The way I have it figured, there were 2 Wunderlich clans that arrived in Perry County in 1839 as part of a major German Lutheran immigration. One set of Wunderlich’s were on one of the ships carrying passengers under the leadership of Rev. Martin Stephan that arrived in Perry County at the end of May. The other set of Wunderlich’s arrived later in 1839 as part of the Gruber Group. That group did not arrive in Perry County until December. Today’s main character came from the group of early Wunderlich’s. However, before I get to the Wunderlich’s, I will begin with the bride in the story who is our birthday girl.

Marie Josephine Bendel was born on September 11, 1839, making today her 184th birthday. Josephine was the daughter of Johannes and Marie (Becker) Bendel. Josephine was the first child born into this Bendel family. She was born in Germany, but her family must have made the voyage to America when she was very young. In fact, there is a family tree on Ancestry.com that claims she was born at sea. I found no evidence to confirm that. When the next child was born to the Bendel couple in 1842, she was born in Missouri, probably in St. Louis. It is in that city that we find the Bendel family when the 1850 census was taken. Finding this census entry proved to be a real challenge. Ancestry.com transcribes their name as Bander. I know I was excited when I finally found it. Josephine was 11 years old, and her father had no occupation listed.

That is the only census I found in which Josephine was still single. So, we will now turn our attention to the Wunderlich family in Perry County. Johann Gottlob Heinrich Wunderlich was born on November 27, 1830 in Eichenberg, Germany. He was the son of Johann Carl and Maria Elisabeth (Seyfahrt) Wunderlich. I discovered when I researched him that all of his given names are used for him on future documents. I settled on calling him Gottlob in this post. The Wunderlich family made the trip to America aboard the ship, Republik, which arrived in New Orleans in January of 1839. The passenger list for that ship uses his name, Heinrich, and he is said to be 8 years of age. Another 75 year-old Wunderlich is listed right under the children’s names that I figure was Gottlob’s grandfather.

Gottlob was a 19 year-old blacksmith living in the Gottfried Schmidt household in Altenburg when the 1850 census was taken. He was probably learning the blacksmith trade from Gottfried, who was also a blacksmith.

In some unknown way, Gottlob Wunderlich became acquainted with Josephine Bendel, and on October 7, 1857, they became husband and wife Their wedding took place in Madison County, Illinois. Perhaps their marriage record can be found in the early books of HoIy Cross Lutheran Church in Collinsville. I can only display this Illinois marriage record for them.

After their wedding, this couple remained in Illinois for a short time, having their first child in 1858. Then, when they had their second child in April of 1860, that child was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. Also, when the census was taken during that year, we find the Wunderlich’s living in the Shawnee Township, where New Wells is located.

I ran into a problem locating this Wunderlich family in the 1870 census. However, I did find Josephine’s Bendel family living in the Shawnee Township. Josephine’s father had died in 1869, and that may have precipitated her mother’s decision to move to Missouri and relocate near her daughter and her family. Her entry in the 1870 census is pictured here. I noticed that Barbara Bendel’s neighbors in this year’s census are very similar to the ones found in the next census I will show, but I failed to find the Gottlob Wunderlich family

The state of Missouri took a census in Cape Girardeau County in 1876, and we find the Wunderlich family in an entry from that census. You can see that this family had gotten quite large.

Next, we find the Wunderlich’s in the 1880 census which shows Gottlob as a farmer in the Shawnee Township.

At some point later in their lives, Gottlob and Josephine had a photograph taken.

The 1900 census turned out to be the last one in which we find Gottlob. He was a 69 year-old farmer. He and Josephine had an empty nest.

Gottlob Wunderlich died in 1905 at the age of 74. Josephine is a widow when we find her in the 1910 census. She was living with her son, Paul, and his family.

Once more, we find Josephine living in Paul’s household in the 1920 census. She was 81 years old at the time.

Josephine Wunderlich died in1924 at the age of 84. We can view her death certificate below.

Gottlob and Josephine are each buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in New Wells.

In addition to the two Wunderlich clans I mentioned in this article, there are yet other Wunderlich’s who show up in our German Family Tree that do not appear connected to either of them. I have come to the conclusion that the Wunderlich surname is more common in Germany than I had thought. When I went to our museum this morning, I found 12 binders full of information about Wunderlich’s, most of them produced by the late Clinton Wunderlich, who I consider a giant amongst the genealogists that have researched German Lutherans from this area. What makes him so amazing is that he did all his research in the days before the internet was invented. His work included writing letters to get information from people to answer his questions. His work also included making trips to visit churches to look through their records to find information. And when he found it, he had to write it all down. He was not able to make copies. Some of those trips took Clinton all the way to Germany to get the facts. I am in awe of the hard work he did to produce the amount of material we have in our research library. My work is so easy. I punch keys on a keyboard that allow me to travel all over the world without ever leaving the comfort of my recliner, and when I find it, I can make digital copies easily and store them in a cloud. How different is that?