I will eventually get to a bride who would be celebrating her 200th birthday today, but I will begin this post by looking at her husband. This man was one of the clergymen who were part of the Gesellschaft in 1839. He was even one of the men who constructed the Log Cabin College which became Concordia Seminary. Thus, he is also a major character in my book, Mama Buenger: Mother of a Synod.

Johann Friedrich Buenger was born on January 2, 1810 in Etzdorf, Germany, where his father was a Lutheran pastor. Friedrich was the son of Jakob and Christiane (Reiz) Buenger. He would go on to study to become a Lutheran minister himself. In 1836, his father died, and his mother decided to join the Gesellschaft and bring 8 of her children to America. I have written previously about how the members of this Buenger family made the voyage to this country on 3 separate ships. Friedrich came aboard the ship, Constitution, with his mother. That ship landed in New York City in February of 1839. He then became part of the New York Group that made their way to Perry County later that year.

It was not long after Friedrich helped establish the Log Cabin College that he moved to St. Louis to become a teacher at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. When he arrived in St. Louis, Rev. Otto Herman Walther was the pastor at Trinity. Rev. O.H. Walther had married Friedrich’s sister, Agnes Buenger in 1839. Then, in January of 1841, Otto Herman died. He was replaced by his brother, Rev. C.F.W. Walther, who would later marry another one of Friedrich’s sisters, Emilie Buenger.

On January 9, 1844, Friedrich Buenger married Rosina Mueller. Rosina and her family were also part of the Gesellschaft, coming to America aboard the ship, Copernicus. This Mueller family first settled in the Seelitz community, but it was not long after when they found land near Frohna and moved there. Rosina was part of the clan we refer to as the Frohna Mueller’s. The wedding of Friedrich and Rosina took place in St. Louis and was conducted by Rev. C.F.W. Walther. We can take a look at a St. Louis marriage record for this couple below.

In the church record for this couple, we find a note that says Friedrich was still a teacher at Trinity and a pastoral candidate.

After getting married, Friedrich became the first pastor of a new congregation in St. Louis, Immanuel Lutheran Church. He would remain that congregation’s pastor the rest of his career. Friedrich and Rosina had 3 sons born in the 1840’s, but sadly, they all died at very young ages. The last of the sons, along with Rosina, died in 1849 during the tragic Cholera Epidemic that struck St. Louis. That left Rev. Buenger as a widower with no children. We find him in the 1850 census living with his younger brother, Theodore Ernst Buenger, who had married Martha Loeber, Pastor Loeber’s daughter from Altenburg. Theodore Ernst had become the teacher at Immanuel, St. Louis.

Later that year, Friedrich would get married again. This is where we get to meet today’s bicentennial birthday girl. Her name was Johanna Sophie Reissner, who was born on December 3, 1823 in Germany. Johanna’s past is a bit of a mystery, however, our friend, Fred Eggers has looked into the Reissner family. He says that Johanna was almost certainly the sister of Rev. Johann Reissner, who was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg for a few short years…at about the time when Rev. Buenger married Johanna.

We find Rev. Reissner in the 1850 census for the Cinque Hommes Township. Please note that there is a 2 year-old girl named Monica in this household.

Rev. Johann Friedrich Buenger married Johanna Sophia Reissner on November 20, 1850. We can once again take a look at a St. Louis marriage record, and like the previous one, it says that Rev. C.F.W. Walther performed this marriage ceremony.

The church record for this couple is not found in the books of Trinity, St. Louis. I suspect it would be found in the books of Rev. Buenger’s congregation, Immanuel, St. Louis. According to our German Family Tree, this couple had 4 children, one which died at a very young age. The 1860 census shown here includes 3 children, but one of them is not likely their own. There is a girl named Monica, who is not one of the children listed in the GFT.

In several family histories on Ancestry.com, we find an adopted girl named Monica Reissner, who was born in 1858. The Monica in the above census entry does not have an age that corresponds with an 1858 year of birth. In the 1870 census, we find the entry shown below for the Buenger’s. I think the 23 year-old Maria is Monica, who had taken the Buenger name. The other younger ones were the children born to Friedrich and Johanna who had survived early childhood.

The last census in which we find both Friedrich and Johanna is the one taken in 1880. Just Lydia and Agnes remained in their household.

I can display these two photos of Rev. Buenger and his second wife, Johanna.

Rev. J.F. Buenger has a biography included in the Christian Cyclopedia.

Rev. J.F. Buenger died in 1882 at the age of 72. He has an entry on Findagrave.com that includes another biography of his life.

Rev. Johann Friedrich Buenger is buried in the Western Cemetery in St. Louis, which is the cemetery for Immanuel Lutheran Church. It contains an appropriate description of his many accomplishments in establishing a Lutheran hospital, a Lutheran orphanage, and promoting a Lutheran ministry to blacks.

Johanna Buenger died in 1894 at the age of 70. We can view a St. Louis death record for her. It says she died of stomach cancer.

Johanna also has an entry in the Western Cemetery on Findagrave.com, but it contains no gravestone photo.

Let me complete this post by taking a look at what happened to Monica (Reissner) Buenger. She never married, but she made her way to Laramie, Wyoming where she served as a midwife during her career. I am able to display this photo of Monica.

I cannot help but imagine Friedrich Buenger tromping around my property back in the days when his mother owned it. I know he has the reputation of being the builder of the Log Cabin College who did a lion’s share of the work, including digging the well which to this day is called the Buenger Well. He was a giant among the early leaders in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. But he also experienced a lot of pain and hardship along the way, including the early deaths of some of his children and his first wife. Yet he remained faithful until death. And today, we give special honor to his second wife as she celebrates her bicentennial birthday.