I will begin with a bit of my history today which leads up to the bit of history that I will share about the Schuppan family. I began my teaching career in Ft. Lauderdale back in the 1970’s. It’s quite a while ago and my memory is not so good these days, but this is how I recall part of my time there. Two other young men became part of my life in South Florida. One was named Dave Guelzow, and he was the son of a previous pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Ft. Lauderdale, the congregation at which I became a member. By that time, Dave’s father had died. After I was there a while, another young man entered the scene by the name of Rick Herman. Rick also became a member of Grace, Ft. Lauderdale, and for a while, was my choir director. I will not go into details because it would take more time than I have today, but suffice it to say that many a good time was had by the trio of Dave, Rick, and I.
Here’s where I get a bit fuzzy on my history. I cannot remember the exact chronology, but into the Ft. Lauderdale Lutheran community entered a set of Schuppan identical twins, Diane and Deb Schuppan. Long story, short, Dave Guelzow married Diane Schuppan, and Rich Herman married Deb Schuppan. Diane Guelzow was the 5th grade teacher at Lutheran Central School, the same school where I was the 6th grade teacher. Deb Herman did some teaching at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Plantation, Florida, a congregation that was also part of the association that made up Lutheran Central School. Meanwhile, Dave Guelzow and Rich Herman were teaching and administering at the newly-formed Lutheran High School of South Florida. Little did I know at the time that Dave Guelzow, who is a descendant of Pastor Loeber, the first pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, and the Schuppan twins had family roots that took them back to Perry County, Missouri.
That leads me up to an event that took place yesterday in Altenburg and Frohna. A group of 11 people, all of which are going to be in Red Bud, Illinois for a family reunion this weekend, came to visit both the Lutheran Heritage Center & Museum and Saxon Lutheran Memorial. All of them were descendants in the Schuppan family, a surname that has appeared on this blog on many occasions. This group included Dave and Diane Guelzow and Rich and Deb Herman. One particular place that the Schuppan’s wanted to visit was the Schuppan cabin which is located at Saxon Lutheran Memorial. A group photo was taken in front of that cabin which is displayed here. Included in the photo is Jennie Williamson, an ambassador for Saxon Lutheran Memorial, who helped with this group while we were there.
As it turns out, I am also involved in a family gathering this weekend in Memphis, Tennessee, so I do not have much time for blog-writing. However, I discovered that the very first blog post that I wrote on the date, April 27th back in 2016 was about the Schuppan family. It was written back in the days when my stories were quite short. I am re-publishing that post today. More details about the arrival of the Schuppan family into Perry County can be found in another post titled, Vogel and Schuppan Connections. Some of our visitors were asking about where the Schuppan land was located near Frohna, but I was not sure when I was with them yesterday. That question is answered in this other post.
The Schuppan twins are fabulous artists and have been involved in Lutheran church art for a lot of years. Deb Herman spent some time as an art professor at Concordia, Chicago. Dave Guelzow later became a Lutheran pastor and served many years at the Lutheran church in Hickory, North Carolina. Rich Herman later became the director of the Wheat Ridge Ministries headquartered in Chicago. The group of friends who spent their early years in Ft. Lauderdale had this photo taken at our museum where the Schuppan’s were able to do some research on their family.
The original Schuppan, Adolph, was a talented carpenter. Based on my conversations with these folks, I would say that the artistic skills required for a good carpenter are still alive and well in this family. In addition to the art skills of the twins, there was another talented carpenter in this group, as well as a few who obviously had special photography skills. We hope this group manages to come back for another visit someday.