One of the students who was part of the first class that attended the Log Cabin College in Alternburg in 1839 was a young girl named Lydia Buenger, who was called Liddy. Lydia was the daughter of Christiane Buenger, who I call Mama Buenger. She is the featured character in my book, Mama Buenger: Mother of a Synod. I have previously written stories about Lydia. I’ve told the amazing story about how she met her husband, Rev. Friedrich Lochner and another story about her tragic death as a result of childbirth in1848. One of Liddy’s teachers at the Log Cabin College was her brother, Rev. Johann Friedrich Buenger. That leads us up to one of today’s main characters.

Rev. J.F. Buenger and his wife, Johanna Reissner, had a baby girl who was born in St. Louis on November 4, 1857. I have every reason to believe that the Buenger’s named this girl after her father’s sister. She was given the name Johanna Lydia Maria Buenger, and all later documents called her Lydia. Her father was the first pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Louis, and it is in that congregation’s books that we find Lydia’s baptism record. Although I am unable to display an original image of that record, there is a list of baptisms that took place in that congregation that was likely produced later, and we find Lydia’s name on that list. It does not give much information about that baptism other than the fact that she was baptized on November 8th.

There is an entry in the 1860 census that is likely the one for Lydia’s Buenger family, but the spelling of some names on it cast a bit of doubt about whether this is indeed their entry. It definitely calls the father a minister and gives the correct age for Lydia (3).

Next, we find Lydia in the 1870 census at the age of 12. Another child, Agnes, had been added to this family in the previous decade. Rev. Buenger also had a sister named Agnes, who at this time was married to Ottomar Fuerbringer, another builder and teacher of the Log Cabin College.

Lydia was confirmed in 1870. Her confirmation record from Immanuel, St. Louis is displayed here. This document confirms Lydia’s date of birth as November 4, 1857. Her father would have both baptized her and later confirmed her.

The last census in which we find Lydia as being single, and also the last one in which we find her living in Missouri, is the one taken in 1880.

Now, we will turn our attention to the man who would become Lydia’s husband. His name was Carl Friedrich Conrad Keller, who was born on August 26, 1855 in Columbia, Illinois. Columbia is found not far southeast of St. Louis. Carl was the son of John and Catherina (Brandt) Keller. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Columbia had been established in 1841 by Rev. Georg Schieferdecker, so I believe Carl’s baptism record is likely found in that congregation’s books. However, by 1855, Rev. Schieferdecker was back in Altenburg serving Trinity Lutheran Church. We find Carl in his first census at the age of 7, although I think he was just 5. His father was a shoemaker in Columbia.

Carl is found in the 1870 census at the age of 16. His family had relocated to Macoupin County, Illinois which is not that far from St. Louis to the northeast. His father was operating a grocery store. In both of the censuses I have shown, there is a daughter named Catherine who was said to be born in Missouri, so this family must have lived in Missouri for a short time.

I failed to find the Keller’s in the 1880 census. I suspect that Carl was studying to become a Lutheran pastor at this time in his life.

Carl Keller married Lydia Buenger on June 5, 1884, and that is why I found this story for today. This couple would be celebrating their 140th anniversary today. These two were married in St. Louis. I was able to locate a St. Louis marriage license for this couple. They were married by Rev. C.F.W. Walther, and it gives an address which is where Concordia Seminary and Holy Cross Lutheran Church were located at that time. Rev. Walther was married to Emily Buenger, who would have been Lydia’s aunt. I will add that I did look in the church books of Trinity, St. Louis and Holy Cross, St. Louis for evidence of this couple being married at those churches, but I did not find any indication that they did. Lydia’s father had died in 1882, so he was not around to marry these two.

Based on census entries and family trees on Ancestry.com, I think this couple had 4 children, and I think they were all born in or near Thornton, Illinois, which is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. That is where we find this Keller household living when the 1900 census was taken. By that time, they had all 4 of their children.

In a history found on the website of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Thornton, it says that Rev. Carl Keller became the first permanent pastor of that congregation in1882, prior to his marriage. It also indicates that he had graduated from Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois. That makes me wonder about how a Springfield graduate would find a bride from St. Louis. Pastor Keller would remain at St. Paul’s, Thornton until 1906, when he recieved a call to Strasburg, Illinois.

I find it interesting that this couple’s children were named Agnes, Carl, Martin, and Lydia. As explained earlier, the names Agnes and Lydia were names of two of Mama Buenger’s daughters. Martin may have been name after Martin Luther. The most interesting to me was the one named Carl. I found evidence that he was named Carl F.W. Keller. Although I did not find confirmation for this, I think he was named Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm, and if he was, he must have been named after C.F.W. Walther. Carl F.W. was born in October of 1887, and Rev. C.F.W. Walther had died in May of 1887, giving more credence to Carl being named after him.

Next, we find the Keller’s living in the Prairie Township of Shelby County, Illinois, which is where Strasburg was located. Their 2 daughters, Agnes and Lydia, were still living with their parents.

The last census in which we find Pastor Keller was the one taken in 1930. He was still serving the church in Strasburg, and still had his 2 daughters in his household.

Rev. Keller almost made it into the 1930 census, but he died on Valentine’s Day of that year, leaving Lydia as a widow. Carl was 74 years old when he died. An Illinois death record says he died in Chicago. In the 1930 census, Lydia was living with her daughter, Lydia, in Chicago. This daughter was still single..

In 1939, an article was published in a Hammond, Indiana newspaper that said that congregation was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Saxon immigration to Perry County in 1839. That article said that Lydia Keller was a member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Hammond.

Next, we find Lydia in the 1940 census living in Riverdale, Illinois, which is also part of the Chicago metropolitan area. Both Lydia’s were still in the same household.

Lydia was in her 90’s when she is found in the 1950 census, and still living with her daughter, Lydia, in Riverdale.

Lydia Keller, the mother, died in 1955 at the age of 97. She died in Riverdale. Here is where I am a bit puzzled. Both Carl and Lydia Keller are buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Hammond, Indiana.

The only link to Hammond, Indiana for this couple that I found was the article that appeared in a Hammond newspaper in 1939. By then, Rev. Carl Keller had been buried there. But why was he buried there? I have no idea. As far as I could determine, Rev. Keller spent his whole career in the ministry in the state of Illinois. Maybe one of our readers who may be familiar with the Keller’s can answer this question.

I am going to close by showing some photos of the Keller’s. Below are 2 photos taken of the Keller family. The thumbnails are clickable.

Here is one more showing Lydia with her daughter, Agnes, and one of Agnes’s children. This was likely taken after the above photo on the right was taken. The child in Lydia’s lap could be the child in the picture below.

After writing quite a few stories from this Buenger family tree, I have discovered that the two female names, Agnes and Lydia, are often found down amongst the branches of that tree. Today’s Lydia was actually another one that carried the surname, Buenger, just like her aunt. Another thing that I have discovered is that many fulltime church workers are found in that tree, and many of the women in the tree were married to Lutheran pastors and teachers. I know the Buenger family tree is filled with plenty of people who could be classified as important figures in the early history of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.