The story I will tell today reminds me of this scene from The Wizard of Oz.

This post will mention several folks with the names, Lochner, Loeber, and Boehme. I hope I can keep it all straight. I will eventually get around to a special wedding anniversary, but for now, I will begin with a preacher by the name of Rev. Friedrich Lochner.

Johann Friedrich Carl Lochner was born on September 23, 1822 in Nürnberg, Germany. Concordia Historical Institute gives this brief description of his early life in Germany.

“J. F. K. (Friedrich) Lochner was born on 23 September 1822 in Nürnberg, Germany. He received his elementary education locally and was trained in the trade of engraving at the Artist Academy in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Before he finished this schooling he transferred to the teachers seminary in Schwabach, Bavaria, and later continued his studies of liturgics under Professor Friedrich Hommel in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria.”

At about the age of 23, Friedrich was sent to America by Rev. Wilhelm Loehe to be a Lutheran pastor in America, which was in great need of men to establish new Lutheran churches. Rev. Lochner was a pastor in Toledo, Ohio and became involved in the meetings that were held to organize a Lutheran Synod. Those meetings were attended by men such as Rev. G.H. Loeber and Rev. C.F.W. Walther and would lead to the formation of what eventually came to be called the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. One of those meetings was held n St. Louis, and when Friedrich was in that city, he was introduced to Liddy (Lydia) Buenger. By the time he left St. Louis, he had proposed marriage to Liddy, gotten married, and took his new bride back to Toledo. You can read more about this amazing tale in the post, A Tainted Wedding Record with a Wonderful Story. You can also read about it in my book, Mama Buenger: Mother of a Synod.

When his congregation did not organize themselves as a conservative Lutheran church, Friedrich left Toledo and moved to Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, which is located just across the river from St. Louis. While there, Liddy gave birth to a baby girl in 1848, but she died as a result of childbirth. The baby girl would also die as an infant. Let me quickly mention that, at this time, Friedrich sent a letter to Germany to his sister, Anna Marie Lochner, to ask for her help in raising his baby daughter. Anna Marie would come to America, and would eventually marry Rev. C.H. Loeber, who was the son of Rev. G.H. Loeber as well as one of the 5 young men who graduated from Concordia Seminary when it was still in Altenburg. That story was told in the post, Lochner-Loeber.

Rev. Lochner would get married again. He found his second bride in Perry County. Her name was Maria Amalia Christiana Boehme, who was born on November 2, 1927 in Germany. Maria was the daughter of Carl and Johanna (Pistorius) Boehme. She came to this country as part of the Gesellschaft n 1839 at the age of 12. 

Rev. Friedrich Lochner married Maria Boehme on February 11, 1849, thus making today this couple’s 175th wedding anniversary. They were married at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. The church record for this wedding is displayed in 2 images below.

Information at CHI indicates that Friedrich and Maria had 9 children. Several of them died as infants. In 1850, Friedrich took a call to Trinity Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. When the census was taken that year, we find the Lochner’s living in Milwaukee. There were 2 eight year-old children in their household, but neither one of them could have been theirs. The Louis Lochner in this list was born in Germany.

Next, we find the Lochner’s in the 1860 census. Maria’s mother was living with them in Milwaukee. Three children are found in this entry. Friedrich is called a German Lutheran clergyman.

During the 1860’s, another couple entered the Milwaukee neighborhood. Rev. Christoph Heinrich Loeber and his wife, Anna Marie, Friedrich’s sister, moved to Wisconsin from where they had been in Chicago, and eventually, Rev. C.H. Loeber would become the first president of Concordia Lutheran College in Milwaukee. 

In the 1870 census, there were 5 children in the Lochner household. 

In 1876, Rev. Lochner was called to be an instructor at Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois. It must not have been long after his arrival there that Maria died because her death occurred in December of 1876. Thanks to the new collection of Lutheran records on Ancestry.com, I am able to show you Maria’s death record from Trinity Lutheran Church in Springfield. It says she died of typhoid fever.

Maria was buried in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, but Findagrave.com does not have her gravestone photo. When the 1880 census was taken, Friedrich was a widower living in Springfield with just his mother.

Friedrich married yet again in 1881. His 3rd marriage took place at his previous church, Trinity Lutheran, in Milwaukee. Once again, we can take a look at their church marriage record because it is found in the Lutheran church records collection on Ancestry.com. His 3rd wife was Maria von Haugwitz, who was born on December 17, 1845 in Germany. Their wedding took place on May 4, 1881.

I also located a Wisconsin marriage record for this event. It says the pastor who conducted the wedding ceremony was Rev. Heinrich Sprengeler. 

At the time of the above wedding, Pastor Sprengeler was married to his 2nd wife, Julia Loeber, who was a daughter of Rev. C.H. Loeber and granddaughter of Rev. G.H. Loeber from Altenburg. And, if that is not enough, Rev. Gotthold Heinrich August Loeber, a brother of his wife, was the minister who later preached at Rev. Sprengeler’s funeral. Rev. G.H.A. Loeber was yet another preacher at Trinity Lutheran Church in Milwaukee.

Friedrich and his 3rd wife had 6 more children, five of which were born in Springfield, Illinois. In 1887, the Lochner’s moved back to Milwaukee where they had their final child. Then, in 1895, Maria died at the age of 49. In the 1900 census, Friedrich was once again a widower, and 3 children remained in his household. Rev. Lochner was an assistant pastor at Trinity, Milwaukee.

Friedrich Lochner died in 1902 at the age of 79. His death record from Trinity, Milwaukee is displayed below. Rev. H. Sprengeler was the pastor for his funeral.

Friedrich and Maria Lochner are each buried in the Union Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Below are 3 different photos of Pastor Lochner taken over the years. In addition to being a well-renowned preacher and theologian involved in the early history of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, he was also known for being a talented musician and artist.

This story is chock full of Lochner’s and Loeber’s, with a Boehme thrown into the mix. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, they all seemed to end up not in Kansas, but in Milwaukee. It also seems like Rev. Friedrich Lochner always managed to find his way to a Trinity Lutheran Church no matter where he went.

If that is not enough, let me tell another more recent story. Prior to Rev. Sprengeler becoming pastor in Milwaukee, he spent his first 6 years in Elysian, Minnesota, not far from where I once taught school in North Morristown. Just down thhe road from those towns was another town named Waseca. While I was in that neighborhood, there was a pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Waseca named Rev. Armand Boehme. Rev. Boehme did not have Perry County roots, and he would pronounce his name as “Bow-mee”, not like we pronounce that name as “Baim” around here. But at least, we can throw another Boehme into this post.

Those Lochner’s and Loeber’s, and Boehme’s, O My!