You will be presented today with the story of a brother of one of yesterday’s characters, Anna (Lungwitz) Ahner. His name was Herman Gottfried Lungwitz, and he is today’s birthday boy. Herman was born on October 7, 1854, the son of Christian Gottfried and Emilie (Herchert) Lungwitz. He was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. His baptism record is displayed below.

Herman is found in the 1860 census at the age of 5. His father was a farmer.

Next, we find Herman in the 1870 census, but it calls him Henry.

Now, we turn our attention to his future spouse. Her name was Mathilda Hermine Meyr, who was born on March 5, 1859. She was the daughter of Johann and Theresia (Ebner) Meyr. Mathilda was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg, but that record states that her family was from Cape Girardeau County. Once Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells was established, we find this Meyr family’s records in that congregation’s books. Here is Mathilda’s baptism record.

The 1870 census shows Mathilda at the age of 11. Her father had died prior to this census.

Herman Lungwitz and Mathilda Meyr were married on August 21, 1879 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. The church record for this wedding is shown here.

There is also a civil record for this marriage from Cape Girardeau County.

Our German Family Tree lists 10 children born to this couple. None of these children died in infancy. When the 1880 census was taken, they had not yet had their first child, but Herman’s younger sister, Mary Lungwitz, was living with them.

By the time of the next census we can view in 1900, all but one of their 10 children were born, so we see a rather full household with children ranging in age from 19 to 1 year old. Herman was a farmer.

One more child was born in 1901. Then, in 1903, their daughter, Lydia, married Ernst Boehme. It must have been around 1903 that a photograph was taken of the Herman Lungwitz family. All 10 of the Lungwitz children are included. In addition, in the upper left of this picture, you will see Lydia and Ernst Boehme, making it look as if there were 11 children.

Next, we find this family in the 1910 census. This is the only census entry I found that did not call Herman a farmer. Instead, it says he was a broom maker.

Mathilda Lungwitz died in 1913 at the age of 54. We can take a look at her death certificate.

World War I had a tremendous impact on this Lungwitz family. Three sons went off to fight in that war, and one of them did not make it back alive. Theobald Lungwitz was killed in a battle on October 27, 1918. A blog post telling Theobald’s story was published titled, Theobald Almost Made It. Another son was said to be gassed during that war, and the effects were evident on occasion later in his life. I found an article from the Perry County Republican telling about a memorial service that was held at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg in 1919.

I found the paragraph that was located right above this one very interesting. It tells of an amazing number of Altenburg men who served their country during World War I. Keep in mind that these men went off to fight a German enemy.

I am thinking that it might have been better that Mathilda was not around to go through the stress that would have gone along with having 3 sons off to war, and then the grief at losing one of those sons.

In the 1920 census, we find Herman living in the household of his son, Amos.

The last census in which we find Herman was the one taken in 1930. He was 75 years old.

Herman Lungwitz died in 1933 at the age of 78. His death certificate says the cause of his death was cancer of the colon.

Herman and Mathilda Lungwitz are each buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg.

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Like yesterday’s Ahner story, we know that there must have been plenty of descendants who came out of this large family. I know that several of those descendants have been dispersed to far-distant places in this country. Although I do not think there are many local folks who carry this surname, there are plenty that can point to this Lungwitz/Meyr couple as being part of their family tree.