Otto Richard Thauwald is today’s birthday boy. He was born on November 8, 1883, so today would be his 140th birthday. Otto was the son of Carl and Caroline (Schneider) Thauwald. Otto was the 2nd of 7 children in this Thauwald family. All of those children were baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. Otto’s baptism record from that congregation’s books is shown here.

The first census in which we should be able to find Otto is the one taken in 1900. However, I failed miserably in locating him. He would have been 17 years old at the time and could have been “working out” somewhere. His father had died in 1899, so he was not around to be included in that year’s census. I found his widowed mother in the 1900 census, but Otto was not living with her. That means I am not able to display a census entry including Otto until after he was married. So, we will turn our attention to the woman who would become his bride.

Juliane Clara Roth was born on January 28, 1882, the daughter of August and Ernestine (Feig) Roth. Below is a photo of Clara’s parents.

Clara was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. An image of her baptism record is pictured here.

I ran into the same problem finding Clara in the 1900 census. She would have been 18 years old, and she, too, could have been “working out”, but I also failed to find her in that year’s census. Like her future husband, Otto, she was not living in the household of her parents in that year’s enumeration. That means I must move directly to the wedding of Otto and Clara.

Otto Thauwald married Clara Roth on November 14, 1909 at Clara’s church, Concordia, Frohna. The church record for that event is shown below. Concordia was vacant at the time of this occasion, so Rev. Schmidt from Trinity, Altenburg performed the ceremony.

The Missouri marriage license for this couple can also be viewed.

According to our German Family Tree, Otto and Clara had just one child, a daughter named Lillian. Lillian was not born until 1914, so she does not appear in the 1910 census. The Thauwald couple was living in the Union Township, and Otto was a blacksmith with his own shop.

All the evidence points to the fact that Otto was doing his work at the blacksmith shop in the town of Brazeau. Just a few days ago, I wrote the post, Brazeau Harness Maker, which told the story of Casper August Ludwig Roth, a different August Roth than Clara’s father. In the image shown above, you will see August L Roth just a few households above that of Otto Thauwald’s. The building now designated as the Brazeau Blacksmith Shop is pictured here.

Several events took place during the next decade. Lillian was born in 1914. Then, in 1916, Otto sold his blacksmith shop to Theodore Roth according to this article published in the Perry County Republican. This was yet another Roth that did not have really close connections to either Clara’s father or the owner of the harness shop. The article says Otto was moving to Shawneetown to work as a blacksmith in that location.

Otto had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. It gives him a Shawneetown address and calls him a blacksmith.

The 1920 census shows the Thauwald’s living in the Shawnee Township.

I enlarged the portion of this entry showing Otto’s occupation. It says he was a mechanic, but I think the next column says “general blacksmith”.

Next, we find the Thauwald’s in the 1930 census. Otto is called a blacksmith. By then, their daughter, Lillian, was a teenager.

When the 1940 census was taken, we find Otto and Clara living in the household of their daughter, who had married Ernst Fuehler. Ernst was a garage mechanic, and Otto remained a blacksmith. I am thinking that in 1940, there was more car repair business than blacksmithing business.

We can view Otto and Clara in one more census entry, the one taken in 1950. This Fuehler/Thauwald household shows both Otto and his son-in-law as garage mechanics.

Clara Thauwald died in a car crash in 1963 at the age of 81. Her death certificate says her death was the result of an auto accident.

Otto Thauwald died in 1966 at the age of 82. His death certificate says his usual occupation was blacksmith shop.

Otto and Clara Thauwald are each buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Shawneetown.

Otto stuck it out for much of his life as a blacksmith, but that profession, especially with the advent of the automobile, dwindled as he got older. Just a short amount of his life had him working on cars.