I have a hard time resisting the story of a person celebrating their 200th birthday, especially when I locate a baptism record for the individual. Since most of the German Lutherans first came to Perry County in 1839, we can be sure that the birth of a person celebrating a bicentennial birthday must have been born elsewhere, most likely in Germany. That is the case with today’s birthday boy.

Ernst Otto Wolff was born on May 31, 1823 in Wittlohe, Germany. The town of Wittlohe is located near Bremen in northern Germany as displayed on the map below.

Ernst Otto’s baptism record is shown here. This document indicates that his parents were Dietrich Wilhelm Gerhard and Anna Marie Wolff. A family tree on Ancestry.com indicates that his mother’s maiden name was Hector.

Ernst Otto became a Lutheran minister. I suspect that he received his pastoral training in Germany because Concordia Seminary was in Altenburg during the early and middle 1840’s, and I found no evidence that he attended that institution. The first evidence we have of Ernst Otto Wolff being in America is a record of him being the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg beginning in 1844. The Friedenberg Remembrances book contains this description of its early history.

In that same book, we find this list of early pastors at that congregation. You can see that Rev. Wolff served that church for two time periods with a brief time during which Rev. Reissner served them. By the way, there is evidence that Rev. Reissner and his wife died in Staunton, Illinois in 1851 according to an article found in Der Lutheraner.

Now, we will take a look at the early life of the woman who would become Rev. Wolff’s bride. Her name was Johanne Eleanore Kuehn, who was born on February 7, 1829. At least, that date is given by a few family trees on Ancestry.com. It is not backed up by any documents cited in our German Family Tree. Eleanore was the daughter of Johann and Johanna Kuehn. I found no evidence of her mother’s maiden name. The Kuehn family became part of the Gesellschaft in 1838-1839 when Eleanore was around 11 years old. They travelled to America aboard the ship, Copernicus. We see the Kuehn names on the passenger list for that ship below.

The Kuehn family first settled in the Seelitz community in Perry County, but not long after that, they purchased land near Frohna. It was there that Eleanore got married in 1848. Before I discuss that marriage, let me tell you what had been going on at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. That congregation’s first pastor was Rev. E.G. Keyl. However, in 1847, Pastor Keyl took a call and moved away from Frohna. For a few years, 1847-1849, that congregation was served by Rev. Gotthold Heinrich Loeber, who was also serving the congregation in Altenburg. Pastor Loeber’s son, Christoph Heinrich Loeber became Concordia’s pastor when he graduated from the seminary in Altenburg. The marriage I am about to describe took place at Concordia when Rev. G.H. Loeber was filling the vacancy at that church.

Rev. Otto Ernst Wolff married Eleanore Kuehn on February 26th in 1848. That means this past February would have been this couple’s 175th anniversary. A Perry County marriage record for this wedding is shown below. It says that Rev. Gotthold Heinrich Loeber was the pastor at this event.

Now, let’s take a look at the church record for this wedding. I recognize the handwriting as that of Rev. G.H. Loeber.

A translation for this marriage record is included in our collection of Concordia, Frohna books. It adds the interesting fact that Rev. E.O. Wolff’s father was a choirmaster and organist in Germany.

The mystery in this story is where Rev. Wolff and his new wife were around 1850 when he was not the pastor at Peace. I was unable to find this couple in the 1850 census. A family tree on Ancestry.com says this couple had 6 children, one who died as an infant. In 1855, Rev. Wolff moved to the Joachim Township in Jefferson County, Missouri. It appears that he became the pastor of 2 congregations in that area. First, we see him in a list of early pastors at Zion Lutheran Church in Hillsboro which had been established in 1852.

Also, it looks as if Rev. Wolff was the first pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Antonia.

During that time period, the 1860 census was taken, and it ended up to be the only one I could find that included both Ernst Otto and Eleanore. Three children were in the household at that time.

After serving at those two congregations, Pastor Wolff became the pastor of another church in that vicinity, St. John’s Lutheran Church in Arnold.

Rev. Ernst Otto Wolff died in 1866 at the age of 42. He is buried in the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery in Arnold.

Eleanore Wolff was certainly alive in 1870, but I failed to find her in that year’s census. Then, when the 1880 census was taken, we find her and two sons living in St. Louis.

Eleanore’s death is the subject for debate. One family tree on Ancestry.com identifies her as the woman who is buried in the New Bethlehem Cemetery in St. Louis with the name Ellen Wolff. There is no gravestone photo.

There is a St. Louis death record corresponding to this grave site. I found no information on this form that would connect her to the Rev. Wolff family, but I also don’t see anything that would disqualify it either.

The possibility of Ellen Wolff being the wife of Rev. Wolff is supported by the fact that the two sons listed in the 1880 census are also buried in the same cemetery.

I will throw another monkey wrench into this situation. There is an Elenore Wolf buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Indianapolis that contains the fact that she died in 1899, which could also correspond to Mrs. Ernst Otto Wolff. No gravestone photo is found for her either.

I happen to think the Ellen Wolff grave site in St. Louis is the more likely one for today’s character.

Add this story to several others found on this blog about some of the early pastors to serve in the Lutheran churches in Perry County, Missouri. This one even married a local girl. And today, if he was still alive, Ernst Otto would be a 200 year-old Wolff.