buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna.

I do not know of any Meister’s that live in this area anymore.  Rudolph Meister, Emil’s son, lived in this area, but I am guessing that his sons moved away from this vicinity.  Their farmland is no longer in Meister hands.  I guess you could say that there are no more Meister Bauers left around here.

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Altenburg has experienced several unusually pleasant days, so I decided to spend some of my time writing this post outside this morning under a shade tree.  I took this photo while doing so which shows my view while writing.  For perspective, this shows the vista to the south of my place.  I live in the area once called Dresden, which was served by Rev. C.F.W. Walther in his early days here.  In the far distance in this photo would be the community once called Johannisberg near New Wells.  The little white speck to the left is where Johannisberg was located.  That community was also served by Rev. Walther.  Perhaps you can envision the trip that had to be made to Johannisberg in order to serve both of these congregations.