Today, we will take a look at the life and work of George Weith. One of George’s wedding anniversaries led me to this story. George was born on March 21, 1856. Although I could find no immigration or census records to back it up, it is reported that George’s father arrived in America in 1849 and was married in Baltimore, Maryland in 1850. George is shown on several later census records as having been born in Maryland. Perhaps the earliest record of the Weith family living in Perry County, Missouri is a record that states that George’s parents were members of Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg in 1862-1863. We find the Weith family living in the Cinque Hommes Township when the 1870 census was taken. George’s father was a farmer, and George was 14 years old. You can count 8 children in this household, and George was the second oldest.

There seems to be a little debate about the maiden name of George’s mother. A number of family histories on Ancestry give her maiden name as Kirschner. One of George’s marriage records says her maiden name was Jacob. Perhaps the strangest one is found in the Friedenberg Remembrances book that says her maiden name was Lnu.

Let’s take a quick look at the early life of George’s first wife, Emilie Klinger. Emilie was born on April 28, 1856, the daughter of Gottlieb and Charlotte (Klemp) Klinger. During her early years, we find Emilie living in St. Mary’s, Missouri which is also located north of Perryville. Here we find her in the 1860 census at the age of 4.

Emilie is in the same location in 1870 when we see her listed as being 13 years of age.

On May 20, 1879, George Weith married Emilie Klinger. That makes today the 142nd anniversary for this couple. We can view their civil marriage record from Perry County.

This wedding took place at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. The transcribed church record for this wedding is displayed below.

The 1880 census shows this couple with one of their two children, a son born in early 1880. They were living in Perryville. George was a blacksmith. This entry shows that George was born in Maryland.

Another son was born in 1882, but then Emilie died in 1884. Her Perry County death record indicates malarial fever along with pregnancy as the cause of her death. She was buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery, but no gravestone photo can be found on Findagrave.

George married again in 1886. His second wife was a widow by the name of Anna Stueve. Her maiden name was Fassold, She was born on November 14, 1854, the daughter of Andreas and Gertrude (Hafner) Fassold. She had married Johann Dietrich Stueve in 1879, but he died in 1882. We find Anna Stueve in the 1880 census living in the Brazeau Township. The child listed here was not Anna’s son.

I was unable to find a marriage record for George and Anna, although it is said that they were married on January 10, 1886. The next census entry we can view was taken in 1900. Our German Family Tree says Anna and George had 7 more children, so we see a rather full household in this entry. Both George and his son, Charley, were shown to be blacksmiths.

Next, we find the Weith’s in the 1910 census. This time, a son named Adolph is listed as another blacksmith.

The last census in which we find Goerge Weith was the one taken in 1920. Please note that the last 3 census entries state that George was born in Maryland. I didn’t display the occupation column, but George is called a retired blacksmith, Louis was a salesman in a department store, Oscar was a barber, and Emma was a telephone operator.

At this point, let me share a few other tidbits about George’s life. First, here is information about George that can be found in the Friedenberg Remembrances book we have in our library.

In that same book, we find this information about George being in the blacksmith business.

The above paragraph says that Louis Weith worked at the Rozier’s Mercantile in Perryville. I found a few early photos of the Rozier’s Mercantile building that was constructed in 1897.

A panoramic photo of Perryville taken from the county courthouse was taken in 1913. I have displayed the portion of that photo that shows the Rozier Mercantile building.

An article was published in the Perry County Sun in 1915 detailed the sale of George Weith’s blacksmith shop to Adolph Bock.

We can view a photograph of George Weith at his blacksmith shop when he was relatively young.

George Weith died in 1924 at the age of 68. This document is another one that says George was born in Baltimore.

An obituary for George was printed in the Perry County Sun.

Anna Weith was still found in the 1930 census. A lodger by the name of Everett Prevallet was living with her.

Anna died in 1938 at the age of 83. Her death certificate is displayed below.

The Perry County Sun also printed Anna’s obituary. I have to display hers in two images.

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George and Anna Weith are buried together in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville.

Recently, the Missouri Secretary of State’s website has made available many Missouri newspapers online. Three of those papers are the Perry County Republican, the Perry County Sun, and the Perryville Weekly Union. I am enjoying this new resource, and you see some images in this post because of this new addition to Missouri research sources. If you are interested in this site, you can find it at this link: https://shsmo.org/collections/newspapers/mdnp.

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For your information: Tonight on the Channel 12 – KFVS – 10:00 pm news, there will be a segment highlighting the story of Ray Littge, a famous fighter pilot from World War II, who was also a Perry County native. His story was also told on the blog in a post titled, Ace High.