Johann Gottlieb Palisch and his wife, Johanna (Kaempfe) Palisch, came to America as part of the Gesellschaft that arrived in Perry County in 1839. He came aboard the ship, Johann Georg, with 6 children. You could make the argument that this couple came with 7 children because Johanna was pregnant during the voyage. Their 7th child, Martin Stephan Palisch, named after the immigration leader, Rev. Martin Stephan, was born in April of 1839 while the immigrants were temporarily in St. Louis. That child died after living only 16 days. Our German Family Tree lists 5 more children who were born after they arrived in Perry County. That makes a total of 12 children born to this couple. The last one was born on this day, and you will read her story today.

Emilie Magdalena Palisch was born on July 22, 1847. She was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, Missouri. We can take a look at her baptism record below.

Emilie is found in her first census in 1850 at the age of 3.

In 1857, when Immanuel Lutheran Church was established, the J.G. Palisch family were charter members. Emilie’s confirmation record is found in that congregation’s books. She was confirmed in 1861. Emilie was 12 years old when she shows up in the 1860 census. Her father was a farmer.

Even though it was also the year that Emilie got married, she was still living with her parents when the census was taken in 1870. She was 21 years old at the time.

Emilie’s husband was going to be a man by the name of Gustav Horn. Gustav does not show up at all in our German Family Tree, indicating that there are no church or civil records from our area for him. We do have some Horn’s in the GFT, but I really cannot tell if any of them are related to the Gustav Horn who married Emilie Palisch. We find a hint about Gustav in the marriage record for Gustav and Emilie. That marriage took place in St. Louis. The marriage record states that Emilie was from St. Louis, but Gustav was from East St. Louis, which is located across the Mississippi River in Illinois.

Pauline Palisch, who is listed on the above record as one of the witnesses at this marriage, was Emilie’s sister who was one year older.

I did find Gustav Horn listed in an 1870 census from East St. Louis, Illinois. He operated a saloon at the age of 29. Along with him in his household was a young man who was called a barkeeper.

As for his previous years, I did not find much. He must have been born around the year, 1840. I did find a Gustavus Horn in the 1840 census for St. Clair County, which is where East St. Louis is located. Perhaps this is the Horn family into which Gustav was born.

Another record I located for Gustav Horn was one which documented his service during the Civil War. He was part of the 5th Cavalry. What is interesting is that unit was based in Missouri, not Illinois.

However, I was unable to find any Horn families in the 1850 or 1860 censuses. In addition to searching for them in East St. Louis, I also looked for them in censuses from St. Louis.

Gustav Horn married Emilie Palisch on November 9, 1870. We have to look in the 1880 census to get an idea about how big their family was. Six children are included in this entry. Gustav was said to be the operator of a saloon and hotel. Mary Palisch is listed as a 20 year-old servant. I figure that she was a niece of Emilie.

Another child must have been born in 1883, because I located a later death certificate for an Ernest Horn who was born that year whose father was Gustav Horn and his mother was Emilie Polish (that’s how her name was spelled on that form).

We have a 3-binder set of family information from the J.G. Palisch family in our research library. In that binder, it states that Emilie died in 1885 as a result of giving birth to a set of triplets. It also indicates that the triplets did not survive.

There is a little bit of debate about the date of these deaths because Emilie’s gravestone in the Valhalla Garden of Memories Cemetery in Belleville, Illinois, says she died in 1886. Her birth year is given as 1842, not 1847, also.

In an 1891 Belleville city directory, we find Gustav Horn, where he is called a proprietor of a Missouri Ave. House and chairman of the board of election commissioners.

The 1900 census shows Gustav Horn and his household living in East St. Louis, Illinois. Gustav is called a merchant, and one of his sons, Herman is called a clerk in a dry goods store. There are a few more children listed who were born after 1885, so I looked for another marriage record for Gustav. I found one. He married again in 1888, and his second wife was named Wilhelmine Militzer. Militzer is another Perry County name, but I did not find a connection to the Militzer’s here. A family history on Ancestry states that Wilhelmine died in 1896, so she does not appear in the 1900 census entry, and Gustav is called a widower.

Here is a transcription of an Illinois marriage record for Gustav’s second wedding.

A 1906 East St. Louis city directory includes Gustav. He is called the president of the Gustav Horn Dry Goods Company.

1906 was also the year that Gustav died. The Civil War record shown earlier gives his date of death as July 15, 1906. That is also the year of death given for him in the Palisch family binder. He is said to be buried in the same cemetery as Emilie, but there is no entry for him on Findagrave.com.

Researching the story of Emilie and Gustav proved to be a real challenge. It was the type of story that is told in bits and pieces here and there, and I had to put all the pieces together for this post. I hope I got it right.