Perhaps it is because I started my search in our German Family Tree where I left off yesterday. The end result is that I found another Hecht story to share with you today. The birthday boy for today is Immanuel Ernst Hecht who was born on February 10, 1885. Immanuel was the son of Heinrich and Wilhelmine (Lorenz) Hecht. He was the 6th of 11 children in this Hecht family, so I guess you could really call him the middle child. Immanuel’s baptism record from Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown is displayed below.
Immanuel is found in his first census in 1900 at the age of 15. Immanuel’s father was a farmer.
Next, we find Immanuel in the 1910 census at the age of 25.
The above census record is the last one in which we find Immanuel as a single man. Let’s take a look at the early life of his first wife. Her name was Anna Rebekkah Steffens. Anna was born on September 12, 1892, the daughter of Heinrich and Martha (Hesse) Steffens. She was baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar, Missouri. An image of her baptism record is shown below.
Anna is found in the 1900 census for Salem Township. That is the notoriously hard-to-read census. Anna was 7 years old on this entry.
We find Anna in the 1910 census at the age of 17. Her father was a farmer. I have to show this entry in two images.
Immanuel Hecht and Anna Steffens were married on March 30, 1913 at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar. We can take a look at the church record for that wedding.
We can also view this couple’s marriage license.
This marriage did not last long. A very confusing sequence of events took place, beginning in September of that same year. First, a daughter by the name of Olga Hecht was born on September 7, 1913. As near as I can tell, that child was born in New Madrid County, Missouri. I am just going to speculate here that the reason this child was not born in Perry County is due to the fact that this child was born less than 9 months after the Hecht couple was married.
Now things get more confusing. A death certificate from New Madrid County says that Anna Hecht died as a result of childbirth complications on September 10th. That death certificate is shown here. The date of death on this form seems to have been written as some other date and then changed to the 10th.
Another death certificate can be found as taking place in Perry County on September 10th. It was the death certificate for the baby, Olga Hecht. I will display that certificate below. Anna Hecht’s father, Henry, is listed as the informant on this form.
The books of Salem Lutheran Church have a death record for Olga, but no baptism record. We find the death records of Anna and Olga right next to each other in the Salem Lutheran books.
Anna and Olga are both said to be buried in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Farrar, but only Anna has a photo of her gravestone.
The next document I could find for Immanuel Hecht is a 1915 record found in an Iowa state census where he was living in Bremer County in that state.
That area of Iowa has shown up on this blog before. Several Perry County natives ended up living in that vicinity at least for a while back in those early years of the 20th century.
Immanuel Hecht had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. He was still found living in Bremer County, Iowa. He was said to be a painter.
I was unable to find Immanuel in the 1920 census, but when the 1930 census was taken, we find him back in Perry County living in the household of Otto Bingenheimer. He is described as an uncle and still called a painter.
Immanuel would get married again on the last day of 1930. He married Hedwig Klaus on December 31, 1930. This couple’s marriage record is found in the books of Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown, but that record states that the wedding took place in the home of the bride. Hedwig, whose maiden name was Frentzel, had been married to Herbert Klaus, but he died in 1929.
The marriage license for this couple is shown below.
A son was born to this couple in 1932. We find Immanuel and Hedwig in the 1940 census living in Old Appleton. The Klaus children in this entry were children from Hedwig’s first marriage. I have to display this entry in two images.
Immanuel Hecht died in 1963 at the age of 78. His death certificate says he died at Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville.
Hedwig Hecht died in 1967 at the age of 74. Her death certificate says she died at the same hospital.
Immanuel and Hedwig Hecht are buried in the Grace Lutheran Cemetery in Uniontown.
Immanuel Hecht had a life full of changes. He changed locations, and circumstance led him to change wives. Yet, he endured.
