I know that I have previously pointed out that the word schoen in German means “beautiful” in English. Several previous posts have been written about folks in the Schoen family on this blog. You will read another one today. I find this story to be rather unique. I usually come to a point in a typical post where I discuss a wedding and show a church marriage record or a civil marriage license. You will not see any of those today. Yet, I will be telling the story of 5 children in a family of 11 Schoen children. Amazingly, it is 5 consecutive children found in our German Family Tree. Below, you will see children #6-10 as they appear in the GFT. Child #10, Rudolph Schoen, is today’s birthday boy, with his September 4th birthday highlighted in yellow in this image.

All of these children were the sons and daughters of Ernst Friedrich and Marie Anna (Pilz) Schoen, and all of them were baptized at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Pocahontas. There were also two half-sisters in this family because Marie Anna was previously married to Joseph Haberfellner. One of those Habefellner daughters died early, and, believe it or not, the other Haberfellner daughter married another man with the surname, Schoen (not one of Ernst’s children).

I am going to start by taking a look at Child #9 on the above list, Franziska Schoen. This baby girl was born and died on the same day, August 16, 1894. A note says that this baby was baptized by her father, Ernst Schoen. Franziska was buried in the old cemetery of St. John’s Lutheran Church.

Next, we will take a look at Children #6 and #7. two sisters. Anna Blandina Schoen was born on February 12, 1888. We find the following information about Blandina in the binder we have in our research library that contains records from St. John’s, Pocahontas.

Blandina’s younger sister was Dorothea Emilie Schoen, who was born on March 24, 1890. Her information from the St. John’s binder is displayed below.

Now, we will look at Children #8 and #10, two brothers. Johannes Emanuel Schoen was born on February 19, 1893. His information is pictured below.

Finally, we see today’s birthday boy, Heinrich Rudolph Schoen, who was born on September 4, 1896, making today a very special birthday. If he was alive today, he would have to blow out 125 candles on his birthday cake. Here is his information from the St. John’s binder.

Since all 4 of the above children were born after 1880, we don’t find them in a census until 1900. Their father was a farmer.

The last child, a boy named Erhardt Schoen, was born in 1901, so we see this Schoen household in the 1910 census. Emanuel and Rudolph were now called farm laborers.

The two brothers had their World War I draft registrations completed in 1917 and 1918. Here is the one for Emanuel Schoen. His cousin, Emanuel Gustav Schoen, was the registrar on this form.

Rudolph did not have his form completed until 1918.

I found no evidence that either of these young men served in the military. Next, we find these Schoen siblings in the 1920 census. Emanuel Schoen is listed by himself not far from the rest of his family in this census entry.

The father, Ernst Schoen, died in 1925, so we do not see him when the 1930 census was taken. Rudolph is called the head of the household. Right below their entry, you find that of Erhardt Schoen, the youngest brother, who had married Linda Sievers.

In 1930, plat maps were produced for Cape Girardeau County. Several parcels of land owned by Schoen’s can be found west of Pocahontas. I think the land shown as E.F. Schoen is the farm where today’s Shoen siblings lived, still listed under their father’s name.

The last census we can view is the one taken in 1940. This time, their mother, Mary, is listed as the head of the household. The girls were in their 50’s, and the boys were in their 40’s.

Their mother died in 1942, so when the 1950 census is released to the public next year, it should be interesting to see if this household remained intact with the 4 unmarried siblings.

Emanuel Schoen was the first of these single siblings to die. He died in 1964 at the age of 71. Here is his death certificate.

Blandina died in 1965 at the age of 77. Her death certificate says she died at St. Francis Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

Rudolph Schoen died in 1966 at the age of 69. His death certificate was filed in Ste. Genevieve County. It says Rudolph died at the Ste. Genevieve Rest Home.

The last of these single siblings to die was Dorothea Schoen. She died in 1973 at the age of 83. We are not able to view her death certificate yet.

I find the burials of these Schoen siblings quite interesting. They are all buried in the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery in Pocahontas. The two sisters are buried together, and the two brothers are buried together.

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I do not know why Dorothea’s name is spelled Dorathea on her gravestone. Perhaps that is the correct spelling, but most of the time that name is spelled Dorothea. Also, I do not know why Emanuel’s middle initial is “S” on his gravestone.

I would be interested to know if the above gravestones are next to each other in the cemetery. Maybe our docent, Jim Lichtenegger, who is a member of St. John’s, will take a trip to this graveyard sometime to find out for us.