The story you will read today is another one in which we find both the husband and wife in our German Family Tree, but there is no evidence that these two were connected by marriage. The husband has just one church record in local congregation’s books. As you might guess, this man moved away from Perry County at a relatively young age.

Adolph Henry Hooss was born on September 6, 1893, so today is his 130th birthday. Adolph was the son of Charles and Minnie (Markwort) Hooss. His parents formed a couple made up of two surnames that were prominent in the early years of downtown Perryville. There was a Hooss Hotel and a Markwort Store located on the town square. Minnie Markwort’s brother, Herb, founded a sporting goods store in St. Louis that still exists today. I found a few old photos of the Markwort Hall in Perryville. In the photo on the left, the Markwort Hall is on the left side of the street.

Adolph was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. A transcription of his baptism record is shown here.

In the 1900 census, Adolph is found at the age of 6. He was the 2nd of 4 children born to his parents, but his older brother died as an infant, so Adolph took the role of the oldest child. His father was a hardware dealer in Perryville.

Adolph was a teenager when the 1910 census was compiled. His father is called the proprietor of a hardware store.

I found this ad for the Hooss Hardware Company in a 1911 Perry County Republican newspaper.

An article about Adolph was published in 1916 that indicated he was living in St. Louis and working for Butler Brothers, which was an industrial tools company.

Adolph had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917. At that time, he was employed by the St. Louis Fire Company. This form says Adolph was born in 1894, but it is the only such document giving that year of birth.

Now, we will turn our attention to the woman who would become Adolph’s bride. Her name was Clara Marie Bueckmann, who was born on November 17, 1895. Clara was the daughter of Friedrich and Lydia (Knapp) Bueckmann. She was child #3 out of a total of 4. Clara and all her siblings were baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar. We can take a look at Clara’s baptism record from that congregation’s books.

Clara is found in the 1900 census at the age of 4. This entry is very difficult to read so I enlarged it to make it easier. The occupation column is not in the image, but it says her father was a farm laborer in the Salem Township.

Next, we find Clara in the 1910 census. By then, the Bueckmann family had moved into Perryville. That move may have been precipitated by the death of Clara’s father in 1905. At the age of 14, Clara was called a servant in a private home.

The German Family Tree does not connect Adolph and Clara because their marriage record is not to be found in any local church books. Nor is it found in the Perry County marriage records. That is because it took place in St. Louis. I found a reference to their marriage in a St. Louis newspaper, and it says they were married in 1918. When the 1920 census was taken, we do not even find this couple living in Missouri. They were residing in Dallas, Texas where Adolph was a bookkeeper for a tire company. Clara was in the cashier department at a bank. Clara’s mother was also living with them.

I located two photos that contain people in this post. The one on the left shows Adolph and Clara which is marked with the date, 1914, which, if correct, would have been taken prior to their wedding. The one on the right shows Clara with her sister, Elsie, along with the man who was married to Elsie in 1917, Ernest Welge.

The Hooss’s only child, a boy named Thomas, was born in 1927 while the Hooss’s were living in Texas. They were still there in 1930. Adolph is called a weather strip mechanic. This time, one of Clara’s sisters, Edna, was living with them.

During the next decade, the Hooss family relocated to St. Louis during. Adolph is called a salesman for a weather strip company.

Adolph had his World War II draft card completed in 1942. We are given a more specific detail about his employer. He was working for the Chamberlin Metal Weather Strip Company.

I found this 1923 ad for the Chamberlin Metal Weather Strip Company.

The last census the public can view is the one from 1950. Adolph was still working with weather stripping. He and Clara had an empty nest.

Adolph Hooss died in 1955 at the age of 61. We can view his death certificate below.

Clara Hooss died a year later in 1956 at the age of 60. Her death certificate is displayed here.

Adolph and Clara Hooss are buried together in the St. Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in St. Louis.

I think you would find that a large percentage of stories on this blog involve men who at one time or another during their lives were involved in farming or their fathers were farmers. This story just mentions a brief time when Clara’s father was involved in farming. The rest of the characters in this tale were not. They were involved in other business ventures, and in this case, they lived most of their lives in relatively large cities.