Before I tell today’s story, I need to tell you that after I published yesterday’s post that had what I called unanswered questions, a comment was placed on that post by Tim Yamnitz. Tim is an outstanding researcher who lives in Germany. He has the uncanny ability to read the old German script. His comment contains answers to several of the questions that were posed in yesterday’s story. I suggest you go back and read what he added. He corrects several of my errors. Now, on to today’s tale.

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The primary story that is told by our museum in Altenburg is the one that details the large movement of immigrants from Germany to East Perry County in 1838-1839. Some additional folks arrived at the same time from New York, making this group even larger. Apparently, this large group of immigrants settling in this undeveloped land had gotten the attention of others in Germany. It apparently was not long before other immigrants started showing up early on in this area, despite the fact that this colony of German Lutherans was not doing so well during those early years.

A family that first appeared in 1840 will be highlighted in today’s post. Johann Dietrich brought his family to America that year according to this immigration record from a document titled, The Wuerttemberg Emigration Index.

A Dietrich family binder that we have says this family came to this country on the ship, Talma. This family got to Perry County early enough to appear in the1840 census. There were 8 members of this Dietrich household listed in this census.

One of the sons in that Dietrich family, Friedrich Wilhelm Dietrich, married a woman named Beata Lindane Mengel in 1853. That marriage leads us up to the character that is today’s birthday boy. Friedrich Julius Dietrich was the firstborn child of those Dietrich’s, and he was born on January 21, 1854. Julius was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. His baptism record is pictured below.

Julius is found in his first census in 1860. He is called Fried. J. in this entry, and he was 6 years old. His father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

Before I move on with Julius’s story, let me point out that a previous post was written about another family of Dietrich’s. That was the very unusual family that had 9 children who were all boys. That family later moved to Kansas. I titled that story, One of the Altenburg Giants. The boys that I called the Altenburg Giants were cousins of Julius.

Julius is next found in the 1870 census as a teenager. Three more children had been added to this household in the 1860’s.

Now, we will turn our attention to the woman who would become Julius’s bride before the next census was compiled. Her name was Catharine Louise Schneier. Louise was born on July 29, 1855, the daughter of Nicholous and Katharina (Drumtra) Schneier. She was the firstborn child in her family, and later census entries say that she was born in New York. Her other siblings, all born after 1860, were baptized in Altenburg. An image found on Ancestry.com lists the Schneier parents and children and their birthdays.

The only census in which we find Louise as a single woman was the one taken in 1870. Her father was a tailor in Altenburg. Louise was 15 years old at the time.

Julius Dietrich married Louise Schneier on September 3, 1874. This wedding took place at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. This marriage was actually a very notable one. I have often referred to a period of missing marriage records in the Trinity church books that is called the “Koestering Hole”. Julius and Louise’s record is the first one to show up in these records when Pastor Koestering began once again to record marriages. That church marriage record is displayed below. It says on this form that Julius was from Appleton.

Our German Family Tree lists 7 children born to this couple. The first 2 died at very young ages. All of them were baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. When the 1880 census was taken, we find the Dietrich’s living in Appleton where Julius was a wagon maker. Just one infant child was in their household. Louise’s brother, John Schneier, was also in this entry. He was an apprentice wagon maker.

Two years after the above census was taken, Louise’s father died. Nicholous’s death record is mistakenly transcribed as Nicholous Schmidt in the Trinity, Altenburg books. That death record states that he died from a fall off a wagon. I wonder if it was a wagon made by his son or his son-in-law.

A lot of time went by before we can view the next census in which we find the Dietrich’s. During that time interval, the Dietrich’s had a family photo taken. It is shown here. I think it was taken right around 1900 because the young girl in this picture, Erna, was born in 1896.

The 1900 census shows the Dietrich family with the 3 children shown in the above photo, although it says their youngest, Erna, was 13 years old when she was only 3 or 4. Julius was still a wagon maker.

Before 1908, Julius and Louise moved to Salisbury, Missouri. The map below gives you an idea where that town was located in Missouri.

Louise Dietrich died in 1908 at the age of 53. When the 1910 census was taken, Julius is found living by himself and working as a mechanic for a wool warehouse in Salisbury.

Julius is back closer to his hometown when the 1920 census was taken. He is found living in Cape Girardeau with his cousin, Paul Dietrich, and his family. Julius was a machinist for a threshing machine.

Julius Dietrich died in 1927 at the age of 73. His death certificate indicates that he died in St. Louis at the city hospital. It also states that he was a factory worker.

Both Julius and Louise Dietrich are buried in the Salisbury Cemetery in Salisbury, Missouri.

This story is another one that demonstrates how valuable the family binders that our museum’s research library possesses. Binders such as the Dietrich family binder often provide anecdotal stories for some of the characters on this blog. They also are a great source for locating photos of the characters. I would not have been able to let you to see what Julius and Louise looked like without the photo I found in that Dietrich binder. The binder shown below says that this family history was begun in the 1920’s and later completed by another family member in the 1960’s. It has been a useful tool for members of this Dietrich family for a long time, and now we have a copy of it in our research library, and it gets used for stories like the one you just read.