When you look at Lutheran marriages that took place in the 1800’s, you often find a couple in which one was born in Germany and one was born in the United States. When you get to marriages taking place in the 1900’s, almost all brides as well as grooms were born in this country. The story you will read today is one of those German/American weddings.

Friedrich Karl Thieret was born on July 20, 1844 in the Bavarian region of Germany. Like so many German men with the name Karl, he would mostly go by the name Charles once in America. Charles was the son of Christoph and Mary (Lang) Thieret. When Charles was 7 years old, his family made the voyage to America in 1851 aboard the ship, Elise. The passenger list for this ship is somewhat puzzling. For some reason, Mary is given her maiden name, Lang. Because of that, it appears that Charles and his younger brother, Heinrich, also had the name Lang (or Lange).

In a previous post about Mary Lang’s parents, Great Great Great Granddaughter of Count Schmeuszer, it was told that Mary’s father came to America in 1855, but died of pneumonia on his way up the Mississippi River outside Cairo, Illinois.

Charles’s parents had 5 more children once they settled in America. The first of those was born in 1851 a month after their arrival, so his mother must have been quite pregnant on the ship. We find Charles in the 1860 census at the age of 15. His father was a farmer.

When the Civil War broke out, Charles served in the Union Army. The form below gives evidence of his military activity.

It was not long after his military stint that Charles got married, so let’s take a look at his American-born bride. Her name was Barbara Hoehn, who was born on February 6, 1850. She was the daughter of Michael and Margaret (Bergmann) Hoehn. Barbara was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg, so we cannot view an actual image of her baptism record. Barbara was born early enough in 1850 to be found in the census taken that year. She was listed as being 6 months old (6/12). I’ve discovered that census takers were not very good at spelling the surname, Hoehn (which we would pronounce as “Hain”).

Next, we find Barbara in the 1860 census when she was 10 years old. The Hoehn name was butchered in this entry also.

Charles Thieret married Barbara Hoehn on September 17, 1868. The marriage took place at Peace Lutheran Church at Friedenberg. I was unable to find a civil marriage record for this pair. Our German Family Tree lists 10 children born to Charles and Barbara. We find the Thieret’s in the 1870 census with just their first child.

This couple was likely living in a portion of the Cinque Hommes Township that became part of the newly-formed Union Township that was established after 1870. We find them in the Union Township pages of the 1880 census (not the pages that were lost). Now, they had 6 children in their household, and Charles was no longer called a farmer. He was a grocer.

As it turns out, that was the last census in which we find Charles. He died in 1894 at the age of 49. No mention is made in the Friedenberg Remembrances book about a cause of death, and it was the time before Missouri death certificates were kept. Charles was buried in the Peace Lutheran Cemetery in Friedenberg. His gravestone is one place where we see him called Karl.

The 1900 census shows Barbara as a widow. Her later obituary says that she moved to Perryville after the death of her husband. Two teenage daughters were still living with her.

Next, we find Barbara Thieret living by herself in Perryville when the 1910 census was taken.

A Civil War pension record shows that Barbara was assisted later in her life by her husband’s military pension.

The 1920 census shows Barbara living with her daughter, Annabelle, who had married Theodore Thilenius. Two of Barbara’s grandchildren were also in the household.

At this point, let me point out that Theodore Thilenius was the proprietor of a creamery. Later, he would operate an ice company, and his son would operate a beer distributorship. Our museum has the Thilenius Distributing 1930-ish truck that was used by that business. We often put it outside on display at Christmas time.

Barbara Thieret died in 1923 at the age of 73. Her death certificate is displayed below. The informant on this form is Theo Thilenius.

An obituary for Barbara was published in the Perry County Republican.

Barbara Thieret was buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville.

The arrival of the Christoph Thieret family in 1851 was the time when this surname entered Perry County for the first time. Our German Family Tree has 7 pages of descendants with this surname. Since many of the Thieret females married and carried their spouses surnames, there are even more descendants in the GFT that come from those original Theiret’s.