Bruno and Maria were married on this day 122 years ago in Farrar. This couple was made up of some typical Farrar names. Quite a few posts have told stories of other siblings in these two families, but today we get to tell the tale of a bride and groom that bring these two families together. The families were the Fritsche and Lorenz families.
Bernard Heinrich Bruno Fritsche was born on October 3, 1874 in Auerswalde, Germany. He was the son of Karl Heinrich and Bertha (Boehme) Fritsche. We can take a look at this photo of his parents.
Members of this Fritsche family came to America at different times. Bruno made the voyage to this country in 1891 aboard the ship, Oldenburg. We can see some of the members of the Fritsche family on this passenger list from that ship. Bruno was 16 years old at the time.
Because of the time of his arrival in this country, we do not find Bruno in an American census until after he was married. So, let’s turn our attention to his future wife. Her name was Maria Susanne Lorenz, who was born on September 8, 1875. She was the daughter of Friedrich August and Justine (Franke) Lorenz. Maria was child #10 out of 11 children in this Lorenz family. We can also take a look at Maria’s parents.
Maria was baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar. We can take a look at an image of her baptism record from that congregation’s books.
Maria is found in one census before she was married. That was the census taken in 1880. Her father was a farmer.
Bruno Fritsche married Maria Lorenz on November 12, 1899. The church record for this event is displayed below.
The marriage license for this pair can also be viewed.
According to our German Family Tree, Bruno and Maria had 6 children, two of which died very early. No children had been born yet when we find these two in the 1900 census. Bruno is called a farmer.
Next, we find this Fritsche family in the 1910 census. Bruno’s older brother, Max, and his family are shown right above his in this entry. Bruno and Maria had 3 children at that time. One more would be born later in 1910.
When the plat maps for Perry County were produced in 1915, we find Bruno’s farm located not far from Crosstown. Near his farm was one labeled as belonging to M. Fritsche.
The only photo I located for someone in this couple was this one of Bruno. He looks rather young in this image.
Bruno had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917.
It turns out that both Bruno and Maria died at rather young ages. The 1920 census is the last one in which these two appear. This time the Max Fritsche household was listed below that of Bruno. Bruno and Maria had 4 children listed in this census entry.
Maria Fritsche died at the end of January, 1920 at the age of 44. It is actually quite amazing that Maria had made it into the above census because it was submitted in the middle of January, very early during the year of the census. I looked all over the place for her death certificate without success. However, I found two different obituaries printed in local newspapers. First, here is the one from the Perry County Republican. It mistakenly said Maria was 40 years old when she died. The cause of death is given as the flu.
The Perry County Sun also published an obituary for Maria.
I found several articles in the Perry County Republican that told of the fact that Bruno Fritsche was not just a usual farmer. He also had an apple orchard. He apparently grew both Ben Davis and Winesap apple varieties. I chose to display the notice shown below to demonstrate Bruno’s activity in operating an orchard. This notice was published in 1928.
Bruno Fritsche died in August of 1929 at the age of 54. We can take a look at his death certificate.
An obituary for Bruno was also published in the Perry County Republican. It called Bruno a farmer and orchardist.
Both Bruno and Maria Fritsche are buried in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Farrar.
The marriage described in this post brought together two notable Farrar families. The pair produced several children to carry on the Fritsche and Lorenz heritage, but sadly, the two that made up this couple led lives that were cut pretty short. I wonder if there are still apple trees to be found on the Fritsche property near Crosstown. Perhaps one of our readers knows.
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