You will be reading a story today that takes place in St. Louis, but it has quite a few connections to people in East Perry County. This post will also end up with Lynn Degenhardt editing our German Family Tree to include a man who managed to escape being found in that document.

Marie Sophia Roschke was born on February 27, 1849, making today her special 175th birthday. Marie was the daughter of Edward and Justine (Jahn) Roschke. In the previous post, Tailor to Teacher, it was pointed out that Justine Jahn was from Altenburg and Edward was from St. Louis. Both of them had been part of the Gesellschaft, the immigration society that arrived in America in 1839. That post also told the tale of how Edward Roschke came to America as a tailor, but later was recruited to become one of the first Lutheran teachers in St. Louis. Marie was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. The following information is found in our GFT about Marie’s baptism.

In her list of sponsors, you will see another Lutheran teacher, Friedrich Koch, who was said to be the teacher of the girls in the school, and Marie’s father was called the teacher of the boys. I find that interesting. Marie’s father also became the first treasurer for what would become the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which was established in 1847. Also, let me point out that Marie was born in the early part of 1849. Later, especially in July of that year, a deadly cholera epidemic struck the St. Louis area. Young babies and children were especially impacted by that disease. Marie managed to survive that epidemic.

Marie is found in the 1850 census as a very young girl. As you can see, her father was a teacher in St. Louis.

Next, we find Marie at the age of 11. Her father was still teaching.

Now, we need to look at the man who would become Marie’s husband. His name was Jacob Bretscher, who was born on October 17, 1846. Jacob was the son of Jacob and Henrietta (Fritzsche) Bretscher. This is where we encounter the missing person from our GFT, and I have discovered the reason for its omission. First of all, take a look at a portion of some Bretscher’s who are found in our GFT.

The above list includes Mary Bretscher, who was born in 1844, and then comes another girl, Katharine Bretscher, who was born in 1851. Jacob Bretscher’s birthday fits between these two. The other Bretscher children were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis, so I decided to look in that church’s records for Jacob. I found him, and in the course of doing so, I now know why he was excluded from the GFT. In his baptism record below, Jacob is given the surname, Pretscher, not Bretscher.

Jacob’s older sister, Marie, married Joseph Weinhold. That couple ended up living in Wittenberg, Missouri where Joseph operated the flour mill for many years. Joseph and Mary are also two major characters in the two books in my Wittenberg series. So, this is another connection between the St. Louis characters in this post with folks in Perry County.

Jacob is found in the 1850 census at the age of 4. You can see that his surname is spelled Pritcher. Germans often pronounce “b’s” as “p’s”. His father is given no occupation in this entry.

Jacob’s father died in 1858, so he does not show up in the 1860 census. Jacob was 13 years old at the time.

Jacob Bretscher married Marie Roschke on November 8, 1868 at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. Their marriage record is found in that congregation’s books. However, I will display a St. Louis civil marriage record for this couple.

Family trees on Ancestry.com list as many as 11 children born to Jacob and Marie. Some of them did not live long. In the 1870 census, we find this pair with just their first son, who was just a baby. Jacob was a bookkeeper in St. Louis.

Next, we find the Bretscher’s in the 1880 census. This time, there were 5 children in their family.

We have to wait a longer time before seeing Jacob and Marie in the 1900 census. We find 3 remaining children in their household. Jacob was still bookkeeping, and one of his sons was in the furniture business.

The 1910 census shows Jacob and Marie in their 60’s. Jacob was a bookkeeper for the city. One of his sons, Herman, followed in his father’s footsteps and was a bookkeeper for a candy company.

The last census in which we find Jacob and Marie is the one taken in 1920. They were living with their son, Herman, and his young family. Herman had married Dora Gaebler, whose family can also be traced back to Perry County. At the age of 73, Jacob no longer had an occupation, but his son was a bookkeeper at a publishing company. I like to think that he was working at Concordia Publishing House, but I have no proof.

Marie Bretscher died in 1926 at the age of 77. Her death certificate indicates that tuberculosis was part of her cause of death.

Jacob Bretscher died in 1927 at the age of 80. A form of cancer is given as his cause of death on his death certificate below.

Both of the above death certificates are signed by Dr. Gustav Schuricht, another character who is a descendant of Gesellschaft members from 1839. His name has shown up on this blog before, but I have yet to tell his story.

Jacob and Marie Bretscher are each buried in the Concordia Cemetery in St. Louis.

In retrospect, had I known this story back when I was writing my Wittenberg books, I might have included Jacob and Marie Bretscher as people that members of the Joseph and Mary (Bretscher) Weinhold family may have visited in a few trips to St. Louis that were described in those books.