The story you will read today ties two recent items together. First of all, it was not long ago that I wrote a blog about the marriage between George Weith and Emilie Klinger titled, Weith’s Wives and Work. Secondly, not long ago, we had a visitor at our museum by the name of Ted Mueller who lives in Chester, Illinois. Ted is well-known around here for masterfully painting the interiors of many local churches. Today, I will describe a marriage between a Weith from Perryville and a Mueller from Chester.
The birthday girl for today is Anna Maria Mueller. Before I go any further, let me say that Anna Maria was the granddaughter of Bernhard and Johanna (Hornemann) Mueller. Here are photos of that pair.
There is quite a bit of controversy around here about whether Bernhard Mueller was part of the J.A.F.W. “Alphabet” Mueller family or not. Some adamantly state that he is a part of that Mueller clan, and others state that he is not. However, that is not the point of today’s post, so I will let that question go unanswered.
Anna Maria Mueller was born on June 15, 1885, the daughter of Albert and Anna (Jutzi) Mueller. Below is a photo of Anna Maria’s parents.
Anna Maria was the first child born into her family. I am not sure where Anna Maria was baptized, but her parents spent much of their lives in Chester, Illinois. We have to wait till 1900 to find Anna in her first census, and she was already 15 years old.
Now, we have to go back to Perry County to find the future husband of Anna Mueller. His name was Charles Friedrich Weith, the son of George and Emilie (Klinger) Weith. Charles was born on February 28, 1880, and since that year was a Leap Year, he barely missed being one of those people born on Leap Year Day. Charles was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. Like his future wife, Charles was the firstborn child in his family. We can view a transcription of his baptism record.
As a baby, Charles is found in the 1880 census for Perryville. His father was a blacksmith.
The next census in which we find Charles was the one taken in 1900 when he was 20 years old. By this time, Charles had learned his father’s trade, and he was called a blacksmith.
Charles Weith married Anna Maria Mueller on February 17, 1907. They were married at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chester, Illinois. Below is a photo of that church which was built in 1880.
When looking at a photo of the interior of this church shown below, imagine Charles and Anna standing before this altar and making their marriage vows.
A transcription for the church record for this marriage is displayed below. We have a binder containing these records in our research library.
The above marriage record states that Charles was living in Alto Pass, Illinois when this event took place. The map below shows Alto Pass and two other locations that will show up later in this post.
A baptism record for this couple’s first child, Herold, also shows up in the church records for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chester. This record says the child was born in Cutler, Illinois, which interestingly is located in Perry County, but not the one in Missouri, the one in Illinois.
Herold was baptized on Reformation Day, which occurred on a Sunday that year. It makes me wonder if this baptism took place during a Sunday morning Reformation worship on that day.
We find the Weith couple in the 1910 census living in the Cutler Township with their one child. Charles was a blacksmith.
In 1918, when Charles had his World War I draft registration completed, we find him living in Waterloo, Illinois. This document says he was working as a motor mechanic. It was also during the year that this form was completed that this couple’s son, Herold, died at the age of 8. That child was buried in Chester.
The next two census records find the Weith’s living in Waterloo. Here is the entry from the 1920 census in which Charles is described as a machinist in a garage.
Another child, a daughter, was born before the next census in 1930.
Before the 1940 census was taken, Charles and Anna had moved their family back to Perry County, Missouri. They were living in Perryville where Charles was the operator of an automobile garage.
Anna Mueller died in 1950 at the age of 65. I find it interesting that her death certificate gives her middle name as Mueller, which is her maiden name.
Charles Weith died in 1965 at the age of 85. His death certificate says he died at the Sunrise Ret. Home.
Charles and Anna Weith were buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville.
This story of a Perryville man and a Chester woman demonstrates a family that spent time on both sides of the Mississippi River. In most cases on this blog, those kind of stories almost always involve Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob, Illinois, but not this one.
Since I mentioned, Christ Lutheran, I will mention that this congregation in Jacob, Illinois just made the decision to close their school which had been in existence for 145 years. This past Sunday, they celebrated the long history of that educational institution. It will be missed.
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I discovered that when the lights were off in our museum’s old gallery, a better view can be photographed of our new gallery’s progress. Here is a small collection of photos that I took recently. I think you can click on the individual photos to enlarge them.
