You will read a story today that includes a man by the name of Gottfried Mueller. Before I get any farther, let me display 3 names that appear in the book, Zion on the Mississippi where it lists the immigrants who were part of the Gruber Group. That group arrived in New Orleans in November of 1839 aboard the ship, Johann Georg under the leadership of Rev. Charles Gruber. There were 3 men listed with the surname, Mueller.

You will be reading about the family of the middle Mueller on this list, one of the Gottfried Mueller’s. The one we focus on today was from Paitzdorf in Germany. This gets a little more confusing when I tell you that this Gottfried Mueller had a son by the name of Gottfried Mueller. Also, the Johann Gottlieb Mueller on the above list was my great-great grandfather, the grandfather of my grandmother, Bertha Mueller.

Today’s Gottfried Mueller family is shown on a portion of the Johann Georg passenger list displayed below. I have probably written the most posts on this blog about Zacharias Mueller and his descendants. Another one of these Mueller’s, Christoph, showed up in a post written recently titled, A Franke Discussion. Zacharias and Christoph were the young Gottfried’s brothers.

As if this isn’t already somewhat confusing, I will add that there was another Gottfried Mueller on board the ship, Copernicus, which was another ship that was part of the original immigration.

The event that took place on today’s date that instigated this post was the marriage of Gottfried Mueller and Catherine Jungclaus that took place on August 21, 1851. This Gottfried Mueller is the one who was the 11 year-old passenger on the above list. There are family histories on Ancestry that say Gottfried Mueller was born on August 13, 1829, but I found no documents to support that date. I looked in the church books from Paitzdorf, Germany that we have in our research library, but was not successful.

We find the Gottfried Mueller family in the 1840 census for Perry County. One has to be careful here because there are two Gottfried Mueller’s in that census. The one below has children that correspond to the family we are discussing today.

Several other names that have shown up on this blog are shown on the above entry: Gottlieb Wunderlich, Rev. Charles Gruber, Michael Hopfer, and Michael Jacob.

Next, we find Gottfried Mueller, Jr. in the 1850 census as a 21 year-old saddler living by himself. A different entry shows his parents’ household without him.

Now, we’ll take a look at Catherine Jungclaus who was born on December 13, 1832 in Lamstedt, Germany. She was the daughter of Herman and Sophia (Reyels) Jungclaus. A transcription of her baptism record from Germany is displayed below.

The marriage record for Gottfried Mueller and Catherine Jungclaus contains some interesting information about Catherine’s background. One fact included on that document is that Catherine immigrated to America in 1850. Let’s take a look at that document which must be displayed in two images. The second image shows the date, 1850.

Fortunately, we have a translation of the above marriage record.

First of all, there is a reference to Catherine being an adopted daughter of Herman Jungclaus. If she was indeed adopted, she was also being baptized as the child of Herman and Sophia Jungclaus when she was just 3 days old. Secondly, this record describes the parents she came with to America were her step-parents. If these parents were Herman and Sophia, they would have been adoptive parents (assuming she was adopted).

Our German Family Tree lists 7 children born to Gottfried and Catherine Mueller. Three of the children died at an early age. The first two children were baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown, but the third and all the rest were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.

The only census in which we find these two listed as a couple was the one taken in 1860. Four children are listed and Gottfried was a saddler.

The last child born to this couple was a boy named Martin Mueller, born in February of 1864. The last document in which we find Gottfried shows him as a baptismal sponsor for Clara Boehme on June 24, 1864. Gottfried died during the time period of the “Koestering Hole”, so we do not know exactly when he died.

We find another interesting document. Gottfried’s name is found on a Civil War draft registration list. The drafts during that war took place several times between 1863 and 1865, If you look carefully at the far right column on this document, you may be able to read the word, “dead”.

We do know that Gottfried does not show up in the 1870 census. Catherine is shown as the head of the household. I’ve included Dr. Ernst Eduard Buenger right below her household. Gottfried had been a sponsor for one of Doc Buenger’s children in 1860.

This post will be long enough without going through all the details of Catherine’s later life, so I will summarize. In 1877, she married William Brandes and lived in the Union Township. Here we see her in the 1880 census.

Gottfried and Catherine’s youngest son, Martin, is shown as a stepson in the above entry. Martin married the 22 year-old Eliza, his stepsister and later moved to Altenburg to become the proprietor of a hardware store. For more details about Martin and his hardware store, you can read the post, Hardware Rudy’s. That post contains some interesting photos of that hardware store in Altenburg and what it looks like now.

When I went to breakfast at the Old Bank Coffee Shop this morning, I took a picture of the 1937 calendar from the R.E. Mueller Hardware Store in Altenburg. Its dates match this year’s dates. R.E. Mueller was Martin Mueller’s son, thus Gottfried Mueller’s grandson.

Catherine Brandes died in March of 1911. William Brandes died about 4 months later in July of 1911. Gottfried Mueller is supposed to be buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg, but there is no gravestone photo on Findagrave. Catharine and William Brandes are buried together in that cemetery. Their gravestone is one of those that indicates Brandes burials on the front side with the two sides giving details about Catherine and William separately.

• 

• 

• 

I hope you made it safely through this Mueller Maze.