Alois Gottlieb Reisenbichler was born on the day after Christmas in 1869, so if he was still alive today, he would be celebrating his 151st birthday. This boy would be called Louis during his life. He was the son of Gottlieb and Anna (Putz) Reisenbichler. One interesting fact we find in this Reisenbichler family is that Louis was the second child to be born during the year, 1869. His older brother, Henry Reisenbichler, had been born in January of that year. Louis was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells, Missouri. His baptism record is displayed below.

Louis was a baby in the 1870 census for Shawnee Township.

As it turned out, this census would be the only one in which we will see Louis’s mother because she died in February of 1871. In September of that same year his wife died, Gottlieb married Anna Maria Pilz. I may have to write another post someday about Gottlieb’s two wives, Anna Putz and Anna Maria Pilz. Gottlieb would have 7 more children by his second wife. When it was time for the 1880 census to be taken, we find this Reisenbichler household. Louis was 10 years old.

Louis would get married before the next census that we can view, so we will turn our attention to his future bride. Her name was Nanette Pfisterer, and she was called Nettie in many records. She is actually not the only Nanette Pfisterer to be included in a story on this blog. Her mother was also named Nanette, and her story was told in the post, Tough Choice for Nanette. Today’s Nanette was almost certainly named after her mother. This daughter was born on April 8, 1875 to Wilhelm Friedrich and Nanette (Jung) Pfisterer. When you look at documents for Nanette over the years, you will likely question where she was born. I know that I didn’t make a conclusion until I took a look at Nanette’s death certificate which I will display later. What we do know is that Nanette shows up in her first census in 1880, where we find her living in St. Louis. She was 5 years old, and her father was a cabinet maker.

Nanette, like her future husband, lost a parent at a rather young age. Her father died in 1885, when she was about 10 years old. Her mother married again in 1886. Frank Bruhl became Nanette’s stepfather. In the previous post about Nanette’s mother, I included this information about what took place after her first husband’s death.

There are some fascinating facts about Nanette Pfisterer’s baptism. First, she did not get baptized until 1889 when she was 14 years old. Even more interesting is the fact that she was baptized about two weeks before she was confirmed at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. There were two baptisms on the day when Nanette was baptized. The other one was her younger brother, Hugo Pfisterer, who was 10 years old. Here is the baptism record for those two siblings.

I do not know if Nanette was included in the children put out for adoption. I suspect that Hugo and Nettie remained in the Bruhl household with their mother. We cannot look in the 1890 census to see where she was living, and by the time of the 1900 census, Nettie had married.

On May 22, 1898, Louis Reisenbichler married Nettie Pfisterer. This couple was married at Zion Lutheran Church in Pocahontas. Here is the marriage license for this pair.

The church record for this wedding is shown below. Just above the record for Louis and Nanette, you can see that Louis’s brother, Heinrich, had been married one week earlier.

According to our German Family Tree, Louis and Nettie had 6 children, 2 boys and 4 girls. One of the daughters died before reaching 4 years of age. We find the early beginnings of this family in the 1900 census. Please note that Nettie was said to have been born in Missouri on this entry.

In the 1910 census, we see a larger family. On this entry, and the one from 1920, we see that Nettie was born in Nebraska.

One child was born in 1910, followed by their last child born in 1913. The Reisenbichler household looked like this in the 1920 census.

Louis was 60 years old when the 1930 census was taken, and he was still a farmer. Their daughter, Cora, at age 19, was a teacher at the public school. Their son, William, had gotten married, and his family was living in this household.

The final census in which we find Louis and Nettie is the one taken in 1940. They were likely living on the same property as their son’s family, which had gotten quite large.

Louis Reisenbichler died in 1955 at the age of 85. His death certificate is shown below.

Nanette Reisenbichler died in 1956 at the age of 81. It is on this form that it states that Nettie was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and I think that is the correct answer for her birthplace.

Louis and Nanette are buried in the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Pocahontas. I find it interesting that Nanette’s gravestone calls her Nanettie.

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Louis and Nanette each had stories which included the early death of a parent. I think they each would have been grateful to get married just once and have a houseful of children that could watch their parents get old together.