Today’s main character has just 2 church records that are noted in our German Family Tree…a baptism record and a confirmation record. I seem to be finding quite a few situations like this lately. However, in this case, it is not one in which this young man’s family moved elsewhere. In fact, his parents and many of his siblings lived in East Perry County all their lives. This young man was sent off at a very young age to become a Lutheran teacher.

Theodore Julius Christian Kuehnert was the firstborn son of Julius and Emma (Schmidt) Kuehnert. He was born on June 8, 1883, so today would be his 140th birthday. He was born on a Friday, and the following Sunday, on June 10th, he was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. An image of his baptism record from that congregation’s books is displayed below.

Theodore was confirmed in 1897 at Trinity. He was in a class of 26 confirmands.

Because of the timing of his birth, along with the fact that we cannot view the 1890 census, we have a very unusual situation in the case of Theodore Kuehnert. He is never found in a Perry County census. When the 1900 census was taken, Theodore is found as a 16 year-old student at the Lutheran Teachers Seminary in Addison, Illinois.

In 1903, Theodore Kuehnert became a teacher at Holy Cross Lutheran School in St. Louis. In an anniversary book we have in our research library for Holy Cross Lutheran School, this note for the year, 1903, documents his arrival at that school.

Theodore Kuehnert remained at Holy Cross until 1920 according to this list of historic teachers at that school.

The anniversary book for that school includes several photos of this school’s faculty while Theodore was on that staff. I will place them in a gallery below. The thumbnails are clickable to enlarge them and include captions to identify the teachers. Just the photo for 1915 included one woman on the faculty. The rest were all men.

Theodore left the faculty of Holy Cross in 1920, but he did not leave St. Louis. He became the first executive director for Lutheran schools in the Western District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. A note is found in the anniversary book for Holy Cross Lutheran Church concerning that change. A new teacher, Rufus Schneider arrived on the scene at the same time. A previous blog, Rufus….Herr Schneider, was published on this site because he had served time at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wittenberg and had married a Perry County girl.

It was while Theodore was in St. Louis that he found his bride. Her name was Anna Lautner, who was born on July 20, 1886. Anna was the daughter of Charles and Anna (Kriesse) Lautner. I did not take the time to check if Anna was baptized at Holy Cross or not. We find Anna in the 1900 census at the age of 13. Her father was a cabinet maker in St. Louis.

On November 24, 1909, Theodore Kuehnert married Anna Lautner at Holy Cross, St. Louis. A marriage record for them is shown here.

This couple had 3 children. None of them had been born before the 1910 census. It says Theodore was a teacher at a private school.

Theodore had a World War I draft registration completed in 1918. It says Theodore was a teacher at Holy Cross Lutheran School.

The 1920 census shows the Kuehnert’s living in St. Louis. This census must have been compiled before Theodore became the education executive during that year because he is still called a teacher at a private school. At this time, there were 2 children in their family.

One more son was born in 1922. Then, in 1927, Theodore moved his family to River Forest, Illinois where he became a professor at Concordia Teachers College. That is where we find the Kuehnert’s in the 1930 census. Theodore is called an instructor at a college.

Not long after this census was taken, the Kuehnert’s daughter, Ruth, married Norville Nero, and that couple left for China where Norville would be a Lutheran teacher. That couple’s story was told on this blog in the post titled, Nero Enters China…..With the Gospel. However, Norville died in 1934 while in China. It must have been at a time not long after Ruth had left that the Kuehnert’s had this photo taken.

The 1940 census shows Theodore and Anna with their two sons. Also included in their household, was Ruth, now a widow, and her two sons.

In 1942, Theodore had a World War II draft card completed.

The last census we can view for the Kuehnert’s was the one taken in 1950. Theodore and Anna had an empty nest, and Theodore, at the age of 66, was still a college professor.

Theodore was included in a 1953 yearbook for Concordia Teachers College as part of the faculty. It indicates he was a professor of education and social science.

Anna Kuehnert died in 1968 at the age of 81; Theodore Kuehnert died in 1975 at the age of 91. These two are buried in the Fairview Memorial Park in Chicago. They have entries on Findagrave.com, but there are no gravestone photos. The Findagrave entry for Theodore contains this short biography for him.

We can now add this story to the many others that have been told about Perry County natives who left to become full-time church workers. I consider it a tribute to the quality education these people have received here in Perry County, as well as the commitment folks around here have for encouraging their young ones to pursue careers in the Lutheran church.