One of today’s main characters is the son of one of the proprietors of the Frohna Flour Mill. This son went on to be involved in the operation of the Frohna Feed Store. I have to wonder how these two businesses were related to each other. However, I am temporarily located near Chicago, Illinois and not able to ask Perry County experts for an answer to that question. Here’s another one. Where was the Frohna Feed Store located. I do know this. The Saxony Hills Brewery in Altenburg has a Frohna Feed Store sign on its wall. The photo I have of that sign is not a great photo, but it’s all I have for now.

Half of today’s featured couple was the son in the famous Weinhold flour miller family, but the other half, the bride, was from another famous Frohna family name, Vogel. This girl is actually today’s birthday girl, and her story is a fascinating one. We will begin with her.

Susanna Ida Vogel was born on March 13, 1898, so today would be her 124th birthday. This girl is called Susie in many documents, so I will use that name for her. Susie was the daughter of William and Emma (Hoehne) Vogel. This part of the Vogel family tree had migrated to the Shawnee Township of northern Cape Girardeau County. William Vogel was married twice, and Susie was born to his second wife. Susie was one of a set of twins…a boy named Martin Julius and Susie. This pair turned out to be the last of the children born in this family because their mother died a matter of days later. Childbirth was given as the cause of death in her church death record. These twins were baptized on the same day as their birth. Their baptism records are included in the books of Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. An immediate baptism was often done because of the higher likelihood of early death for twins. Martin Julius Vogel died about 3 months after he was born. However, Susie survived. William was going to need help, since he was now a widower with an infant. When the 1900 census was taken, we do not find Susie living with her father. Instead, she is found living in the household of her half-sister, Emma, who had married Charles Starzinger. Emma was 24 years older than Susie and was a daughter of William’s first wife, Maria (Meyr) Vogel.

As you can see in this entry, Susie appears to have the surname, Starzinger. In fact, we have evidence that Susie was adopted by Charles and Emma Starzinger. In the above entry, Susie is also called a sister-in-law. There was also a William Vogel living in this household. He would have been Susie’s cousin.

When the 1910 census was taken, we find Susie still living in the Starzinger household. This time, she was called Susanna Vogel and described as a niece. There was also a boy named Eugene Starzinger who was called an adopted child. As near as I can tell, Charles and Emma Starzinger had no children of their own. Lydia Vogel, listed at the bottom and called a sister-in-law, was Susie’s older sister.

Susie is found in one more census as a single woman in 1920. Susie was 21 years old at the time.

It may have been at about this time that this photo of Susie Vogel was taken.

Now, we will turn our attention to the man that Susie would marry. His name was Theobald Constantin Weinhold, who was born on November 15, 1894. Theobald was the son of Gotthilf and Bertha (Thomas) Weinhold. He was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, but I am not able to display church records today. Theobald is found in his first census in 1900 at the age of 5.

There was one more child born to this Weinhold family after Theobald, but that child died right away. So, like Susie, Theobald became the youngest child in his family. Like I mentioned earlier, his father was a miller in Frohna. A photo of this Weinhold family was taken in front of their home in Frohna when Theobald was quite young. He is easy to identify because he is the youngest.

Several other photos of the Gotthilf Weinhold family have shown up on previous posts that I will once again display. They include captions to identify the people in the photos. Here is one that was taken around 1899.

Next, we find Theobald in the 1910 census as a teenager.

Theobald was around 16 years old in this family photo.

In 1917, Theobald had his World War I draft registration completed. He was called a farmhand on this form.

Theobald did get called into service during that war. Here is a record of his induction into the U.S. Army.

This family photo was said to be taken at about the time of World War I.

Theobald is found in one more census as a single man in 1920. This time, it says he was working at his father’s flour mill.

Theobald Weinhold married Susie Vogel on August 20, 1922 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. We can view this couple’s marriage license.

The German Family Tree lists 3 children born to Theobald and Susie, all of them baptized at Concordia, Frohna. The first child, a son, died before his 2nd birthday. The other 2 were daughters. We find the Weinhold’s in the 1930 census living in Frohna. Theobald is called a salesman for a feed store.

The final census we can view is the one taken in 1940. Theobald was still working at the feed store.

Theobald Weinhold died in 1962 at the age of 68. We can view his death certificate. It says he died at the Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville.

Susie Weinhold died in 1980 at the age of 82. Both Theobald and Susie are buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna. Theobald’s gravestone documents his military service.

An application form for a military headstone gives more details about Theobald’s service.

I wonder if Theobald’s name was pronounced. Tay-o-bald, by his friends and family. Perhaps, he was simply called Tay-o. The wedding of Theo and Susie is one which united two that were the youngest in their rather large families.

Maybe some of our readers will answer my questions about the Frohna Feed Store.