John Valentine Hoehn (pronounced Hain) was born on February 20, 1865, 6 days after Valentine’s Day. This boy was the son of a Valentine. His parents were Valentine and Margaret (Bergmann) Hoehn. Valentine and Margaret were part of a double wedding that was the topic of the post, 2 Bergmanns + 2 Hoehns = Valentine’s Anniversary. This son born on today’s date would mostly go by the name of John. He was child #2 in a family of 12. John was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg, so I cannot display an image of his baptism record.

John is found in the 1870 census at the age of 5. His father was a farmer.

In 1880, the Hoehn family had gotten considerably larger. John was working on his father’s farm at the age of 15.

Let’s now take a look at the woman who would become John’s wife. Her name was Emma Maria Mueller, who was born on February 1, 1869. Emma was the daughter of George and Magdeline (Seibel) Mueller. A story about Emma’s parents was told in the post, Born in New York City. Emma was child #6 in a family of 10. She was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Below is an image of her baptism record from that congregation’s books. Unless she was baptized at home, she would have been baptized in the relatively new church that had been dedicated in 1867.

Emma is found in the 1870 census listed as being 2 years old. Ancestry.com says this census page is from the Union Township, but if you look closer, it says it was taken in the town of Altenburg, which is in the Brazeau Township. Her father was a merchant. George was possibly in business with his brother, Zacharias Mueller, who was also said to be a merchant in Altenburg.

Next, we find Emma in the 1880 census, still living in Altenburg. Emma was 11 years old at the time.

Emma’s father, George, has some information included in the Friedenberg Remembrances book. This book says George was in the record book of Peace Lutheran Church as early as 1881. It also suggests that George may have been involved in the building of a new church there in 1885. This gives an indication about how John Hoehn got to know Emma Mueller.

After unsuccessfully looking for a marriage record for this couple on Ancestry.com, I finally found a record in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. I knew that George Mueller had moved his family to St. Louis, so I had even looked on Ancestry.com for a St. Louis marriage record without success. However, I was pleased to find this couple listed in the books of Old Trinity. These two were married on May 28, 1891.

Our German Family Tree lists 9 children born to this couple. Not all of them lived long. When the 1900 census was enumerated, we find 3 children in the family. John was a farmer in the Central Township.

Next, we find John, Emma, and their family in the 1910 census. Their entry spilled over two pages.

I calculate that this next photo of the Hoehn family was taken before the 1920 census. Their last daughter was born in 1913. John is standing in the back on the right. Emma is standing in front.

The 1920 census entry for Hoehn household is shown below.

I should have been able to find census entries for this family in 1930 and 1940, but I was unsuccessful. Later in their lives, these two had the photo that is displayed below taken.

Emma Hoehn died in 1941 at the age of 71. We can take a look at her death certificate.

Emma’s obituary appeared in the Perry County Republican.

John Hoehn died a year later in 1942 at the age of 77. His death certificate is pictured below.

We can also view his obituary as it appeared in the Perry County Republican.

John and Emma were buried together in the Peace Lutheran Cemetery in Friedenberg.

This seems like such a simple story to research and tell, but I found it quite challenging. When I went to Ancestry.com for information, I ran into difficulty finding a marriage record and two different census records. I eventually succeeded at finding the marriage record, but not the census records. In addition to that, I kept finding family trees on Ancestry that had attached documents that didn’t actually belong to today’s characters. Now that I am finishing this story, I hope that I got it right.