I decided to follow through on a statement I made in a post two days ago. In that February 12th post, I told the story of one of the two couples that were married on that day back in 1861. Since the groom in the other wedding that took place on that day was named Valentine, I said I might write his story on Valentine’s Day. That is the story you will read today. It is also yet another marriage between a Hoehn and a Bergmann. I think it is only appropriate that I begin today by looking at Valentine.

Valentine Otto Hoehn was born on November 28, 1837 in Rountzenheim, France. That town is in the Alsace-Lorraine region along the border between France and Germany that has been disputed for generations. I am including a link here to a church located in Rountzenheim in which perhaps the Hoehn children were baptized.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Ste_Croix_(Rountzenheim)

Valentine was the son of Adam and Anna Marie (Wolff) Hoehn. He was the 3rd of 6 children in the Hoehn family. Some information about the life of Valentine Hoehn is found in the book, Friedenberg Remembrances.

The above information does not include this fact, but in the information published in the post, Return to a Double Wedding, two days ago, it said the Hoehn family arrived in America in 1847. I can display the census record for the Hoehn family from the 1860 census when Valentine was shown to be a 22 years old farm laborer.

I will now turn my attention to Valentine’s bride. Her name was Margaretha Marie Bergmann, the daughter of Ferdinand and Barbara (Billhorn) Bergmann. The Bergmann family arrived in America in 1840 aboard the ship, Plato. This passenger list was displayed two days ago. The Margaret Bergmann shown on this list is not the same person as today’s bride. There were two Margaretha’s born into this family. Our German Family Tree says the one born in 1837 and shown on this passenger list was called “Maggie”. The Margaretha born later was called “Rett”.

Margaretha was born one year after this family came to this country. She was born on September 23, 1841 and her baptism record would have been included in the books of Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. The book, Friedenberg Remembrances, includes some information about Margaret Bergmann.

We can look at two census records that include Margaret before she was married. First, here is the 1850 census in which Margaret was listed as being 9 years old. You will also see the other Margaret at the age of 13.

Next, we find Margaret in the 1860 census a year before she was married. She was 19 years old at the time. Her father had died in 1853.

In the post, 2 Bergmanns + 2 Hoehns = Valentine’s Anniversary, published back in 2017, the story was told about how two Hoehn siblings married two Bergmann siblings on February 12, 1861. The Perry County marriage record for Valentine Hoehn and Margaret Bergmann is displayed below.

Our German Family Tree lists 12 children born to Valentine and Margaret. Add that to the 9 children born to the other couple married on that day, John Bergmann and Salome Hoehn, and you get 21 children born to the two couples married on that same day in 1861.

Like the other couple that was discussed two days ago, Valentine and Margaret had their first child in 1861, but then there was a break in childbearing until 1864. Like John Bergmann, Valentine Hoehn went to serve in the military during the Civil War. The soldiers’ records found on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website lists Valentine as having served in the same unit as his brother-in-law, John Bergmann, but for some reason that site does not allow me to view an image of his military record.

We find the Valentine Hoehn household in the 1870 census with 5 children. Valentine was a farmer.

The next census in which we find this family was the one taken in 1880. At that time, the household included 9 children ranging in age from 1-19 years of age..

We have to wait 20 years to view the next census that was taken in 1900. There were 5 children in the household when that census was taken.

That would be the last census in which we find Valentine. He died in 1905 at the age of 67. Valentine was buried in the Peace Lutheran Cemetery in Friedenberg.

Margaret can still be found in the 1910 census where we find her living in Perryville. She was living with her unmarried daughter, Clara Hoehn. There was also a 12 year-old, Rudolph Weith, living with them. Rudolph was the son of Margaret’s daughter, Caroline, who had married Andreas Weith. Caroline died in 1900, so it must have been determined that Rudolph would be better off living with his grandmother.

Margaret is found in one more census entry, the census taken in 1920. Margaret and her daughter, Clara, were living at 326 Spring Street in Perryville. Her son, George Hoehn, and his wife were living at 325 Spring Street. Clara never married.

Margaret Hoehn died in 1924 at the age of 83. Her death certificate says she died of pneumonia.

Margaret Hoehn was buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville, Missouri.

As was pointed out two days ago, the amount of descendants that came from this Hoehn couple and the Bergmann couple that was married on the same day take up page after page in our German Family Tree. I wonder if Rev. Gruber, who married these two couples back in 1861, could ever have dreamed how prolific these two couples would become.

One more thing. I found men with the name Valentine in both the Hoehn and the Bergmann families. It seems to be a name that was utilized more often in the Friedenberg church than any of the other churches in our neighborhood. I am wondering if the name Valentine is more of a Bavarian name. Perhaps one of our readers can answer that question.