Earlier this month, I wrote a post titled, Ridge Romance Repeat. In that article, it was stated that there was a double wedding that took place on October 23, 1890. Each couple in that wedding included a Holschen and a Leimbach. The story already written was about the couple made up of a Holschen man and a Leimbach woman. Today, I will take a closer look at the other pair…the one involving the Leimbach man and a Holschen woman. Both of these couples would be celebrating their 130th wedding anniversaries if they were alive today.

Ernst August Leimbach was born on February 6, 1866, the son of Paulus and Amalia (Zeibig) Leimbach. Amalia was Paulus’s first wife. The Leimbach bride in the other wedding couple was born to Paulus’s second wife, Louise Schreier. Ernst was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Here is an image of his baptism record from that congregation’s books.

Ernst is found in the 1870 census at the age of 4. His father was a farmer on The Ridge.

In the 1880 census, we find Ernst at the age of 14.

Ernst Leimbach found his bride on The Ridge. Her name was Anna Marie Holschen. Anna Marie was born on March 22, 1868, the daughter of Friedrich and Franziska (Stadelmann) Holschen. Anna Marie was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Below is her baptism record from that church.

Anna Marie shows up in her first census in 1870 at the age of 2. This household included quite a few other individuals, several of which had different surnames. Anna Marie’s father is called a retail dry goods merchant in this entry. I find it interesting that there was another Ann in this household…Ann Bachmann. That means there were two very young girls here that were named Ann.

Anna Marie is found next in the 1880 census. This time, Anna Marie’s father was called a farmer on The Ridge.

That leads us up to the double marriage that took place on this day in 1890. The marriage license for Ernst Leimbach and Anna Marie Holschen is displayed here.

I will also display once again the church record from Immanuel, Altenburg that I placed in that previous post. It has to be shown in two images. The record for today’s couple is the one on the bottom.

Our German Family Tree lists 8 children born to this couple. Two of them died quite early. What is amazing is that all 8 of them were boys. Mathematically speaking, the probability of that happening is 1/256. If you convert that to a percent, it would be a 0.4% chance. It’s the same probability as flipping a coin 8 times and getting heads on all 8 tosses.

The first census in which we see this couple after their marriage was the one taken in 1900. Ernst was a farmer, and there were 5 sons included in their household.

Much later, a newspaper article included a photograph of the first 3 boys in this family at a very young age.

Next, we see this Leimbach family in the 1910 census. This entry spills over two census pages. All 6 of the boys who lived to adulthood are included in this household.

I think it must have been shortly after the above census that this photo was taken of the Ernst Leimbach family.

The 1920 census shows this family beginning to get smaller as the boys started getting married. Ernst’s family is at the bottom of the list of households shown on this form. You can get an idea from this image about how many Leimbach and Holschen families lived near each other on The Ridge.

The plat map shown here has arrows pointing to Leimbach and Holschen properties on The Ridge. The arrow pointing to E.A. Leimbach was the one that was farmed by Ernst.

It was around 1920 that a photograph was taken of The Ridge Band. Ernst is in the back row, third from the left holding a baritone. I found several references in some resources we have in our library stating that there were several members of the Leimbach family who were musicians. There was even q reference to a Leimbach family band.

In 1930, we find Ernst and Anna Marie living in St. Louis where Ernst was called a carpenter. Two sons in their 20’s were still in their household.

The 1940 census finds this couple back in Perry County. Ernst, at age 74, was a church janitor. Ernst and Anna Marie had an empty nest.

It was during 1940 that Ernst and Anna Marie celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Several photographs were taken when that event took place. First, here is a photo of Ernst, Anna Marie, and their 6 sons.

The next photo includes the sons, their spouses, and some grandchildren.

Another photo was taken of just Ernst and Anne Marie on this occasion.

I can show one more photo of these two that must have been taken in 1940.

Ernst Leimbach died in 1952; Anna Marie Leimbach died in 1953. Both of them died at the age of 85. They are buried together in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg.

No matter how many stories I write about romances that began between a man and a woman living on The Ridge, I think there will still be more to do.

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The workers are busy this morning at the museum. Later on today, we have a front coming through, and the weather will be changing. They are getting as much done as they can while the sun shines.

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