When a member of a Vogel family moves to another part of the country, I have been know to refer to it as a bird migration because vogel in German means bird in English. I will share another such story today. This post actually has a migration to Perry County that occurs in which a man moves from Indiana, picks up a Vogel bride in Frohna, and then moves to Kansas. So, it is the story of a man who takes his bird to Kansas. We begin with the Vogel bride because she is today’s birthday girl.

Maria Magdalena Vogel was born on November 24, 1880, making today her 143rd birthday. Magdalena was the daughter of August and Maria (Gerharter) Vogel. She is often called Lena in census entries. She was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, but since I am not in Altenburg, I cannot display her baptism record. Lena cannot be seen in a census record until 1900. This entry, in which Lena is 19 years old, is the only one in which she is found as a single person. Her father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

The photo of Magdalena Vogel below may have been taken prior to her marriage.

Now, we need to switch our focus to the man who would become Lena’s husband. His name was William Ludwig Zschoche, who was born on November 17, 1879. William was the son of Karl and Louise (Jabker) Zschoche. He was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father was a Lutheran pastor. We find William as a baby in the 1880 census. His father was called a preacher.

Later in the 1880’s, this Zschoche family moved to Frohna where Karl’s brother, another William Zschoche, was the pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church. In 1888, Lena’s mother died. His father later married Anna Maria Hilpert in 1891. William is found in the 1900 census as a farm laborer in the household of Claus Stueve.

William Zschoche married Magdalena Vogel on November 5, 1903 at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. That means both the bride and groom had birthdays in November, and they also were married in the same month. I can only display this couple’s Missouri marriage license. The marriage ceremony was conducted by William’s uncle, Rev. Willaim Zschoche. The church marriage record that I cannot display says that William was a farmer in Point Rest.

I think William and Lena had 4 children. The first 2 were baptized in Perry County. The firstborn was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Point Rest. The second, born in 1907, was baptized at Concordia, Frohna. Prior to 1910, William and Lena moved their family to Atchison, Kansas. What makes that interesting is the fact that William’s uncle, Rev. W. Zschoche, had been the pastor in Atchison before taking a call to Frohna. Below is the 1910 census entry for the Zschoche’s. William was a car repairer for the railroad. There were 2 children in their household, both of which were said to be born in Missouri.

William had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. This document says his employer was the Locomotive Finished Materials Company in Atchison.

I located a post card that illustrates what the Locomotive Finished Materials Company looked like. It must have been located right on the Missouri River.

Next, we find the Zschoche’s in the 1920 census. It describes William’s job as a machinist for the railway. Two more children had been added to the family. In addition to the Zschoche children, Lena’s younger brother, Rudolph Vogel from Frohna, was included in this entry.

The 1930 census lists just 2 children in the Zschoche household. By this time, their oldest son, Edwin, had headed off in preparation for becoming a Lutheran pastor.

The Zschoche’s had just one son in their household when the 1940 census was taken. William continued in the same line of work.

At the age of 62, William was still required to complete a World War II draft card.

In the last census we can view in 1950, William and Lena no longer had children in their home, but two young ladies were their lodgers. Each of them was a teacher at a parochial school, which almost certainly was Trinity Lutheran School in Atchison.

I found this photograph on Ancestry.com that is said to be Magdalena Zschoche. I was unable to find a photo of William.

Lena Zschoche died in 1955 at the age of 74; William Zschoche died in 1972 at the age of 93. These two are buried together in the Mount Vernon Cemetery in Atchison.

I have discovered several such bird migrations over the years of writing for this blog. One post of particular note is one that I even titled as Vogel (Bird) Migrations. Another one, Birdman of Leavenworth, told of a Vogel that ended up in Leavenworth, Kansas, just down the road from Atchison. Perhaps this will not be the last such story of a bird migration.