Lydia Bertha Meyer was born on November 11, 1898, so today would be her 125th birthday. Lydia was the daughter of Joachim and Engel (Meier) Meyer. Her parents were a couple made up of two different spellings of names pronounced the same way. Lydia was baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar. We can take a look at her baptism record below.
Lydia is found in the 1900 census at the age of 1. All of the Meyer children were girls, and 3 of them are found in this entry. Lydia’s father was a farmer in the Union Township.
Not long after the above census, a photograph was taken of the 3 girls that are found in this entry. Lydia is the youngest one in the photo.
The 4th daughter was born during the next decade. The oldest, Anna, is not in this entry because she was “working out” in another Meyer household in 1910. Lydia was 11 years old at this time.
In 1912, Lydia was confirmed at the end of March, and her sister, Anna, was married about 2 weeks later. The next census was taken in January of 1920, and Lydia is still single and living with her parents when the census taker arrived.
I do not know when the photo below was taken, but it shows the Meyer parents with their 4 daughters. I could not be certain which one in the back row is Lydia, but my best guess is that she is the one on the far left.
Lydia would get married just a matter of months after the above census was taken, so we will now turn our attention to the man who would become her husband. His name was Oscar Ludwig Mueller, who was born on February 25, 1897. Oscar was the son of Adolph and Martha (Koenig) Mueller. He was the 5th of 7 children in his Mueller family. Like Lydia, Oscar was baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar. His baptism record is pictured here.
Oscar is found in his first census in 1900 at the age of 3. His father was also a farmer in the Union Township.
The 1910 census is the one taken during the year of Oscar’s confirmation.
The 1915 plat maps for Perry County illustrate how close the Mueller farm was to the Meyer farm. So, the marriage between a Mueller child and a Meyer child was one made up of relatively close neighbors not far from Farrar.
Oscar had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. It says Oscar’s employer was Martin Etzold, and Oscar is given a Menfro address.
Oscar was still single and living with his parents when the 1920 census was taken.
Oscar Mueller married Lydia Meyer on May 9,1920 at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar. The church record for that event is shown below.
The Missouri marriage license for this couple can also be viewed.
A wedding photograph of this pair is shown here.
Another photograph includes the entire wedding party.
Two daughter were born to this pair, both of whom were baptized at Salem, Farrar. As it turns out, we are not able to see Oscar and Lydia in a census together because not long after giving birth to their 2nd daughter, Lydia died in 1925 at the age of 26. Her death certificate below states that childbirth was a contributing cause of her death.
In the next census taken in 1930, we find Oscar and his 2 daughters living in his parents’ household. Oscar is called a partner with his father on the farm.
Oscar would marry again in 1931, so let’s take a look at his 2nd wife. Her name was Ella Margaretha Luehrs, who was born on August 25, 1905. Ella was the daughter of Herman and Sophia (Stueve) Luehrs. Ella was yet another one to be baptized at Salem, Farrar. We can take a look at her baptism record.
Ella is found in the 1910 census at the age of 4. Her father was a farmer in the Salem Township.
Next, Ella is found in the 1920 census as a teenager.
In 1930, I did not find Ella living with her parents, but I did find an Ellen Luehrs who was the right age living in St. Louis and working as a servant
Oscar Mueller married Ella Luehrs on October 4, 1931. This wedding also took place at Salem, Farrar. We can view this pair’s church marriage record.
An article describing this wedding was published in the Perry County Republican. I will place 2 thumbnails here that may need to be clicked to view them.
We can also take a look at the marriage license for this pair.
I am also able to display the wedding photo for Oscar and Ella. This photo has been colorized.
Our German Family Tree lists 5 children born to Oscar and Ella, but the first one was stillborn. Included in their family was a set of twin sons born in 1939 that had the interesting names of Roy and Royal. The 1940 census entry for this family is displayed here. The 2 teenage daughters were from Oscar’s 1st marriage, and the younger ones had Ella as their mother.
Oscar had his World War II draft card completed in 1942.
The last census we can view for the Mueller’s is the one taken in 1950.
Oscar and Ella remained alive long enough to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 1981. I daresay that not many 2nd marriages last 50 years. These two had a photograph taken for that occasion.
Ella Mueller died in 1983 at the age of 77; Oscar Mueller died a year later in 1984 at the age of 87. Oscar and both of his wives are buried in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Farrar.
This story is packed full of names that we could classify as “Farrar names”. As you can see, this story took place entirely in that location. I think the only other location mentioned other than Farrar was the census in which we find Ellen Luehrs living in St. Louis, and there is a chance that she was not even the person who is highlighted in this post.