You are about to read another story of a few Perry County natives who would spend their early years here but left to live most of their lives elsewhere. In the case of today’s couple, they made their way all the way to the West Coast. Even though both the husband and wife in today’s pair were born and baptized in local churches, there is no evidence of these two getting married in our German Family Tree. I will begin with the bride who is today’s birthday girl.

Edna Christiana Jungclaus was born on July 31, 1899, thus making today her 125th birthday. Edna was the daughter of John and Emma (Kutscher) Jungclaus. She was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Her baptism record is pictured here in 2 images.

Edna was 11 months old when she appeared in her first census entry in 1900. Her father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township. There was also a teacher named Herman Henning living in this household. He was the teacher at the Ridge School at that time.

When the 1910 census was taken, we see that 3 more Jungclaus children had been added to the family. Edna was 10 years old at the time.

The last census in which we find Edna as a single woman was the one taken in 1920. She was living in St. Louis and working as a servant in the R.A. Campbell household.

Now, we will take a look at the man who would become Edna’s husband. His name was Friedrich Erwin Goller, who was born on March 16, 1904. Fred was the son of Christopher and Christina (Christensen) Goller. He was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. We can take a look at his baptism record from that congregation’s books.

Fred is found in his first census in 1910 when he was 6 years old. His father was a blacksmith in Frohna. Another young man named Friedrich Kahnert, who was also a blacksmith, was living with the Goller’s.

Fred was a teenager when the 1920 census was taken. At the age of 16, he was working at the swing factory in Wittenberg and living in Ida Buenger’s boarding house near that factory.

I suspect that Fred moved to St. Louis during the 1920’s. That is where he got married. Fred Goller married Edna Jungclaus on May 23, 1928. According to the St. Louis marriage record shown below, they were married by a justice of the peace.

I only found evidence for 2 children born to Fred and Edna. The first one was born in 1930 and is found in that year’s census. The Goller’s were living in Kansas City, Missouri, and Fred was a tinner at his own shop. Several boarders were living with them.

Then, according to a 1932 St. Louis city directory, the Goller’s must have returned to St. Louis where Fred was still a tinner.

The 1940 census indicates that the Goller’s had moved all the way across the country to San Diego, California. They had 2 children, and Fred was called a sheet metal worker for an aircraft construction company.

A 1941 San Diego city directory says Fred was an aircraft worker for CA Corp.

CA Corp would have been the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation. A photo below shows what was being produced at that company. This photo was likely taken a few years later when that business was building planes for World War II.

Fred had his World War II draft card completed in 1942. It says his employer was Goodyear Air Craft.

This made me think about whether they could have been producing Goodyear Blimps in San Diego. I did an internet search and came up with this information. The image below mentions both Goodyear and Consolidated Aircraft Corporations. Each of them were involved in building aircraft for the military, even before the United States entered the war.

Fred Goller was just 40 years old when he died in 1944. He is buried in the Mt. Hope Cemetery in San Diego.

I was unsuccessful at finding Edna Goller in the 1950 census, but I did locate her in a 1950 San Diego city directory.

Edna Goller died in 1966 at the age of 67. I did not find any burial information about her. She does not have an entry in the cemetery in which Fred was buried.

I found some similarities between the story of Fred Goller and my father. My dad was born in Wittenberg, but spent most of his life in St. Louis. He was employed at Emerson Electic Company and often described himself as a sheet metal worker. During the Vietnam War, that company had military contracts for helping to produce helicopters. He also was a soldier during World War II. Perhaps my father, without knowing it, might have seen aircraft that were produced in San Diego and worked on by Fred Goller.