Seven years ago, I wrote the story of a little baby who was blown out of her mother’s arms during the 1925 Tri-State Tornado. It was included in the post, A Baby Flies. That baby was my Aunt Dorothy. That story was also written on March 21st, but I didn’t go into much detail about the mother who watched her baby fly out of her arms. Today is that mother’s birthday, and I will tell her story with more information. In addition to wanting to add more details to her story, there are two other reasons for writing this story today.

• Recently, March 18, 2024. marked the 99th anniversary of the Tri-State Tornado. Next year at this time, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of that event. It was the deadliest tornado in American history, and its path went right through East Perry County.
• Recently, a photo album was donated to our museum that included some photos that pictured several from my Schmidt family. I will be able to display a few of those photos in this post that will add some interesting facts to this tale.

Julia Knoll was born on March 21, 1890, making today her 134th birthday. Julia was the daughter of Andrew and Amelia (Ochs) Knoll. Julia was one of 5 children in this Knoll family. Every one of them was a girl, and one of them died at a very early age. All of the Knoll daughters were baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg.

Julia is found in her first census entry in 1900 at the age of 10. The census taker wrote her name as Ulah in this entry. Julia’s father was a farmer in the Central Township.

In the 1910 census, we find Julia at the age of 20. This would be the last census in which we find Julia as being unmarried.

Now, we will take a look at the man who would become Julia’s husband. His name was Elmer John Schaupert, who was born on February 22, 1883. Elmer was the son of Michael and Christina (Bergmann) Schaupert. Elmer was one of 6 children in this Schaupert family, and they were all boys. Elmer was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. The 1900 census is the first one we can view that includes Elmer. His father was a farmer in the Central Township.

A later plat map illustrates how close the Knoll farm was to the Schaupert farm. Both were located not far from Perryville.

The 1910 census shows all 6 of the Schaupert sons, and all of them were helping their father on his farm.

Elmer Schaupert married Julia Knoll on March 24, 1913 at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. That means Julia was married 3 days after her 23rd birthday. We can view the Missouri marriage license for this couple.

I also located this marriage certificate for this wedding.

An article describing the Schaupert/Knoll wedding was published in the Perry County Republican. The title indicates that this couple got married soon after the Lenten season was over. It also indicates that this couple was going to be living on a farm near Frohna after their wedding.

In 1918, Elmer had his World War I draft registration completed. It said he was the owner of a farm and is given a Seventy-Six address.

According to our German Family Tree, this couple had just one child, a girl named Dorothy, who was born in late 1924, so when the 1920 census was taken, they still had an empty nest. There was a laborer in their household. His name looks like Alves Peola. They were living in the Brazeau Township.

That leads us up to the Tri-State Tornado in 1925. Elmer and Julia and their baby, Dorothy, were now living in the path of that devastating tornado. An article published in the Perry County Republican says this about the Schaupert’s and their farm.

A few days after that horrific day, Julia must have been holding onto her baby tightly while she was looking over her damaged home instead of happily celebrating her 35th birthday. And 3 days later, she and her husband would have likely been celebrating their 12th anniversary while probably residing at another location since their house had been razed by a tornado.

When the 1930 census was taken, we find the Schaupert’s living in Longtown where Elmer was a farmer. A young man, Edwin Bohnert, was a farm laborer in their household.

Julia Schaupert died in January of 1940 at the age of 49. Her death certificate below says she died at the Lutheran Hospital because of heart problems.

We find just Elmer and his daughter, Dorothy, in the 1940 census. Elmer was a 57 year-old widower, and Dorothy was 15 years old.

Elmer got married again. He married Hattie (Martin) Hemphill on Valentine’s Day, February 14th in 1942. I am not going to go into detail about Hattie’s life other than to say that she had previously been married to Charles Hemphill, and that marriage had ended in a divorce. The marriage license for Elmer and Hattie is shown below.

I am going to finish out the story of Elmer Schaupert and then return to discuss Dorothy. Elmer is found in the 1950 census still living in Longtown and still farming at the age of 67.

Elmer Schaupert died in 1960 at the age of 77. His death certificate can be viewed below.

Elmer and Julia Schaupert are buried together in the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Longtown.

Hattie Schaupert died in 1973 and is buried in the City Cemetery in DeSoto, Missouri.

Now, I will return to my Aunt Dorothy. Dorothy Schaupert married Rudolph Schmidt, my father’s younger brother, on October 25, 1942. I located an article published in the Perry County Republican that described this wedding. Since I have always known that Aunt Dorothy was from Longtown, I always assumed that Rudy and Dorothy got married at Zion, Longtown, but that was not the case. They were married in Pastor Vogel’s parsonage in Altenburg.

Recently, the photo below was found in a photo album that was donated to our museum. It shows Rudy and Dorothy on the day of their wedding. Now you can better visualize what was described in the above article. Since these two are wearing their wedding rings, it must have been taken after their wedding. I think the house in the background may have been the home of my Grandmother, Bertha Schmidt, who was living in Wittenberg in a house next to the Wittenberg church.

For a lot of years, I have been familiar with the photo shown below that includes many members of my Schmidt/Loebs family.

This photo has been a challenge for me. Since I know so many people in this photo, and I know that several of them were living in St. Louis at the time, I wondered what occasion was happening when this photo was taken in order to get so many family members gathered together in Altenburg. By the way, my father is standing on the far left holding a young child. Rudy and Dorothy are included in this picture, just left of center, standing behind my Uncle Howard Voss in the Navy uniform holding a young child.

When you do a search for the date, 25 Oct 1942, not only do you find the record of Rudy and Dorothy being married on that day, but there is another record for the baptism of my cousin, Oliver Schlimpert, the son of Oscar and Lorna (Schmidt) Schlimpert. I think my dad may be holding young Milton Schlimpert, Oliver’s older brother.

Here is my latest thinking on this photograph. I think it may have been taken after church on Sunday, October 25th, possibly in front of the house in which another uncle, Uncle Arnold Schmidt, lived in Altenburg. I have been told that house would have been one that was found behind the Old Bank & Coffee Shop. I think later in the day, Uncle Rudy put on his military uniform, Aunt Dorothy put on the dress she wore for her wedding, and the family gathered at the Trinity parsonage for the wedding of Rudy and Dorothy. Then, these family members went down to Wittenberg and gathered at my Grandma’s house for more family time together.

Soon after this photo, my dad, Uncle Rudy, and Uncle Howard went off to fight in World War II. Thankfully, each of them returned safely from that conflict. I will leave you with 2 more photos, one of Rudy Schmidt and another of my dad, which were taken during the war. These were also part of that photo album we have recently received at the museum. I had never seen these photos before.

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Just one more note: While I was writing this post, our museum’s website passed 1,000,000 total views. I may have to write more about that benchmark at a later time.