The birthday of Marie Bodenschatz leads us to this story about one of Friedrich Florian “The Face” Petzoldt’s sons. I know I have writen about a few other sons of “The Face” on this blog before, and certainly stories of many of his grandchildren, but somehow the story of Adolph Petzoldt, his 3rd son, has escaped my attention thus far. You will read his story today, and I will begin with him.

Adolph Petzoldt was born on October 5, 1845 in Lengenfeld, Germany. He was the son of Friedrich Florian and Christiane (Maennel) Petzoldt. According to this bit of information found on Ancestry.com, the Petzoldt’s arrived in America in 1849 when Adolph was about 4 years old.

We find Adolph in the 1850 census living in the Brazeau Township. He was 4 years old, and his father was a farmer.

Next, we find the Petzoldt’s in the 1860 census when Adolph was a teenager. You can see that the Petzoldt’s had started with 3 sons, which were followed by 4 girls.

When we take a look at the 1870 census, we discover that all 3 of the older Petzoldt sons were well into their 20’s and were still single. Also, one more son had been born into this family.

Now, we will take a look at the woman who would become Adolph’s first wife. Her name was Marie Bodenschatz, who was born on July 11, 1854, thus making today her 170th birthday. She was the daughter of Gottfried and Ernestine (Buettner) Bodenschatz. The first few children in this family, including Marie, were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Below, you can take a look at Marie’s baptism record from Trinity’s books. I have this suspicion that this baptism may have taken place around New Wells. This was the time when a new congregation, Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells, was being established, and the pastor at Trinity, Rev. Georg Schieferdecker, was one of the local ministers who was doing some preaching to the Austrian and German immigrants in the New Wells area at that time. Beginning in 1859, the Bodenshatz children were baptized in New Wells.

When Marie showed up in her first census in 1860, her family was living in the Shawnee Township. Marie’s father was a farmer. She was 6 years old at the time.

In the 1870 census, Marie was a teenager. Her father had died prior to that year’s census, so her mother was the head of this household.

Adolph Petzoldt married Marie Bodenschatz on September 30, 1875. The church marriage record for this event is found in the books of Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells.

We are also able to take a look at 2 different civil marriage records from Cape Girardeau County.

Below is another civil record for this wedding.

Adolph and Marie are found in the Missouri state census that was taken in 1876.

Our German Family Tree says that 2 children were born to Adolph and Marie, both of which died right away. Right after the 2nd child was born, Marie Petzoldt died as a result of childbirth at the age of 24. She was buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Old Cemetery in New Wells, but Findagrave.com has no gravestone photo.

Adolph would marry again, so we will now look at the woman who became his 2nd wife. Her name was Alma Margaretha Engert, who was born on June 17, 1857. Alma was the daughter of Friedrich and Anna (Jungclaus) Engert. That means she was one of the 23 children who could claim Friedrich Engert as their father. Alma was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. Quite a few of the Engert children were baptized in Frohna, but after Alma was born, Immanuel Lutheran Church was established in Altenburg in 1857, and the Engert family became members of that congregation. Below is Alma’s baptism record from Concordia’s books.

Alma is found in the 1860 census at the age of 3. She is called Anna in this entry. Alma’s father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

Next, we find Alma in the 1870 census as a teenager. The Engert family had gotten even larger.

Adolph Petzoldt married Alma Engert on Reformation Day, October 31, 1878, at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. This couple’s church marriage record is pictured here.

We can also view a Perry County record for this marriage.

The German Family Tree lists 9 children born to Adolph and Alma. I was unable to locate an 1880 census entry for the Petzoldt’s, so the next one we are able to view is the one in 1900. There were 6 children in their household.

In the 1910 census, the Petzoldt’s had just 3 remaining children in their household.

The last census in which we find Adolph was the one taken in 1920. He and Alma were living with their son, Anton, and his family. Adolph was no longer farming.

Toward the end of 1920, Adolph Petzoldt died at the age of 75. Heart disease is given as his cause of death on the certificate below.

Alma is found as a widow in the 1930 census. She was living with her son, Fred, and his wife.

Plat maps were produced in 1930 for Cape Girardeau County, The image below displays both the Anton and the Fred Petzoldt farms.

Alma Petzoldt died in 1934 at the age of 76. Pneumonia was the cause of her death.

Both Adolph and Alma Petzoldt are buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg, the same cemetery in which “The Face” tombstone is located.

I found it interesting that I included 2 baptism records and 2 church marriage records in this post, and all 4 of those records were from the church books of 4 different local Lutheran churches. Also, I might add that when you do a story that includes Petzoldt’s, Bodenschatz’s, and Engert’s, one has to find records in our GFT for surnames that take up a whole bunch of pages in that document.