Our location in East Perry County, Missouri places us in the position where we can observe numerous flocks of birds making their way north or south depending on what season of the year it is. We find ourselves right below what is called the Mississippi Flyway. Waterfowl follow the Mississippi River on their annual migrations.

In today’s story, I discovered that several members of a Vogel family also did some migrating. In German, Vogel means “bird”, so I guess you could say that these movements of Vogel’s was another example of bird migrations. By the time I get to the end of this post, you will see examples of siblings from just one family of Vogel’s being located in the spots designated on this map.

Since I will be discussing so many individuals in this post, I will not be displaying the usual church and census records like I usually do. Instead, I will especially focus on just one census for each individual. I also will display several World War I draft registrations for some of the boys in the family. Finally, I will attempt to display where each of these Vogel’s are buried. I discovered this story because one of the Vogel children, Heinrich Vogel, was born on September 25, 1891. All of the individuals in this story were children of August Carl and Maria (Gerharter) Vogel and were all baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, Missouri.

As near as I can tell, the first Vogel to migrate north was Joseph Vogel. In 1905, he was marrying Clara Wolfgram in Niagara, North Dakota. Here is a marriage record for this couple.

At the time of this wedding, Rev. George Hilpert, a Frohna, Missouri native himself, was the pastor in Niagara.

Joseph’s sister, Emilie Vogel, married Martin Mangels in 1902, but when the 1910 census rolled around, this couple was living in Wayne County, Nebraska near Wisner.

Sadly, Emilie would die in 1914. Her body was returned to Frohna, and she is buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna.

The rest of the story involving Martin Mangels was told in the post, Montana Martin Mangels.

In the 1910 census, we find Otto Vogel living in Montana. Then, in 1916, he married Mollie Sauter in Hill County, Montana. Here is the marriage license for that couple.

It is about this time that we find a very interesting situation. First of all, as we might expect, Otto Vogel can be found living in Kremlin, Montana, which is in Hill County, when he filled out his World War I draft registration in 1918.

Otto’s younger brother, Gotthilf Vogel, registered for World War I in 1917, and he is found also living in Kremlin, Montana. Gotthilf went through his life carrying the nickname, Gool, and that is how he is listed on this form.

We also find another younger brother, Henry Vogel, in the same location when he had his World War I draft registration completed.

It was also this location, Kremlin, that Martin Mangels spent a later part of his life after marrying a second wife in Missouri.

Another Vogel son, Arthur, is found in an interesting place with an interesting occupation in the 1920 census. He is found in the census for Boundary County, Idaho, and he was working in a logging camp as a sawyer.

Let’s take a look at the 1920 census for Nash Township in North Dakota which is located not far from Niagara and another town named Petersburg. We find that Joseph Vogel’s brother, Henry, who had been living in Montana in 1917, was now living in North Dakota.

Two more Vogel’s can be found in yet another state in the 1920 census. Magdalene Vogel, who had married William Zschoche, and her brother, Rudolph Vogel, were living in Atchison, Kansas. William was the nephew of Rev. Zschoche, who had served Concordia, Frohna for several years. Pastor Zschoche had served the congregation in Atchison, Kansas before moving to Frohna. William was also the cousin of Lydia Zschoche, who had married the Rev. Hilpert who once served the church in Niagara, North Dakota.

Magdalene died in 1955 and is buried in Atchison; Rudolph died in 1965 and is buried in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Meanwhile, up in North Dakota, Joseph Vogel can be found on a plat map for Nash Township owning a parcel of land that says he had a general stock farm.

Joseph and Henry Vogel remained in North Dakota until their deaths. Henry never married. Henry died in 1941 and is buried in the Bellevue Cemetery in Grand Forks, North Dakota, but there is no gravestone photo on Findagrave. Joseph died in 1953 and is buried in the St. Andrew’s Lutheran Cemetery in Grand Forks.

Gool Vogel lived in Montana beyond the 1940 census, but would later return to Perry County where he died. He is buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg. His gravestone displays his military service during World War I.

I found another item of interest connected to one of these Vogel brothers. Otto Vogel had a son, Phillip, who served in the military in World War II and was killed in action at the Battle of the Bulge. His remains, which were once buried in a Belgian cemetery, were later returned to America in 1950 and buried in the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California. Here is a document for that burial.

His gravestone also lists several other soldiers that came from that cemetery in Belgium.

I know of at least two cases of museum visitors who have likely connections to this story. First, several years ago, when we had an exhibit on display about Rev. Hilpert from North Dakota, a recent graduate of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, stopped by not long before going off to his first call as a pastor. His last name was Wolfgram and said he had family from Niagara, North Dakota. Secondly, not long ago, Rod Vogel, a resident of Montana, visited us, and he was a descendant of Otto Vogel.

Not only that, I was able to discuss this story with Tony Vogel at breakfast this morning, who descends from another brother in this Vogel family who remained most of his life in Frohna. I guess you could say that some of these Vogel”s (birds) manage to fly back to East Perry County every once in a while.