The posts, Migrating Miesner’s and May the Fourth Fred Miesner tell the tales of two men named Fred Miesner. You will read yet another account about a Fred Miesner today. I came upon this story because the woman Fred Miesner would marry was born on this day. We will begin with her.
Anna Susannah Lungwitz was born on July 26, 1889, making today her 134th birthday. She went by the name Susannah or Susie. Susannah was the daughter of Paul and Mary (Boehme) Lungwitz. She was born during the time when Perry County kept birth records. Below are two images of her birth record. You might notice that Magdalena Mueller was the midwife who assisted with this birth. I often claim that Magdalena was the midwife who serviced the Wittenberg area.
The above birth record says Susannah was born in Wittenberg, so, even though her baptism record is found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, she may have been baptized in the church/school building located in Wittenberg. Since I am still away from home, I am unable to display that baptism record. Susannah shows up in her first census in 1900 at the age of 10. Her father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township. I also suspect that Susannah attended school at that same church/school building in Wittenberg.
Next, we find Susannah and her family living across the river in the Fountain Bluff Township when the 1910 census was taken. This is likely how she became acquainted with her future husband.
Now we will look at that future husband. Frederick Johann Heinrich Miesner was born on October 4, 1887, the son of Johann and Anna (Luedemann) Miesner. Fred was baptized at Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob, Illinois. He is found in the 1900 census at the age of 12. His father was a farmer in the Fountain Bluff Township. What is interesting about the census entry below is that there are two Fred Miesner’s in the household. They were some sort of cousins. The 22 year-old Fred Miesner was the person highlighted in the Migrating Miesner’s blog post.
Fred was still single when the 1910 census was taken. Fred is a 22 year-old house carpenter in this census entry.
Fred Miesner married Susannah Lungwitz on October 20, 1912 at Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob. I did find a civil marriage record for them, but it does not give much more than their two names. I am unable to get a photo of their church marriage record. According to our German Family Tree, there were 3 children born to this couple. The firstborn child died in infancy.
Fred had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917.
The 1920 census shows this pair with just one child. Fred was a farmer.
When the 1930 census was taken, we see both of their children, Arlene and Willard.
Just Willard was still living with Fred and Susie when the 1940 census was taken. However, there were two young Yearian children who are called lodgers in their household. The mother of the Yearian children was Susannah’s sister, Emily. You can read about the Yearian family in the post, Emily, Like Her Dad, Crossed the River Often.
The last census we can view for the Miesner’s is the one taken in 1950. This time, Fred is called a common laborer for a construction company.
Susanna Miesner died in 1969 at the age of 80. We can read her obituary below.
Fred Miesner died just 3 months later in January of 1970. We can also read his obituary.
Fred and Susannah are buried together in the Christ Lutheran Cemetery in Jacob.
The Miesner surname is one that shows up often on both sides of the Mississippi River. I often associate the Lungwitz surname with the ferry that ran from Wittenberg to Illinois back in those days. The most common first names for male Miesner’s seem to be Fred, John, and Henry. Today’s Fred Miesner happened to carry all three of those names. Now I wonder if I have run out of Fred Miesner’s to write about on this blog.