When I was a student at Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska, there was a Professor J.D. (John Donald) Weinhold on the faculty. J.D. was part of the Math department and specialized in teaching Statistics. I was a math major, so I was very familiar with Professor Weinhold, but at the time, I had no idea that he had family roots in East Perry County. You will be reading a story today about another Weinhold man that managed to get from Perry County to Seward. However, he did not make his way to the town of Seward. He lived in the county of Seward, not far from the county seat named Seward. Also, Professor J.D. Weinhold was part of the clan that I call the “Miller Weinhold’s”. He was the son of Rev. T.A. Weinhold, whose story has been told on this blog. The highlighted person in today’s post was a “Dirt Weinhold”, the clan known for being farmers. And today’s character went to Seward County, not to be a college professor, but a farmer.

Ernst Joseph Weinhold was born on November 3, 1897, making today his 126th birthday. Ernst was the son of William and Mary (Schmidt) Weinhold. Baptisms of Weinhold children in 1897 are a story in themselves. There were two Weinhold babies baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna whose names included the name, Ernst. Both of them would qualify to be “Dirt Weinhold’s” and would have been cousins. Yet another Weinhold baby was baptized at that congregation that was a “Miller Weinhold”. In fact, that Weinhold baby was baptized on the same day as Ernst. We can see these 2 Weinhold baptism records in the image shown below. The two Weinhold’s were born on different days, but both were baptized on November 7th. So, on that day, which was a Sunday, there were 2 Weinhold babies baptized, and they may not have been related to each other. We at the museum have made efforts to see if the “Miller Weinhold’s” are related to the “Dirt Weinhold’s”, but have made no progress other than to say they were from the same region in Germany.

Ernst is found in his first census in 1900 at the age of 2. His father was a farmer in the Union Township.

Next, we find Ernst in the 1910 census. As it turns out, this would be the last one in which we find Ernst living in Missouri. Ernst was 12 years old, and the next year, 1911, he would be confirmed at Concordia.

By the time that Ernst completed his World War I draft registration in 1918, he was living in Waco, Nebraska and working on the farm of Herman Kruse. Waco is found in York County, Nebraska, a neighboring county to Seward County.

When the 1920 census was taken, Ernst was no longer working for Herman Kruse. We find him living in the household of his uncle, Joseph Schmidt, who had also moved to this area of Nebraska at about that time. Ernst was a farm laborer. Uncle Joseph was another Perry County native who found a wife in Nebraska. He got married in 1915 to Bertha Hennings from York County, Nebraska.

Now, we will turn our attention to the woman who would become Ernst’s wife. Her name was Louise Charlotte Friedericke Hoffschneider, who was born on May 9, 1904. Louise was the daughter of Wilhelm and Helen (Finke) Hoffschneider. Louise was 5 years old when the 1910 census was taken. Her father was a farmer in the Beaver Township in York County, Nebraska.

I found the Hoffschneider farm on this 1924 plat map for the Beaver Township. You can see that the Hoffschneider farm was not far from Seward County to the east.

The 1920 census shows Louise as a teenager.

On February 24, 1927, Ernst Weinhold married Louise Hoffschneider. A family history on Ancestry.com states that the marriage record for this couple can be found in the books of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Waco, Nebraska. As near as I can tell, there were 3 children born to Ernst and Louise. In the 1930 census, we find the young Weinhold couple living in Township L in Seward County, Nebraska. Ernst was a farmer, and one child is found in his household.

The map below shows where Township L is located in Seward County. You can see how near it is to York County to the west.

The 1940 census includes all 3 of the Weinhold children, 2 girls and a boy.

Ernst Weinhold had a World War II draft card completed in 1942. Albert Weinhold’s name is on this form. He was Ernst’s younger brother who also ended up in Seward County in Nebraska, but he did not get there until sometime in the 1920’s.

The final census entry we can view for the Weinhold’s is the one taken in 1950. Ernst was still a farmer in Township L of Seward County.

Ernst Weinhold died in 1983 at the age of 85; Louise Weinhold died in 1992 at the age of 87. Ernst and Louis are buried together in the Utica Cemetery in Utica, Nebraska.

Now you know that Seward County in Nebraska became the home of members of both the “Miller Weinhold’s” and the “Dirt Weinhold’s”. I guess if I remembered what I learned about statistics from Prof. Weinhold at Concordia, Seward, I could possibly calculate what the probability is that members of both of those Weinhold clans from Perry County would settle in the same Nebraska county, but I have no desire to do so. I also do not have the memory of statistics to perform this task.