There is a remote connection between yesterday’s story which took place in the Shawnee Township of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri and today’s story which has its beginning in the Fountain Bluff Township of Jackson County, Illinois. The connection can be found if you backtrack to the beginning of the Vogel family in Perry County. There was a Vogel that married a Schuppan, and that couple ended up in Shawnee Township. The original Vogel family from Perry County spread its family tree branches over all these areas…Frohna, Missouri…New Wells, Missouri…and Jacob, Illinois. And, as you will discover today, this Vogel tree spreads even farther. After all, shouldn’t a bird (in German, the word for bird is vogel) have a big tree with spreading branches in which to live?

Dorothea Josephine Vogel was born on December 15, 1892, making her today’s birthday girl. Dorothea was the daughter of Henry and Amelia (Palisch) Vogel. Henry and Amelia had their roots in Perry County, Missouri, which is where they were married. Then, sometime around 1880, this couple moved across the river to Fountain Bluff Township in Jackson County, Illinois and became members of Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob. Here is the wedding photo of Dorothea’s parents.

Dorothea was the 8th of 9 children born into this Vogel family. She was baptized at Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob, Illinois. Even though she was born in 1892, she was not baptized until the first day of 1893. Here is her baptism record in two images.

The first census in which Dorothea shows up is the one taken in 1900 when she was 7 years old. The 9th child born to the Vogel’s did not live long and did not make it into this census entry.

I was unable to find Dorothea in the 1910 census. However, in a family book we have in our research library, we find this paragraph detailing Dorothea’s move to Covington, Illinois at about the time when that census was being taken. It is tied into her older sister’s marriage to Rev. Justus Lohrmann, who was at this time the Lutheran pastor in Covington.

Let’s take a look at Dorothea’s future husband, William Reinkensmeyer. Before I move on, let me say that some family histories on Ancestry.com spell this name Reinkensmeier. I am going with the “y” spelling because his signatures on later draft registrations showed him using that spelling. William was born on July 25, 1884, the son of Henry and Caroline (Hoffmann) Reinkensmeyer. St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Covington Township, Illinois was established in 1885, the year after William’s birth, so I am not sure where he was baptized. Here is a photo of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church.

William can be found in the 1900 census for Covington at the age of 15. He was a member of a rather large family, and his father was a farmer.

We also find William in the 1910 census at the same location, and he was farming with his father.

William Reinkensmeyer married Dorothea Vogel at Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob. Below is the church record for that wedding. This record disagrees with the paragraph shown earlier which stated this couple was married on April 13th. This document says the date for the marriage was April 20, 1913.

The wedding photo for this couple can also be found in the family book that was mentioned earlier.

The next document I could find for William Reinkensmeyer was his World War I draft registration which states he and his wife were living in Hoyleton, Illinois which is not that far from Covington.

Evidence in Ancestry.com family trees show that this couple had 7 children. Two of them were born before the 1920 census was taken. William was a farmer.

The Reinkensmeyer household was larger when the 1930 census was taken. This time, however, William was said to be a merchant at a general merchandise store.

The last census we can view for this family is the one taken in 1940. William was said to be a merchant at a department store.

The last document I was able to find for William was his World War II draft card.

William Reinkensmeyer died in 1960 at the age of 75. Although I have no documentation, it is said that he died on Leap Day, February 29th, during that year. Dorothea Reinkensmeyer died in 1986 at the age of 93. I was unable to find burial information for either of these two.

I find another interesting fact in the Henry Vogel family from Jacob, Illinois. Dorothea’s older brother, Gustav Vogel, married Eleonora Reinkensmeyer. I suspect there was some relationship between Eleonora and William, but I was unable to find it. I know they were not brother and sister.

In 1915, Dorothy and Gustav’s parents had a 40th wedding anniversary, and the photo below was taken. You can find Dorothy and Gustav by reading the caption below the photograph.

You can find a few other posts that have been published on this blog by using the search box on this website. I am likely to find another member of this family to write about someday.