We begin our story today with the birth of a baby girl on December 17th in 1894. Her name was Eugenia Margaretha Welp, the daughter of Henry and Regina (Twenhafel) Welp. Her father was one of the teachers at Concordia Lutheran School in Frohna for 51 years, from 1883-1934. Eugenia was the 6th child out of 9 born into this Welp family. As you can predict, Eugenia was baptized at Concordia, Frohna. Her baptism record is displayed below.

Eugenia shows up in her first census in 1900 at the age of 5.

During her younger years, the Welp’s had a family photo taken. The photograph was almost certainly taken by Paul Lueders because it was taken in front of the Lueders home in Frohna. Eugenia is standing in the middle of the front row.

Ten years later, Eugenia was a teenager in the 1910 census. She was called a servant for a private family.

Eugenia would get married before the next census, so let’s turn our attention to the man who would become her husband. His name was Martin Ernst Burroughs, who was born on September 13, 1892. Martin was the son of Franklin and Marie (Schmidt) Burroughs. His father was one of the Burroughs children that were left in Wittenberg and were taken in by local residents who raised them. Martin was the 8th child of 10 children in this Burroughs family. Martin was born at the time when Perry County kept birth records. We can view his birth record below in two images.

Martin, like his future wife, was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. His baptism record from that congregation’s books is pictured here.

Martin is found in the 1900 census at the age of 7

When Martin was rather young, the Burroughs family also had a family photograph taken. Since Martin was the youngest son in his family, we can conclude that he is the shortest boy in the middle of the back row.

I was unable to find Martin in the 1910 census. He was almost certainly going to school in the Chicago area where he studied to become a Lutheran teacher. In the 1915 yearbook of Concordia Teachers College in River Forest, we find this photo and biography of Martin. This image has all the looks of someone who was in the graduating class for that year.

Martin Burroughs would also get married during 1915. He and Eugenia Welp got married on August 8, 1915 at Concordia, Frohna. The church record for this event is displayed below.

Exactly one week after this marriage, Martin’s sister, Laura, married Paul Bachmann. That is the next record on the Concordia marriage record pages. Paul Bachmann became a Lutheran teacher who spent some time in India. That story was told in the post, Gottseidank ist es Freitag.

We can also take a look at the marriage license for Martin and Eugenia.

Martin Burroughs had a World War I draft registration completed when that war broke out. When that form was filled out, Martin was a teacher at St. John’s Lutheran School in Waltz, Michigan.

Below is a photo of what St. John’s Lutheran Church and School looked like when Martin was a teacher there.

When the 1920 census was taken, we find the Burroughs family living in a new location. They were living in Jonesville, Indiana where Martin was teaching. There was one child in their household.

Martin would have been teaching at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Jonesville. Below is an image of what that church looks like today.

Another move was made by the Burroughs family before the 1930 census. In a previous post, Another Lehrer Lueders, it was reported that another Frohna native, Karl Lueders, was teaching in Jonesville, Indiana in 1922, so maybe he succeeded Teacher Burroughs after he moved from there. Martin Burroughs would spend much of his career teaching in Nodaway, Iowa. That is where we find them in the census entry shown below. This time the Burroughs household had 3 children. I also listed the Mueller household found above the Burroughs entry. William Mueller was the pastor in Nodaway, and he was born in Missouri. I had to see if he was another Perry County native. He was not, but I found out that he was from Cole Camp, Missouri.

Nodaway is located near Clarinda, Iowa and was the mother church for a few other churches in that area. Below is a photo of what Immanuel Lutheran Church in Nodaway looked like back in those days.

Both Teacher Burroughs and Pastor Mueller and their families can be found again in the 1940 census for Nodaway.

Toward the end of his teaching career, Martin and Eugenia both made their way back to their roots in Perry County. Martin was a teacher at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar when the 1950 census was taken.

Martin was retired when we find him and Eugenia in a 1959 Tucson, Arizona city directory.

Both Martin and Eugenia died in Tucson, Arizona in the 1980’s. Martin died in 1983 at the age of 90; Eugenia died in 1986 at the age of 91. They must have been buried in or around Tucson, but I could find no entry for them on Findagrave.com. Perhaps, our friend and fellow researcher, Kathy Berkbigler, who lives in Tucson, can go on a search for the grave sites of these Perry County natives near her home sometime.

Teacher Welp and his wife had several children who were either church workers or were married to church workers. That is a story line in several posts on this blog that have been told about pastors and teachers. In many cases, some of their children carry on the legacy of church work to the next generation. My wife and I were both Lutheran teachers. One of our daughters is now a Lutheran teacher, so this tradition continues in some families today.