I am going to look at the story of the person who I think is the first one with the surname Schlichting that settled in East Perry County. His name was Johann Ludwig Schlichting. He was mostly called John, so I will use that name. However, before I look at his story, I will go back another generation to discuss his parents. John was the son of Tonjes and Anna (Postel) Schlichting.

Tonjes and Anna were married on November 9, 1840 in Horst, Germany. I found the marriage record for this couple at the parish in Horst. This document states that Tonjes’s father was named Johann, so it is likely that today’s John was named after his grandfather.

This couple had several children, and at least by the time of their second child, a girl named Metta, the baptisms are found in the parish books of the church in Himmelpforten, Germany. That is where we find the baptism record of John Schlichting shown below. John was born on January 30, 1846.

Horst (shown by the red arrow) and Himmelpforten (shown by the red oval) can be seen quite near each other in the map below.

The parish church in Himmelpforten (which is the German word for Ascension) is called St. Mary’s Lutheran Church. You don’t hear of many Lutheran churches called St. Mary’s. That church is shown below.

When John was 20 years old, he boarded the ship, Carl, and headed for America. Plenty of Perry County names were found on that ship, as was described in the post, Carl’s Arrival. That ship arrived in New Orleans on October 22, 1866. We find John’s name on the passenger list for that ship.

Although John was in America for the 1870 census, I was unable to find him. I used just about every trick in my arsenal to find him, but I was unsuccessful. Then on January 14, 1875, John was married. His wife was Margaretha Maria Stueve, the daughter of Claus and Margaretha (Buck) Stueve. I will call her Maria. She was born on October 28, 1857 and baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. That makes today her 163rd birthday. Here is an image of her baptism record. Maria has the distinction of being the very first person baptized at Immanuel after Rev. Schieferdecker was kicked out of Trinity, Altenburg and established a new congregation on the other end of town..

Maria shows up in her first census in 1860 where she is 2 years old, except she is called Martha.

Next, we find Maria in the 1870 census. She was 12 years old in this entry.

The marriage of this couple took place at either Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg or Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. Rev. J.F. Koestering was the pastor on the civil marriage record shown below, and he was the minister at each of those congregations in 1875. If it was at Concordia, that congregation dedicated a new sanctuary during the Advent season of 1874, so this wedding would have taken place in a practically new church. Pastor Koestering, however, did not include marriage records during those days that we describe as the “Koestering Hole”.

Our German Family Tree lists 10 children born into this Schlichting family. In 1876, Missouri took a state census, and in that document, we find the Schlichitng’s with their first child. John must have been able to obtain some farmland near Farrar, Missouri, because we find them living in the Salem Township for that state census.

Their household shows up in the 1880 census. John was a farmer.

John’s father, Tonjes Schlichting, came to America in 1886. He was probably a widow by then. We find him on a passenger list for the ship, India.

Tonjes died in 1893 and was buried in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Farrar. His gravestone is one that has fallen to the ground. Because he died before 1900, we never find Tonjes in a census in America.

I found John Schlichting on a passenger list for the ship, Phoenecia, in 1896. He was returning to America from Hamburg, Germany. One reason I think this is the same John Schlichting is that right next to him on this list is a man named Gerd Mangels. There was a Gerd Mangels who would have been 52 years old at that time who lived in Farrar. John would also have been 50 years old as this document states.

Next, we find a larger Schlichting family in the 1900 census. However, because he was living in the Salem Township, he is found in that census record that is so difficult to read. I enlarged it to make it easier to decipher.

We have to look at two images to see the entire Schlichting household in the 1910 census.

John Schlichting’s farm can be found not far from Farrar in the 1915 plat maps.

A change in location occurred before the 1920 census, which was also the last census in which we find John, who at that time was 74 years old. This couple was living in St. Louis with the Baierschmitt family. Their daughter, Celina, had married William Baierschmitt.

John Schlichting died in 1926 at the age of 80. At that time, he was living with his son, Martin, in Wittenberg, which is where he was buried. Here is his death certificate.

Here is John’s gravestone in the St. Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery in Wittenberg.

Maria can still be found in the next two censuses. She was living with her daughter, who had married John Fiehler. Here we find her in the 1930 census.

Next, we find Maria in the 1940 census at the age of 82.

Maria Schlichting died in 1950 at the age of 92. Below is her death certificate.

Maria is buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna.

John Schlichting’s arrival in America in 1866 became the beginning of plenty of descendants, many of which carried the surname, Schlichting. There are still several folks named Schlichting living in East Perry County.