Salome Elizabeth Christine Wallmann was born on February 7, 1867. That makes today Elizabeth’s 157th birthday. She was the daughter of Charles and Rebecca (Steierwald) Wallmann. Elizabeth was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. An image of her baptism record from that congregation’s books can be seen below. Her birthday is mistakenly given as January 7th on this form. It is the only place we find that date. All other documents indicate a February 7th date of birth.

Elizabeth is found in the 1870 census at the age of 3. In most documents, she was called Elizabeth, but in this one, she is called Christine. Her father was a farmer in the Shawnee Township.

The final census entry that shows Elizabeth before she was married was the one taken in 1880. She had just become a teenager. A year after this census was enumerated, Elizabeth would get confirmed at Immanuel, New Wells.

We will now take a look at the man who would become Elizabeth’s husband. His name was Johann Eduard Grosz, who was born on September 26, 1862. It appears that he changed the spelling of his first name, and other members of his family changed their last name later on. Eduard became Edward, and Grosz became Gross. He was the son of Albert and Maria (Schaefer) Grosse. His father was one of the original immigrants, coming to this country as part of the Gruber Group that arrived in November of 1839. Like his future wife, Edward was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. His baptism record is pictured here.

Edward was 7 years old when the 1870 census was taken. His father was also a farmer in the Shawnee Township.

Edward was confirmed at Immanuel, New Wells in 1875. Then, in 1880, we find him in the census entry shown here at the age of 17. He was helping on his father’s farm.

Edward Gross married Elizabeth Wallmann on February 9, 1888. This means that in 2 days, this couple would be celebrating their 134th wedding anniversary. As you would expect, these two were married at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. The church record for their wedding is pictured here. This document looks like the wedding took place on February 8th.

We can also view this couple’s Missouri marriage license. This form spells out the number as “ninth” when it gives the date of the wedding. There was a time period in 1888 when Immanuel did not have a pastor. Rev. Zschoche from Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna conducted this marriage ceremony.

Our German Family Tree lists 5 children born to this pair. Four of those children were born prior to the 1900 census. Like his father, Edward was farming in the Shawnee Township.

The photo shown here was taken of the Edward Grosz family.

Edward Grosse died young. He died at the age of 45 in 1908. He is buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in New Wells. His gravestone is inscribed with the surname, Grosz.

Elizabeth was a widow when the 1910 census was taken. She was living with 3 of her children and her parents. Her son, John, was doing the farming.

The 1920 census would be the last one in which we find Elizabeth living in the Shawnee Township. Her parents had both died during the previous decade, so Elizabeth was living with her 3 sons who were all farming.

During the 1020’s, two of Elizabeth’s sons got married and moved to the Bois Brule Township in Perry County. Edmund was farming there, and Carl operated a store in Menfro. Carl’s life story was told in the post, Gross Grocery. Elizabeth is found living in Edmund’s family when the 1930 census was taken. He had married Hilda Tiedemann, and by this time had 3 children.

Elizabeth Gross died in 1938 at the age of 71. Her death certificate is displayed below.

The fact that Elizabeth is buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Point Rest (which is actually closer to Menfro) illustrates that the Gross’s must have attended that congregation when she lived in the Bois Brule Township. However, by the time Elizabeth died, that congregation had closed. We can see that Elizabeth’s gravestone below is inscribed with the name, Gross. I will also note that both her death certificate and this gravestone confirm a birth date for Elizabeth as February 7th.

The 5 children of Edward and Elizabeth married spouses with these names: Leimer, Ruehling, Wunderlich, Dreyer, and Tiedemann. All of those names could be found living in the Shawnee Township during their lives. They could easily be described as New Wells and Pocahontas names.

Yesterday, I speculated that today’s story might get us back to Perry County after 4 straight days with characters from Jackson County, Illinois. I guess we did, but we had to wait until Elizabeth was a widow before she followed a few sons into Perry County.