When the Stephanite immigrants arrived in the United States in 1839, one of the largest families had the surname, Tirmenstein. Several previous posts have been written already on this blog about children who were part of that Tirmenstein family. Today, I will attempt to recount the story of the father and mother in that family, who I refer to as the “Tirmenstein Trailblazers”.

The story begins with a birth that may have taken place on May 1st. There is some debate about not only the day of this boy’s birth, but also the year of his birth. The child’s name was Samuel Tirmenstein, the son of Johannes and Dorothea (Petry) Tirmenstein. A few documents support the fact that Samuel was born in Stoß, Slovakia. First, here is a transcription of a baptism record for Samuel Tirmenstein from Stoß. This document states that he was baptized on May 2, 1794. The fact that his parents’ names are correct on this form helps confirm this record as being Samuel’s. But it does make one wonder if Samuel was born in 1794, which does not correspond with the year of birth given in our German Family Tree, which is 1793. However, it is possible that Samuel was still born on May 1st, but baptized the next day on the 2nd.

An actual image of this baptism record can be found in family trees on Ancestry.com. It is reportedly found in the 1794 list of baptism records for that parish.

The birth date of May 1, 1793 which is given in our GFT is based on Samuel’s date of birth engraved on his tombstone, which also leads to it being given as his birthday on Findagrave.com. I will display a photo of that gravestone later.

A detailed, handwritten family tree can also be found on Ancestry.com. On that tree, we find this note about Samuel Tirmenstein which says his family left Slovakia in 1812 and eventually settled in Dresden, Germany in 1816. Please note that it gives a birth date of May 1, 1794 for Samuel. If that is the case, today would be Samuel’s 230th birthday.

Now, we will take a look at the woman who would become Samuel’s wife. Her name was Christiane Theresia Clauß, who was born on January 19, 1807 in Kamenz, Germany, which is located not far from Dresden. Christiane was the daughter of Carl Christian and Johanine Christiane (Großmauer) Clauß. I do not have any baptism information about her.

Samuel Tirmenstein married Christiane Claus in 1825. A family history says these two were married on May 1, 1825, and if that is the case, they were married on Samuel’s 31st or 32nd birthday, depending on whether he was born in 1793 or 1794. These two were married at the Dreikonigskirche in Dresden. A German marriage record found on Ancestry.com is shown below. I do not see the date of May 1st on it, but I do see the date of April 24th. The same person who submitted this form, however, states that they were married on May 1st.

I think the image shown below is a drawing of the Dreikonigskirche (Three Kings Church) as it may have looked when the Tirmenstein couple was married.

I am going to display a couple of images (I won’t call them photographs) of Samuel and Christiane when they were still quite young. They probably looked like this when they were a young couple in Germany.

Eight children were born in Germany before the Tirmenstein family left for America in November of 1838. Their youngest child was just 2 months old when he made the voyage aboard the ship, Olbers. We can see the Tirmenstein family on this portion of the passenger list for that ship. You cannot see it on the image below, but it says that this family was from Dresden. Samuel was called a coppersmith.

The first few years that the Tirmenstein’s were in this country, they resided in Perry County. The 1840 census includes this family. Ancestry.com transcribes their surname as Doominstim. The fact that this entry lists 4 males and 6 females, all in the correct age ranges, confirms that this is indeed the Samuel Tirmenstein family.

The first child born in America to this couple in 1841 was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. I have heard it speculated that the Tirmenstein’s were living in the Dresden community in Perry County after they arrived. So, why would they have a child baptized in Frohna? I have a theory for that. Early 1841 was when Rev. C.F.W. Walther, the pastor at the Dresden church, had fallen into the Apple Creek and got sick. He recuperated at Rev. Keyl’s home in Frohna because Pastor Keyl was married to Pastor Walther’s sister. Perhaps the Tirmenstein’s went to Frohna to have their pastor baptize their baby. We can view that child’s baptism record below.

That baby did not live long. She died in July of 1841, and her death record is also found in the books of Concordia, Frohna.

That means that the Tirmenstein’s were living in Perry County when the Altenburg Debate took place in April of 1841. I like to think that Samuel may have been present at that event. When their next baby was born in 1843, that child was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis, so it must not have been long after 1841 that this family moved to St. Louis. Perhaps they followed their pastor, Rev. C.F.W. Walther, to his church in that city.

According to our German Family Tree, the Tirmenstein’s had 5 children that were born in America, but all of those babies died early. All together, the Tirmenstein’s had 13 children. We find the Tirmenstein’s in the 1850 census living in St. Louis. For some reason, Samuel is not given an occupation in this entry. There were 3 children listed in their household.

Next, we find Samuel and Christiane in the 1860 census. Only a teenager by the name of Justina Stadler was living with them. Samuel was called a tinner.

The last census in which we find the Tirmenstein couple was the one taken in 1870. For some unknown reason, Samuel is given the occupation as “Germany”. Once again, some young children at ages 12 and 18 were living with them. Perhaps this couple was in the habit of taking in young people that needed homes. We might describe them as foster parents.

Later in their lives, Samuel and Christiane had these photos taken. You may have to click them to see the entire image.

Samuel Tirmenstein died on Christmas Eve in 1876 at either the age 82 or 83. Christiane died just one month later in January of 1877 at the age of 70. I thought I would find their death records in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis, but their records are not found there. So, I went to our museum to see if their death records could be found in the books of Holy Cross Lutheran Church. That is where I found them.

Samuel’s record states that he was 82 years, 7 months, and 21 days old when he died. I figure that if you backtrack from his death date that many years, months, and days, you come up with a birth date of May 1, 1794.

We can also view some St. Louis death records for this pair. First, here is the one for Samuel. I have to display it in 2 images.

Here is Christiane’s similar St. Louis death record.

Both of the above death records state that these two were buried in the New Saxon Cemetery. That cemetery would later be named Concordia Cemetery. We can see their gravestone from their Findagrave.com entries. I have included an enlarged photo that better shows the dates on the gravestone. You can see that Samuel’s birthday is given as May 1, 1793.

I lean toward the correct date of birth for Samuel Tirmenstein to be May 1, 1794, not 1793. I think his tombstone has the incorrect year, but I may be wrong. I enjoyed some unexpected results from researching this story. First, I must say that it is not often that I find so much documentation for people from their early days in Europe before coming to America. I also do not get many opportunities to see images and photographs of some of the original immigrants. Finally, I had never given thought to a Tirmenstein being in Perry County at the time of the Altenburg Debate.

In conclusion, let me tell you a more personal story. Just yesterday, I took the time to read a tribute to a former teacher of mine, Paul Crisler, that was published in the Lutheran High School North alumni magazine that I receive periodically. Paul Crisler and another former teacher of mine, Rev. Arthur Repp, were mentioned in that article together. I ran across Rev. Repp’s obituary not long ago that described his recent death. I will show a portion of that article below which also mentions a man by the name, Steve Tirmenstein. The article even mentions Kirk Mueller who was born and raised in Frohna. What are the chances that I would be reading this article while in the process of researching Samuel Tirmenstein. I look at it as another one of those “acts of God”.

I would like to think that if Steve Tirmenstein is still living, and if he would somehow run across this blog, that he would recognize Samuel Tirmenstein as one of his special ancestors.