The main character in today’s story will enable me to share a little history about a historic, but extinct, Lutheran church in this area. Before writing this story, I knew very little about this church. The research going into this post has enabled me to become much more familiar with it.

Heinrich Lowes was born on August 19, 1840, making today his 180th birthday. He was born in Hanover, Germany, the son of Christian and Wilhelmine (Fornkahl) Lowes. Here is a photo of Henry’s parents.

Then in 1851, the Lowes family, which by then included 7 children, made the voyage to America aboard the Ernestine. The passenger list showing the Lowes family is displayed below. You may notice that the surname is spelled Loves. That spelling shows up often in documents for this family.

Henry is shown in the 1860 census for Apple Creek Township in Cape Girardeau County at the age of 19.

Henry spent some time serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. His military record shown here gives some details about his service.

Next, let’s take a look at the future wife of Henry Lowes. Her name was Louise Kiepe, the daughter of John and Karoline (Zimmermann) Kiepe. Here are photos of Louise’s parents.

She was born on April 3, 1844. This family traveled to America when Louise was just one year old. The Kiepe family is shown on this passenger list for the ship, Lyon, in 1845.

Louise can be found in the 1860 census for Apple Creek Township at the age of 16.

A very valuable resource for this post was a binder we have for the Arnsberg community, church, and cemetery. It contains much information about both the Lowes and Kiepe families.

In this binder are photos that were taken of the Kiepe family Bible. In this first image you can see that it was Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible.

There is a list of Kiepe children and their birthdays. Louise was the oldest.

Another image describes the Kiepe family coming to America.

Yet another image shows the English translation that someone made for the information in the above image.

Henry Lowes married Louise Kiepe on January 17, 1865. The marriage record shown below indicates that Rev. John performed the ceremony, so this marriage took place at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim.

The church record from Trinity, Friedheim is shown below.

I find two things of interest on this record. First, the surname, if we just consider English cursive writing, looks like Lobes. I am not an expert on German handwriting, but I suspect the letter that looks like a “b” is either a “v” or a “w”. Second, it says in the far right column that this is a Dissen record. The town of Dissen would later become called Friedheim because there was already another town in Missouri named Dissen.

Henry and Louise would have 7 children. In the 1870 census, we see the following household.

The 1880 census turned out to be the last one in which we find Henry Lowes. I also included the Kiepe household found right below the Lowes family. It displays Louise’s parents.

In 1882, Henry Lowes died at the age of 41. His cause of death was not something you hear about often. He died as a result of being pawed to death by a stud horse.

In a plat map for this area of Apple Creek Township, we see a few parcels of land owned by the Lowes family. Arnsberg is located about halfway between Friedheim to the west and Interstate 55 to the east on Route KK.

If you look above the red box, you can find property owned by Charles Kiepe, Louise’s brother. That is likely the land on which Louise was raised. Also, the black arrow points to the spot where the village of Arnsberg once stood, along with St. John’s Lutheran Church and its cemetery. It is in the Arnsberg Cemetery that Henry Lowes was buried.

Once again, you see the surname spelled as Loves. I did not find a Henry Lowes in the 1890 Veterans Schedules, but there is an entry for Louise Lowes because Henry had participated in the Civil War.

We find Louise Lowes as a widow in the 1900 census. Below her household, you can see the household of her son, John Lowes.

The last census in which we find Louise was the one taken in 1910.

A photograph that includes two daughters of Henry and Louise, Mary and Cora, is shown here. I find the name of a Kassel Studio in Oak Ridge interesting also.

Louise Lowes died in 1916 at the age of 72. We can view her death certificate.

Her death certificate states that she was buried at the Arnsberg Cemetery, but Findagrave.com does not have a gravestone photograph.

Here’s another interesting tidbit. Below is the gravestone for Christian Lowes, the father of Henry. If you look in the background of this photo, you will see Henry’s gravestone, which has Loves on it, but also in the background on the left you see Ida Lowes, Henry’s daughter, whose name is spelled Lowes. Go figure.

There is no longer much evidence that there was once a town of Arnsberg at one time, nor can you find a church building. However, in fairly recent years, an effort was made to make improvements on the Arnsberg Cemetery. Also, the Arnsberg binder that we have is the result of efforts by several people to reconstruct the records of the lives of people who were once part of this community. Some of the people who made this effort are descendants of Henry and Louise Lowes as indicated here.

Without this resource, I would not have been able to know many of the facts in this story, and would not have the photographs I was able to display. It is a wonderful resource, and I now have a much better understanding of this historic area and church.

However, I admit that I now wonder if I took you on a visit to the Lowes hardware store or the Love’s truckstop in Arnsberg.