A set of twins was born on this day not long before the turn of the 20th century to a Kaufmann family. It was a boy/girl set of twins. This Kaufmann family had 6 children prior to the birth of these twins, but 4 of them had died before the twins arrived on the scene. Three of them died of diphtheria in 1888. A post was written about the parents of the twins titled, Kaufmann Kinder Casualties. The twins were the last children in the Kaufmann family, and the parents would have been so grateful that each of the twins lived to adulthood and had families of their own. I have already written a post that included the girl twin titled, Never Getting to Know a Parent. Today, you will read the story of the boy twin.

Adolph Herman Kaufmann was born on June 15, 1897 along with his twin sister, Clara. These twins would be celebrating a special 125th birthday today if they were still alive. The parents of these twins were Henry and Pauline (Bodenschatz) Kaufmann. These two were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. As I write this, I am still not in Altenburg, but I am able to display the baptism records of these twins because they were included in a previous post.

Adolph and Clara show up in their first census in 1900 when they became 3 years old. The date on this entry was June 11th. That would have been close to the twins’ birthday on the 15th, and the census taker placed a 2 for their age, but then crossed out those ages. Their father was a farmer.

At an early age, a photo was taken of the Kaufmann twins with their mother, Pauline.

Adolph’s father died in 1909, so when the 1910 census was taken, his mother was the head of the household, and she was called a farmer. An older Kaufmann sister had married Rudolph Popp, and he was likely doing much of the farm work, along with a hired man, Frederick Schroeder.

When the Perry County plat maps were produced in 1915, we find a parcel of land owned by Adolph’s mother, Pauline. That farm was located south of Altenburg near the Apple Creek.

In 1918, Adolph had a World War I draft registration completed. This form says Adolph’s employer was his mother, Pauline.

Adolph was still single when the 1920 census was taken. Only the twins remained living with their mother. Adolph was working on the family farm.

Now we will take a look at the woman who would become Adolph’s wife. Her name was Ada Susanna Weinhold, who was born on August 20, 1900. Ada’s parents were Phillip and Martha (Bock) Weinhold, which qualifies her to be called a “Dirt Weinhold”. She was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, but I cannot display here baptism record today. Ada was born too late in 1900 to make it into that census, so the first census entry I can display for Ada is the one taken in 1910. You can see that she was part of a large family made up of mostly sons. She was 9 years old at the time, and her father was a farmer in the Union Township.

I know Ada was not living with her parents when the 1920 census was taken, but I was unable to find her. I looked for her in the St. Louis census because that is where a lot of Perry County young ladies went to find work in those days, but I was unsuccessful. Perhaps if I was in Altenburg, I could use the indexes we have to find her if she was living in Perry County.

Adolph Kaufmann married Ada Weinhold on January 26, 1926 at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. I can only display this couple’s marriage license.

According to our German Family Tree, there were 6 children in this Kaufmann family, 4 of which were boys. We find this Kaufmann household in the 1930 census. Adolph was a farmer all his life.

Next, we find the Kaufmann’s in the 1940 census. Their last child was born earlier that year, and was likely named after her grandmother, Pauline, who was then living in this household as well.

Adolph was required to have a World War II draft card completed in 1942.

The last census we can view that includes this Kaufmann family is the one taken in 1950 and recently released to the public. I find it interesting that this entry says Ada was a farm helper on her husband’s farm.

Adolph Kaufmann died in 1960 at the age of 63. His death certificate says that he died of pneumonia at the Osteopathic Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He died two days before Christmas.

Ada Kaufmann died in 1989 at the age of 88. Adolph and Ada Kaufmann are buried together in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg.

Pauline Kaufmann, the mother of the twins, lived until 1948, old enough to see her grandchildren born to Adolph and Ada survive their early childhood years. This must have a great comfort to her after experiencing the deaths of so many of her own children.

Tomorrow, I will be on the road for lots of hours, so I will be unable to write a new post. Perhaps I will repost an old story, or you will just have to go without your daily dose of East Perry County history.