Not long ago, I wrote a post about the original Tirmenstein’s to arrive in America in 1839. That post was titled, Tirmenstein Trailblazers. In that post, it was noted that the Tirmenstein’s spent just a short time in Perry County before moving to St. Louis. Today I will tell the story of a Tirmenstein grandson of those first Tirmenstein’s, and like so many men in this family, he became a Lutheran pastor.

Arthur Henry Martin Tirmenstein was born on June 10, 1884, so today would be his 140th birthday. Arthur was the son of Rev. Martin and Amalia (Stoeppler) Tirmenstein. Another post was written previously that included some information about Arthur’s parents titled, Who Is the Last Grandchild of an 1839 Immigrant? When Arthur was born, his father was a pastor in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By the time of the first census we can view including Arthur which was taken in 1900, the Tirmenstein family was living in Logansport, Indiana. His father was a minister at St. James Lutheran Church. This entry says, at the age of 15, Arthur was at school. Arthur was the last child born into this Tirmenstein family.

I will take a time-out from Arthur’s story to say that when I did a search for a Lutheran Church in Logansport, a recent article appeared in the search results. That article told the story of how that church’s organ had some new pipes installed recently. After writing about the Wittenberg organ yesterday, I found it amazing to find the story of a church making improvements to their organ today. If you are interested in reading that article, you can click on the link below.

https://buzardorgans.com/1886-barckhoff/

Arthur went off to Concordia College in Fort Wayne, Indiana from 1900-1906 to begin his preparation to become a Lutheran pastor. I was unsuccessful at finding Arthur in the 1910 census. I know he graduated from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 1909. I also know that his first call was to Christ Lutheran Church in Anderson, Indiana. However, I was unable to find him living there in the 1910 census. I did find this entry for Arthur in a 1914 Anderson city directory.

Christ Lutheran Church was likely using the sanctuary shown below when Arthur served that congregation.

This photo of Arthur must also have been taken during his early years of ministry.

Arthur found his bride in Indiana, but she was from a town that was not that close to Anderson, so I question how these two became acquainted. Let’s take a look at this woman who became Arthur’s wife.. Her name was Clara Hilda Baumann, who was born on October 28, 1891 in Bremen, Indiana. Hilda was the daughter of Ferdinand and Marie (Harstein) Baumann. I failed to find Hilda in the 1900 census. The first one I located for her was the one taken in 1910. She was the youngest child in her family, and by this time, she was the only child left in the Baumann household. She was 18 years old at the time.

Arthur Tirmenstein married Hilda Baumann on June 28, 1916 in Bremen. I am able to display an Indiana marriage license for this couple. It says they were married by Arthur’s father, who was a pastor in Indianapolis at the time.

Based on census entries, family trees that I looked at, and a later newspaper article, this couple had 4 children. During his time in Anderson, Arthur also served nearby Our Blessed Savior Lutheran Church in Alexandria. When the 1920 census was taken, we find them with one child. Clara’s mother died shortly after the Tirmenstein marriage, so we find her widowed father in this houshold. Arthur was still a minister in Anderson and Alexandria.

Arthur left Anderson in 1925 to take a call to Trinity Lutheran Church in Valonia, Indiana. When the 1930 census was taken, we find the Tirmenstein’s living in the Driftwood Township, which is where Vallonia is located. There were 3 children in their household.

Rev. Tirmenstein was in Vallonia until 1936, when he accepted a call to Trinity Lutheran Church in Darmstadt, Indiana, which is located near Evansville. Below is a photo of what that church looked like when Arthur served there.

One more daughter was born during the 1930’s. The Tirmenstein’s were living in the Scott Township of Vanderburgh County, which is where Darmstadt is found, in the 1940 census.

The last census we are able to view is the one taken in 1950. They were in the same location, but by this time, they had an empty nest.

In 1966, Arthur and Hilda celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. An article about that event was printed in an Anderson, Indiana newspaper. It is in this article that we discover that at some times during her life, Clara was a teacher.

I located a better image of the photo shown in the above article.

Hilda Tirmenstein died in 1972 at the age of 80. We can take at her Indiana death certificate here.

Rev. Arthur Tirmenstein died in 1978 at the age of 93. We are also able to look at his Indiana death certificate.

Rev. Arthur and Hilda Tirmenstein are buried together in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Evansville.

Although Rev. Arthur Tirmenstein served several different congregations during his ministry, all of those churches were found in the state of Indiana. A document describing Rev. Tirmenstein’s ministry is displayed here. I wish I had one of these documents for every Lutheran pastor who is featured on this blog.

Below is a map of the different locations for different places in Indiana that are mentioned in this post.

You can see that Arthur and Hilda were found all over that state during their lifetimes.

In the previous post mentioned earlier, it was speculated that Phyllis Tirmenstein, who was the youngest of today’s couple’s children, may be the last grandchild of an original 1839 immigrant to die. Her grandfather, Martin Tirmenstein, came to America as a baby. Phyllis died in 2022. I would still be interested to know if anyone else might still be alive who can claim to be a grandchild of an original immigrant? I doubt it.