You will read another story that takes place in Frohna today. It involves a marriage that took place on this day back in 1875, making today the 146th anniversary of the two that were married. I thought that this couple might qualify as one of those in which both the bride and groom were born, baptized, confirmed, married, and buried at the same congregation, but there are quite a few issues with that becoming the case. Let’s begin with the groom.

Salomo Vogel was born on July 9, 1851, the son of August and Katherine (Doering) Vogel. Salomo was the 5th child of 9 that are listed in our German Family Tree. Salomo was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. His baptism record is displayed below. Rev. Heinrich Christoph Loeber would have been the pastor who performed this baptism.

Salomo is found in his first census in 1860 at the age of 9. His father was a farmer.

Salomo was a teenager in the 1870 census. His father had died in 1868, so he is no longer found in this census. Salomo and his brothers, August and Henry, were working the farm.

Now, we will take a look at the bride. Her name was Eleanor Helene Wilhelmine Schmidt, who was born on February 16, 1855. She was the daughter of Heinrich and Wilhelmine (Naeser) Schmidt, making her one of what I call the Frohna Schmidt’s. Here we find the first of a few mysteries in this story. For some reason, the baptism record for Helene is not included in our German Family Tree. There were 12 children born into this Schmidt family, and Helene was the first. The other 11 children all have baptism records in the books of Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. I do not know why Helene’s baptism record is not in those records.

Helene is found in the 1860 census at the age of 5. Her father was a blacksmith.

In the 1870 census, Helene, who is called Eleanor in this entry, was 16 years old. This household had gotten much larger.

Salomo Vogel married Helene Schmidt on November 16, 1875. That brings us to another mystery. One would expect two members of Concordia, Frohna to have their church marriage record to be found in that congregation’s books. That is not the case. Instead, we find it in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.

Although I still don’t know the answer to this mystery, when we look at the Perry County record for this wedding, it gives us a fact worth considering.

Rev. J.F. Koestering, who is named in the above form, was the pastor at both Concordia, Frohna and Trinity, Altenburg at the time of this marriage. I will add that Concordia, Frohna dedicated their new church building in 1874. You would think that this couple would want to get married in their new church. However, in a church history, it says that after this sanctuary was built, the congregation would begin looking for a pastor of their own. They realized Pastor Koestering was having difficulty serving two growing congregations. Perhaps, it was because he was so busy that Rev. Koestering asked for this wedding to take place in Altenburg.

The German Family Tree lists 9 children born to this couple. The last two died right away. Let’s take a look at the 1880 census. Two sons were included in the Vogel household. Salomo was a cooper. A family history that we have in a binder at our museum says Salomo was making barrels for the flour mill in Frohna.

In 1883, their oldest son, Henry, at the age of 6, died. His death record from Concordia, Frohna’s books says he died of drowning. It would be 1900 before we can view another census for this family. In addition to several Vogel children, a “son” by the name of Edward Guth, is included in this household.

A family photo is said to have been taken in 1901 that shows the Vogel family standing on the front porch of their house.

I have enlarged the portion of this photo to look at the family members. I really enjoy looking at these “front porch” family photos. So often, you find a dog included with the family. In this case, the oldest son, Adolph Vogel (wearing the straw hat) is holding onto a small dog.

I did find an article in the Perry County Republican that said Adolph was home from St. Louis in 1901 where he was attending Concordia Seminary. Not long after this photo, Rev. Vogel would become a missionary in Brazil, and later, he would become the pastor of Trinity, Altenburg from 1914-1949.

Next, we find the Vogel couple living with their son’s family in the Union Township. Their son, John Salomo had married Martha Hopfer and moved to a farm near Uniontown, along with his parents. It is reported that Salomo was no longer needed to make barrels at the flour mill because they transitioned to transporting flour in burlap bags. Salomo is called a farmer.

In the 1920 census, John Salomo is listed as the head of the household. Salomo is called a farm laborer.

Another family photo was taken later of the Salomo Vogel family. If this was taken for the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary, it would have been taken in 1925.

The last census in which we find Salomo was the one taken in 1930. Salomo and Helene had quite a few grandchildren living with them.

Salomo Vogel died in 1932 at the age of 80. We can view his death certificate.

A paragraph was published in the Perry County Republican announcing his death.

Helene Vogel is still found in the 1940 census.

Helene Vogel died in 1950 at the age of 94. Death records for her can be found in the books of Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob, Illinois, as well as for the books of Grace, Uniontown. I suspect she died in Illinois. The death certificate for Salomo shows that he was buried in Uniontown. However, he does not have an entry on Findagrave.com. We do find a gravestone for Helene on Findagrave in the Grace Lutheran Cemetery in Uniontown.

Salomo and Helene did spend their early years at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. However, they were not married there, and later in their lives moved to a farm near Uniontown and spent quite a few years in that location.