I started the research for today’s story by looking at a lonely church record in our German Family Tree. When I find such a record, in this case a baptism record, I immediately think that one of two things may have happened. First, the person may have died early. The second option is that the person moved away and established their life elsewhere, which also included finding a spouse in their new location. That is not exactly the case today. In fact, I discovered that this lonely record ought to be connected to another lonely record that I discovered later in my research. And that lonely baptism record is found in the books of the same congregation as the first one. I will tell the story about how this happened in this post.

Lina Thekla Dietrich was born on August 21, 1883, making today her 140th birthday. Lina was the daughter of Charles and Ernestine (Koessl) Dietrich. Lina was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. An image of her baptism record is shown below.

In Lina’s case, her family already made a move away from the Shawnee Township when she was very young. She was the last child in her family to be baptized in New Wells. The next children were all born in St. Louis. I even found the other children’s baptism records at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in St. Louis. That is why we find Lina in her first census living in that city in 1900. Her father and her older brother, Anthony, were machinists. Lina was 16 years old at that time.

That would be the only census entry in which we find Lina as a single person, so we will turn our attention to the man who would become her husband. His name was Joseph Theodore Mueller, who was born on April 28, 1885. Sometimes he is called Joseph and sometimes Theodore, so I am going to call him J.T. I especially was reluctant to call him Joseph Mueller because several Joseph Mueller’s have already been written about on this blog. J.T. was the son of Henry and Katherine (Kieninger) Mueller. Below is a photo of J.T.’s parents that has been shown on this blog before.

J.T. was also baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. We can also take a look at an image of his baptism record.

J.T. is found in his first census at the age of 15. He was working on his father’s farm in the Shawnee Township.

It must have been shortly after this census entry that J.T. moved to St. Louis. That is where J.T. married Lina Dietrich on November 29, 1906 at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in St. Louis. We have a listing of church records from that congregation in a book that we have in our library. The church record for this couple is pictured here.

Later census entries and family trees on Ancestry.com are pretty clear that J.T. and Lina had 2 children that lived to adulthood. Their baptism records are also in the book of Holy Cross records. In the 1910 census, we find J.T. and Lina with their 2 young children, Mildred and Arnold, living in St. Louis. J.T. was a machinist at a pulley works business. The fact that J.T. became a machinist made me wonder if his father-in-law, who was a machinist, had an influence on J.T.’s future occupation.

J.T. had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. J.T. is called the vice president of Grand Gravois Auto Company

I decided to see what Lina’s brother, Anthony, another machinist, was doing when he had his World War I draft registration filled out. Lo, and behold, he was also working for the Grand Gravois Auto Company.

The 1920 census shows the same members of the Mueller household, just 10 years older. This time, J.T. was called the manager of an automobile repair business.

The Mueller’s family is next found in the 1930 census. This entry had me puzzled until I looked at the 1940 census. This entry shows Arnold and Mildred, but it also displays a 20 year-old son named Leo and a 3 year-old son named Robert. I eventually discovered that Mildred had married Leo White, and they had a son by this time, but the census taker did not give members of that family the surname of White. J.T. is called a mechanic at a machine shop.

In the 1940 census, we find the correct surnames because the White’s are still living with J.T. and Lina. J.T. was a mechanic for an automobile company.

J.T. had a World War II draft card completed in 1942. His employer is called the L.J. Doerr Motorworks.

I did a quick search on the L.J. Doerr Motorworks and found an application for a patent for an invention that was developed by that complany. It is for a cylinder grinding and honing machine.

The last census we can view is the one taken in 1950. This time, J.T. and Lina had an empty nest. J.T. was a machinist for a motor company.

Lina Mueller died in 1952 at the age of 68. Her death certificate says she died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

J.T. Mueller died in 1967 at the age of 82, His death certificate can also be viewed.

J.T. and Lina are buried together in the Sunset Memorial Cemetery in St. Louis.

J.T. and Lina’s baptism records are lonely now, but they won’t be for very long. When I stopped by the museum to get some images to go with this story this morning, Lynn Degenhardt, the creator and sustainer of our German Family Tree, was there. We discovered proof for what I suspected. We found the Holy Cross marriage record for this couple shown above. Then we found several of the other baptism records for people mentioned in this story. Lynn will be updating the GFT when he gets around to it.