First of all, I have a confession to make. I made a mistake. I was not careful enough in confirming a marriage date. Our German Family Tree says a marriage took place on January 27th, but after investing a lot of my time in gathering information about the couple that got married, I found that the marriage actually took place on January 22nd. Since I do not have the time to find and research another story, I am writing that couple’s tale anyway.

Secondly, this story comes from information found in our GFT, but it comes from a section of that document that does not include church records from any of our local Lutheran churches. That portion of our GFT describes a Lohmann family tree. The Lohmann name is certainly one that has shown up on this blog on many occasions, but the Lohmann family found in today’s story was actually made up almost exclusively of Roman Catholics. I will begin by looking at the Lohmann bride.

Barbara Theresa Lohmann was born on July 17, 1874, the daughter of Theodore and Anna (Sauer) Lohmann. My best guess is that Barbara was baptized at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Apple Creek which is found in northern Cape Girardeau County. That is where her parents were married and Barbara was their first child. Barbara is found in her first census in 1880 at the age of 5. Her father was a farmer in the Cinque Hommes Township.

That would be the only census we can view that contained Barbara before she was married, so we will now take a look at the man she would marry. His name was Henry John Schumer, who was born on July 20, 1869. He was the son of John and Philomena “Minnie” (Becker) Schumer. Henry is found in the 1870 census as an infant. He is called John H. in this entry. His father was a blacksmith in the Saint Michael Township in Madison County, Missouri. That township is part of the city of Fredericktown.

I was not able to find Henry in the 1880 census. Then, on January 22, 1894, Henry Schumer married Barbara Lohmann. So, this past Monday, this couple would have been celebrating their 130th wedding anniversary. According to the Missouri marriage license below, this wedding took place at the Catholic church in Biehle. That would have been St. Maurus Catholic Church. 

There is no listing of children in our German Family Tree, so I have to rely on family trees on Ancestry.com to provide that information. I found some trees that include 9 children born to this couple. When the 1900 census was taken, we see the Schumer’s living with Henry’s father in the Pike Township in Stoddard County. That is where we find the city of Advance. Henry was working with his father on his farm. They had 2 children by that time.

The Schumer’s were found in the 1910 census living in the Cinque Hommes Township with 7 children. 

It was in 1910 that a new Catholic church was established in Highland, Missouri near Perryville. That church became known as St. Joseph Parish, not to be confused with the much bigger Catholic church in Apple Creek. According to an historic sign now found at that church, which is no longer active, it says that Henry Schumer was one of the main builders of that sanctuary.

Here is a photograph of that church building.

When the plat maps were produced in 1915, we find a parcel of land owned by H.J. Schumer located north of Biehle. There are other Schumer names on parcels of land nearby.

The 1920 census lists 7 children living in the Schumer household, two of which had been born in the previous decade.

Next, we find the Schumer’s in the 1930 census. Just 4 single children remained in their household.

The last census in which we find Henry is the one taken in 1940. Henry was still farming, but several sons were helping him.

Henry Schumer died in 1945 at the age of 76. We can view his death certificate below.

Barbara is found in the 1950 census living with 2 of her single sons. Walter Schumer was doing the farming.

Barbara Schumer died in 1955 at the age of 81. We can also take a look at her death certificate.

Henry and Barbara Schumer are buried in the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Highland.

It is not often that I get to enter the world of Perry County Catholic churches, but that is what I did today, even though it happened by mistake. I want to add just one more thing. We have a new exhibit in our museum now. It is a collection of photographs by Larry Braun, who is a very well-known photographer from this area. This exhibit contains many photos of buildings found around here, and one of them that we have on display is this photo of St. Joseph’s Parish in Highland. We hope you can get to our museum to view this amazing collection of images.