We will be honoring a girl who would be celebrating her 125th birthday today. Because she was a female, you will not be seeing any military forms, at least not hers. Because she never married, you will not be seeing a marriage record. However, it seems like stories such as this one about a woman who never marries turn out to be ones that are quite interesting. I find that to be the case for today’s birthday girl.

Madgalene Johanne Hilpert was born on September 18, 1898, the daughter of John and Louise (Kramer) Hilpert. Magdalene was the firstborn child. Just one more child is listed in our German Family Tree for this Hilpert couple, and that one was stillborn. So, as it turns out, Magdalene became an only child. She was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. We can take a look at her baptism record below.

Before I move on, there is evidence on Ancestry.com that Magdalene was called Lenchen. After a bit of research, I discovered that Lenchen (pronounced “lean-chen”) was a nickname for a few female names, one of them being Magdalene. The -chen found at the end of a name is one that indicates a diminutive form for a name. Perhaps you have heard of the German word, madchen, which means “girl”. I will use the name Lenchen for the remainder of this post.

Lenchen is found in her first census in 1900 at the age of 1. Her father was a farmer near Frohna.

Next, we find Lenchen’s family in the 1910 census. Included in the Hilpert family was a young 11 year-old boy named Archie Boyd who is called a boarder. As near as I can tell, Archie was the son of Amos and Margaret Boyd. I think Archie’s parents, who lived in Pekin, Illinois, had divorced. His mother remarried in Nebraska in 1907. Somehow, Archie ended up in the Hilpert home by the time of the 1910 census.

In 1912, Lenchen was confirmed at Concordia, Frohna. In the image of her confirmation class from that year shown below, you not only find Lenchen, who I highlighted, but also Archie Boyd from Pekin, Illinois.

Archie Boyd would return to Illinois later. By the time he filled out a World War I draft registration in 1918, he was living in Peoria and working for the railroad. He spent the rest of his life in that vicinity.

When the 1915 plat maps were produced for Perry County, we find the Hilpert farm located along what is now Highway A near the intersection that is called “The Crossroads”.

The 1920 census shows the Hilpert household below. This is the first of a few census entries that will include a woman named Anna Detjen, who at this time was 61 years old. She was a single woman, and in the occupation column it says she was blind. Anna’s father had died in 1897, and her mother died in 1911. She, like Lenchen, was an only child, so she had no siblings who could care for her. The Hilpert’s apparently took another person into their household who was in need of a home. I wonder if there was a time when both Archie and Anna were living in the Hilpert home.

The 1930 census includes Lenchen, her parents, Anna Detjen, and a 21 year-old farm laborer name Walter Oberndorfer. I have to wonder if Lenchen took on the role of helping to care for the elderly, blind Anna.

The last census in which we find Anna Detjen and John Hilpert was the one taken in 1940. A different hired hand was included in the household, the 20 year-old Harold Schroeter. Harry was also some sort of a cousin to Lenchen, probably once-removed.

Later in their lives, Lenchen and her parents had their photo taken. I think the cropped images shown below were part of the same photograph, but I have no proof.

Anna Detjen died in 1941 at the age of 82. I am glad that the 1920 census indicated that Anna was blind. None of the other documents I found included that fact. I know it helped me understand why Anna was in the Hilpert household.

John Hilpert died in 1949, leaving Lenchen’s mother, Louise, as a widow. Harold Schroeter was the head of the household when the 1950 census was taken. Lenchen was 51 years old at the time.

Lenchen’s mother died in 1960. Then, in 1967, Lenchen died at the age of 68. Her death certificate says she died at the Pine Lawn Nursing Home in Perryville.

Lenchen Hilpert is buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna.

It is not only women that get married and have children who get to take care of others during their lives. As I have seen so often when writing the stories of women who remain single, they also are often placed in positions to care for others. Many times they care for their elderly parents, but not always. I think Lenchen spent quite a bit of her life caring for both her parents and Anna Detjen.