Anna Albrecht was born on September 30, 1883, so she would be celebrating her 137th birthday today if she was still alive. She was born in East Perry County but would only spend 8 years of her life here. Since those years she spent in this county were from 1883-1891, Anna would never be found in a census here. In fact, quite a few events took place in her life before she shows up in her first census in 1900.

Anna Albrecht was the daughter of Heinrich and Christiane (Koehler) Albrecht. Her father and her paternal grandfather were both Lutheran pastors. Two previous posts on this blog have been written about this Albrecht family. They can be viewed by clicking on the links below.

Missouri to Minnesota to Mexico

A Christmas Birth in the Pfarrhaus in Farrar

Christiane Albrecht was pregnant with Anna when this family traveled from Minnesota to Missouri. A church history says this family arrived in August of 1883, and Anna was born in September. When Anna was baptized at that congregation, we find an interesting set of sponsors and even an unusual pastor. Two of her sponsors were Lutheran ministers, Rev. C.L. Janzow and Rev. W.G. Polack. Rev. Janzow was the pastor at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, and Rev. Polack was a pastor who had recently served at Salem, Farrar. The pastor performing the baptism was Rev. Baepler, who just served for a short time at Salem during 1883. Perhaps he was a vacancy pastor, but if he was, why would the previous pastor also be around to be a sponsor for this baptism. All in all, there were 4 pastors involved in Anna’s baptism. A relatively new pastor like Rev. Albrecht would not have had much time to get to know his parishioners yet, so getting two fellow pastors to be sponsors for this baptism makes sense to me. Here is the baptism record for Anna.

Two more children were born to the Albrecht’s, one in 1885 and one in 1889. One of the reasons Rev. Albrecht accepted the call to Farrar was to get to a warmer climate where his health issues might be resolved. That did not happen. In January of 1891, he died, leaving his wife, Christiane, as a widow with 5 children. She would also be without a home because the congregation would have to offer their parsonage to the next pastor. Christiane probably had no choice but to go to her hometown back in Minnesota not long after her husband’s death.

In 1894, Christiane Albrecht married again. Her second husband was Julius Bursch, who took in the Albrecht children as his own. Julius was a store owner near Corcoran, Minnesota. Here is a photograph of that store.

I found no evidence that there were other children born to Christiane and Julius. We finally find Anna Albrecht in a census in 1900. The census entry makes it appear that the children born in Missouri carried the surname, Bursch.

On September 17, 1902, Anna Albrecht married Peter Weinand, Jr. Peter was born on July 25, 1883, the son of Peter, Sr. and Mary (Sweigert) Weinand. Below is a record of this wedding in a Minnesota marriage index.

This couple had three children. We find the Weinand household in a Minnesota state census taken in 1905. Anna and Peter were living in the same household as his parents and several others with the Weinand surname. You will see a Bursch family living nearby, but that Bursch family does not include Anna’s mother.

On the previous page of this census, you will find another Bursch household that does include Anna’s mother as well as two of Anna’s Albrecht siblings. There were also other Weinand’s and some more Bursch’s in the entry.

A plat map was made in 1914 that shows how the Peter Weinand land was near several Bursch properties. The one shown as F.W. Bu was probably F.W. Bursch.

The town called Brushville on this map was likely the town of Burschville that was labeled on the photo of the store shown previously.

When the 1910 census was produced, we find the following Weinand household.

One more child was born to Peter and Anna in 1913. In 1917, Peter had his World War I draft registration completed.

Then in the 1920 census, we find this entry for the Weinand family. This record incorrectly states that Anna was born in Minnesota.

In the 1930 census, we find Peter and Anna living in Minneapolis. Peter was then said to be a caretaker of a cemetery.

Peter Weinand died in 1936 at the age of 54. In 1938, we find Anna as a widow in a city directory for Minneapolis. She was working as a baker in a place called the Hawley Kitchen. We also see her daughter, Agnes, living at the same address next to her entry in this directory.

Anna Weinand died in 1962 at the age of 78. Peter and Anna are each buried in a Weinand family plot in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Greenfield, Minnesota.

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The story of Anna Albrecht Weinand is one in which the occurrence of her father’s death caused a move which led Anna to find a husband in another state. Sometimes God works in mysterious ways to lead a man and a woman to become husband and wife.