The couple you will read about today will take us on a trip. As you might expect, the story will begin in Perry County, but that is only the starting point for their journey through life. Perry County is certainly what I would refer to as a “Lutheran hot spot”. The odyssey made by today’s pair will take us to several other Lutheran hot spots that have shown up on this blog before. It all begins with a birthday boy.

Friedrich Georg Johannes Hilpert was born on January 5, 1884, making today his 140th birthday. Many documents call him Fred, so that will be the name I use. He was the son of Andreas and Anna (Ross) Hilpert. Fred was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. An image of his baptism record from that church’s boods is shown below.

Fred would be a teenager before we can view him in a census. In his 1900 census entry, he was 16 years old and working on his father’s farm in the Brazeau Township. His mother had died in 1898, so we do not see her in this entry.

Fred would get married before another census, so we will now take a look at the woman who would become his bride. Her name was Emma Katharine Oberndorfer, who was born on December 2, 1886. Emma was the daughter of Joseph and Katherine (Hacker) Oberndorfer. Like her future husband, she was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. We can take a look at her baptism record.

Emma is found in the 1900 census at the age of 13. Her father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

Fred Hilpert married Emma Oberndorfer on April 7, 1907, and as you might expect, they were married at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. The church record for that wedding is pictured here.

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

There is no evidence in our German Family Tree that indicates Fred and Emma having any children, nor is any evidence found in future census entries. The 1910 census shows this couple with a young man named Ernst Darnstaedt working with Fred on a farm.

There was a change of location for this couple by the time Fred had his World War I draft registration form completed in 1918. His form indicates that he and Emma were living in Sylvan Grove, Kansas. That happens to be where quite a few Perry County natives migrated in the early 1900’s. It also indicates that Fred was a partner in the Hopfer Store located in that city. 

I wrote a post about this Hopfer Store which was titled, Hopfer Merchant in Sylvan Grove. I did not locate this photo back when I wrote that post, but I did find it today. This photograph is not dated, but it makes me wonder if Fred Hilpert is one of the people standing inside the Hopfer Store.

In the 1920 census, we find Fred and Emma living in Sylvan Grove, and Fred is called a clerk in a grocery store.

We find another change of location for this couple in the next census. When the 1930 census was taken, they were living in Altona, Nebraska where he is called a retail merchant.

The little populated area known as Altona has shown up on this blog before also. In the story, Bergt & Panning Store – Altona, NE, which told the life history of Gottfried Bergt, who had spent some of his childhood in Perry County, and who was involved in the operation of a store in Altona. You can see the household of Gottfried Bergt just above that of Fred Hilpert in the above image. By that time, Gottfried was no longer a merchant.

Yet another relocation took place for the Hilpert couple before the 1940 census. In that year’s entry for Fred and Emma, we find them living in Seward, Nebraska. They were both in their 50’s. Often, when I see a couple moving later in life, it is because they were moving closer to children, but this couple was childless. We are not given a clue to why they moved from their occupation, because there is no occupation listed in this entry. I do know that I have written a few other posts about people with Perry County roots who spent some time in Seward.

Emma Hilpert died in 1941 at the age of 56, leaving Fred as a widower. He married again on the Fourth of July in 1943. I am going to let you discover some details about his second wife, Anna (Schultz) Peters from her obituary shown here.

Fred and Anna are found living in Tucson, Arizona when the 1950 census was taken. Fred again had no occupation.

Anna’s obituary shown above says this couple would later move to Grand Island, Nebraska, which is where Fred died in 1967 at the age of 83. Fred and his first wife, Emma, are buried together in the Greenwood Cemetery in Seward, Nebraska. Anna Hilpert is buried in the Utica Cemetery in Utica, Nebraska. Utica is also in Seward County.

I admit that I enjoy discovering stories like this one which find Perry County natives traveling all over the country. And I admit how thrilled I was to discover a photograph of the Hopfer Store in Sylvan Grove, Kansas. I guess I get excited about simple little things.