You will see no marriage licenses in today’s post. You will see no military records either. That is because this will primarily be the story of 3 females who never were married. They also happened to be sisters.

I found this story as a result of the birth date of Clara Carolina Young. She was born on September 12, 1888, so today would be her 135th birthday. I have discussed this in previous posts, but the name, Young, in this case, was one in which this surname was at one time spelled Jung (or in some cases Jungk). Clara was the daughter of Peter and Brigetta (Maisel) Young. She was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. You will find Clara’s baptism record on a page from the Immanuel, Perryville binder that we have in our research library. I have highlighted all the baptism records for children in the Young/Maisel family. You can see that they are all listed as either being Jung’s or Jungk’s.

After looking at records associated with Clara Young, I discovered that not only did Clara never get married, but two of her sisters also never married. Not only that, but these 3 sisters can be found in the same census entries in all the ones in which I found them. These other two sisters were Magdalena “Lena” and Stella Young. Lena was a few years older than Clara, and Stella was a few years younger. All 3 of these sisters are found in their first census in 1900. They were living in Perryville where their father was a bartender.

Next, we find the Young sisters in the 1910 census. Their father continued to be a bartender at a saloon. Lena was a waiter at a hotel, Clara was a telephone operator, and Stella, at the age of 11, was too young to have an occupation.

I have previously written about two of the brothers in this family, Louis and Edward. In the above census, Louis was a salesman at a general store, and Edward was a barber. Edward would later change professions as he established a funeral home in Perryville. That business would later become Young & Sons Funeral Home.

The 1920 census shows the Young family with 4 remaining daughters, three of which were in their 30’s. All 4 of the daughters were telephone operators.

Peter Young, the father, died in 1928. His death may have been the cause of the rest of the Young’s relocating to St. Louis before the 1930 census was taken. Also, their daughter, Marie, died in 1928. She was the 4th daughter in this family who never married, but she died at quite a young age. In that year’s entry, we find an interesting collection of characters. Brigetta was the head of the household. Her 3 single daughters were living with her, along with 3 Lottes children who were Brigetta’s grandchildren. John Lottes had married Katherine Young, and they had several children. But then John died in 1930. Katherine was still living in Perryville in 1930, but 3 of her children moved to St. Louis to live with their grandmother. Perhaps they went to St. Louis for jobs because they were all employed. There was also a widower named Charles Sims, who is called a nephew, along with 2 of his children. One could say that none of the members of this household were married.

In the 1940 census, Lena was called the head of the household, despite the fact that her mother was still in the household. In addition to Clara and Stella, we also find one of the Lottes children and 2 of the Sims children. Lena and Stella were still employed in the telephone business, but Clara is given no occupation. Perhaps she was given more of the responsibility for the upbringing of the young Charles Sims, the 10 year-old.

We can view one more census entry for the Young’s, the one taken in 1950. The mother had died in 1947, so she no longer is in the household. In addition to the 3 sisters, we find one Lottes niece and a Sims cousin.

Lena Young was the first of the sisters to die. She died in 1964 at the age of 78. Her death certificate below says she was living in Perryville when she died.

Stella Young died a year later in 1965 at the age of 66. Her death certificate says she died at the Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, but her usual address is given as Perryville.

The brother, Edward, who ran the funeral home in Perryville died in 1966. Then it wouldn’t be until 1979 that Clara, today’s birthday girl, died at the age of 90. Her Findagrave.com entry states that she died in St. Louis. The three Young sisters highlighted in this story are each buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville.

If you look at the 2 death certificates shown above, they say that it was Edward’s Young & Sons Funeral Home that handled those 2 burials. However, when Clara died in 1979, you could say that her burial was handled by just the “& Sons” Funeral Home.

Now you not only know a little about the Young & Sons, but also the Young & Sisters.

Just one more note. My neighbors, the Jung’s, rent our pasture for their cows to graze. As you can see in the photo below, sometimes the Jung (pronounced Young) calves get under the fence to our yard. However, I have to ask the question, “Wouldn’t all the Jung cows be called calves?”