Arthur Heinrich Buck was born on March 5, 1893, and if I have it figured correctly, he was a next door neighbor to my great grandfather, Gottwerth Schmidt. Arthur was the youngest child born into the family of Gottfried and Pauline (Oehlert) Buck. We can take a look at a Perry County birth record for him.

Arthur was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, Missouri. Below is an image of his baptism record from that congregation’s books.

Arthur is found in his first census in 1900. It looks like his age was first written as 8, but changed to 7, which would be correct. His father was a farmer.

Next, we find Arthur in the 1910 census where he is listed as a 17 year-old farm laborer.

Let’s now turn our attention to Arthur’s future bride. Her name was Eda Phoebe Kaufmann, who was born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1893. That also made her about 3 weeks older than Arthur. She was the daughter of Ferdinand and Hulda (Boehme) Kaufmann. We can see a Perry County birth record for Eda also. Their birth records are only one page apart, and both of these children were delivered by the midwife, Magdalena Mueller. A map of Altenburg that will be displayed later shows how close the Buck’s and the Mueller’s lived. Magdalena’s husband operated the Altenburg Milling Company.

Like Arthur, Eda was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. There were 34 baptisms at Trinity during 1893. Her baptism record is displayed below.

Eda is found in the 1900 census at the age of 7. Her father was also a farmer.

Arthur and Eda were in the same 1906 confirmation class at Trinity. Here are their confirmation records.

We find Eda still living with her parents in the 1910 census when she was 17 years old. Arthur and Eda could be found one page away from each other in this census. If the names were situated differently, they could have made the same page.

When the plat maps for Perry County were produced in 1915, we find parcels of land owned by Arthur and Eda’s parents, and they were not far from each other. The Bucks are indicated with red boxes and the Kaufmann’s with a blue box.

Gottlieb Buck’s land also appears in a map of the town of Altenburg in the same collection of maps. In this map, you can see my great grandfather, G.F. Schmidt, was a neighbor. Please also note that the Buck land was not far behind the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery. I will also add that the Kaufmann land as well as the land that I now own are located just off this map to the right.

Arthur Buck married Eda Kaufmann on October 10, 1915 at Trinity, Altenburg. The church record for this couple shows an interesting consecutive list of marriages in that congregation. A rather famous pair of marriages involved a double wedding of the Schmidt twins, a story that was told in the post, Two of a Kind….Later a Full House. One of those twins married Maria Buck, Arthur’s older sister. About a month after that double wedding was the Buck/Kaufmann one. Below is an image showing all 3 of those marriage records from Trinity’s books.

We can also view the marriage license for Arthur and Eda.

Arthur had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917. That form says he had a wife and a child.

Our German Family Tree says that Arthur and Eda had 3 children, two girls and a boy. The 1920 census shows this Buck household with two children. Arthur’s father had died in 1919, and we find his mother, Pauline, living in Arthur’s household. I have every reason to believe that Arthur took over his father’s farm that was shown in the previous maps.

Next, we find the Buck family in the 1930 census. It included the exact same people as the census taken in 1920.

Arthur’s mother died in 1933, so we no longer find her in the 1940 census. Also, the last child born to Arthur and Eda came in 1931. There was a span of 12 years between their last two children. Their last child, Lorine, still comes to visit our museum on occasion.

Arthur, at the age of 49, had his World War II draft card completed in 1942.

Arthur Buck died in 1955 at the age of 62. His death certificate says he died at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

I found evidence that the only Buck son, Elmer, did get married. However, I have been reassured that Elmer did not get married till later in his life, and he had no children. Therefore, at least in this branch of the family tree, the surname, Buck, stops here.

I went out this morning to take a photo looking to the west of my house. It is displayed below. Gerard Fiehler assures me that Elmer Buck used to live in the white house on the left in this photo. The Trinity Lutheran Cemetery is on the far right. You can see just a few gravestones. In between, you can see the Trinity Lutheran Church steeple and the Altenburg water tower.

Arthur and Eda Buck are buried together in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, so you can see that they were buried within view of their old farm. People should be able to say the same thing about me after I am buried in that cemetery.