Downtown Frohna might not be a term that folks would use these days. However, there was a time when a person traveling down Main Street through that town, probably using horse and buggy transportation, would have witnessed quite a beehive of activity. A bunch of factors have contributed to the fact that what I lovingly refer to as downtown businesses are not a prevalent these days. Those factors include the development of automobiles, big box stores, and supermarkets. You are going to read a story today about a lady who was born and raised in Frohna at a time when that town was a place for almost all local residents to gather and carry on commerce. This lady was born into a family that operated several of the local businesses in downtown Frohna.

Marie Ottilie Lueders was born on September 1, 1893, so today would be her 130th birthday. Marie was the daughter of Charles and Susanna (Palisch) Lueders. Marie’s parents formed an interesting couple made up of the son of a man who operated the Lueders Store on one side of Main Street who married the daugther of the man who operated the Palisch Store across the street. That tale was told in the post, Lueders/Palisch: Marriage or Competition? Marie was child #8 in a family of 10 according to our German Family Tree. All of these Lueders children were baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. Marie’s baptism record can be viewed here..

Marie is found in the 1900 census at the age of 6. Her mother had died the year before in 1899, so her father is called a widower. As I have already written, he was a merchant in Frohna.

The Lueders Store had been established by August Lueders, Marie’s grandfather. There was also a time when the Lueders family was involved in making wine, and one of Marie’s uncles ran a photography studio in Frohna. I wrote a post about Marie’s grandparents titled, Frohna Entrepreneur. A photo that has been displayed on this blog before shows the Lueders Store which still stands.

Charles Lueders married again in 1902. His second wife was Anna Marie (Petzoldt) Mueller, whose first husband had died in 1889. The Charles Lueders family had the photo taken shown below, probably taken by Charles’s brother, Paul Lueders. Some family trees on Ancestry.com identify the woman in this picture as Susanna, but I think that is impossible. The youngest child in the photo was born in 1898, and Susanna died in 1899. She looks much older than a 1 year old. I think the woman in this photo is Anna Marie. Since Marie was the second-youngest daughter in the family, I think she is the one standing with her hand on her father’s thigh on the right.

Next, we find Marie in the 1910 census at the age of 16. This time, her father is called the postmaster. Back in those days, it was storeowners who were the postmasters in towns like Frohna. Marie is called a servant for a private family.

I think it was about this time that the three youngest daughters in the Lueders family had this photo taken. It includes Marie on the left, Julia in the back, and Martha on the right. In 1910, Martha is found living with her grandfather, August Lueders. Her grandmother had died in 1909, and she was likely needed to do the housekeeping in that household, so she is not seen with Marie and Julia in the above entry. In 1910, these 3 girls were 18, 16, and 11 which looks about right for this photo.

Marie Lueders never married, although I will show evidence later that she may have almost made it to the altar. When the 1920 census was compiled, Marie was called a 26 year-old servant. Since her stepmother had died in 1919, she was almost certainly a caretaker for her father, who was then 66 years old and back to being a widower. He was still the postmaster for Frohna.

Marie was still living with her father in downtown Frohna when the 1930 census was taken. I am placing an image of that census which displays several households that I would describe as being part of that town’s commercial district…downtown Frohna. I will work my way up from the bottom. Theodore Fischer was the proprietor of a retail store. Right above the Fischer family is that of Ernst Palisch, who is also the proprietor of a store. Those two likely ran the Palisch/Fischer Store across Main Street from the Lueders Store. Then, we see Charles and Marie’s household. Charles, at the age of 72, was no longer working, and Marie is called the clerk at the post office. It’s the entry at the top that really interested me. William Heinbockel is called the proprietor of a drink parlor. The United States was well into the time period of Prohibition in 1930. William was trying to provide his customers with some sort of non-alcoholic drinks. Soda had been around for a while but may have become more profitable with the prohibition of alcoholic beverages.

Marie’s father died in 1936. Then we find Marie living in Perryville in the 1940 census. She was the housekeeper in a household of 3 men. The head of that household was Emanuel Hoffstetter who was a widower.

The last census the public can view is the one taken in 1950. This time, she was living in St. Louis in the household of Margaret Gerhardt, who was a widow living with a single son and a divorced daughter, both in their 30’s. Marie was a 56 year-old maid.

Marie lived for 30 more years after the above census was taken. She died in 1980 at the Altenheim in St. Louis. She died too recently to view her death certificate. Her body was brought back to Frohna and buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery.

The photo below was published on Ancestry.com by a person in the family of Marie’s sister, Julie, who married a Hellwege. It was supposedly taken at a Hellwege/Burroughs house in Frohna when she was visiting.

That same picture on Ancestry.com contains this little story about Marie.

I know that I should not be so interested in something that may be considered a dark spot in this family’s history, but I cannot help but wonder who the young man was that jilted Marie after the war. I think it’s likely he was another East Perry County personality. I should probably just let it remain a mystery.