On this day four years ago, I wrote a post about two Hoehn siblings getting married to two Bergmann siblings back in 1861. By today’s standards, it was a rather short post. Today, I choose to focus on just one of those couples and present more details and documents. The highlighted couple for today will be that of Johann Bergmann and Salome Hoehn. I will begin with the groom.

Johann was born on May 16, 1839, the son of Ferdinand and Barbara (Billhorn) Bergmann. John was born in the Bavarian region in Germany and came to America when he was just one year old. We find him on the passenger list for the ship, Plato, which arrived in America in August of 1840.

We find this Bergmann family in the 1850 census for the Cinque Hommes Township of Perry County. John was 11 years old at that time, and his father was a farmer.

Next, we find John Bergmann in the 1860 census at the age of 21. John’s father, Ferdinand, had died in 1853, so his mother, Barbara, was the head of the household. John was a farmer.

I will now turn my attention to John’s future wife. Her name was Salome Magdalena Hoehn. Salome was born on November 16, 1840 in the Alsace-Lorraine region located on the border between France and Germany. Her parents were Adam and Anna Marie (Wolff) Hoehn, and she was the 4th of 6 children in her family. Information about Salome in the book, Friedenberg Remembrances, includes the fact that she came with her family to America in 1847.

The 1860 census for Cinque Hommes Township includes this Hoehn family. Salome was 19 years old at the time.

It was on February 12, 1861 that not only did John Bergmann marry Salome Hoehn, but also John’s sister, Margaretha Bergmann, married Salome’s brother, Valentine Hoehn, on the same day. Below is the Perry County marriage record for John and Salome.

The German Family Tree lists 9 children born to John and Salome Bergmann. The first child was born at the end of 1861, but then there is a break until 1864 before the 2nd child was born. That is likely the result of John being involved in military service during the Civil War. Below is a document showing John’s military service. He served under Captain Ochs.

Next, we find the John Bergmann family in the 1870 census. Four children were included in this entry. Notice that this record states that John’s birthplace was Bavaria, and Salome’s birthplace was France.

The Bergmann household can next be found in the 1880 census. The number of children was up to 8.

It would be 20 years before we can view another census for this family, so lots of changes took place during that time period. Here is the entry for the Bergmann family in 1900. Their household is considerably smaller.

Salome Bergmann died in 1902 at the age of 61, so she does not show up with John in the 1910 census. At the age of 72, John is no longer called a farmer. His son, Martin was doing the farming.

The Friedenberg Remembrances book contains the following biography of John Bergmann. I have to display it in two images.

John Bergmann died in 1914 at the age of 74. Missouri death certificates began to be completed in 1910, so we can view John’s death certificate.

A year after John’s death, when the plat maps for Perry County were produced in 1915, we find a parcel of land owned by M. Bergmann. I suspect this was the land farmed by John Bergmann at one time.

John and Salome Bergmann are each buried in the Peace Lutheran Cemetery in Friedenberg.

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This Bergmann/Hoehn couple is responsible for 11 pages of descendants that are found in our German Family Tree. There should be plenty of our blog’s readers who can trace their family back to this couple. When you add to that the descendants of the other couple that was married on the same day in 1861, that number of pages goes up considerably. Since the groom in that other wedding was named Valentine, I am considering doing the story of that couple this Sunday on Valentine’s Day.

Just a few other tidbits in closing. The Friedenberg Remembrances book includes 9 different men who are called either Johann or John Bergmann. Also, it was only about a week ago that I wrote the post titled, Bicentennial Birthday for Bergmann’s Beau. That story was about a Bergmann who married a Hoehn. There were several such marriages over the years, including the two Bergmann/Hoehn marriages mentioned today.