The bride in today’s couple is the only one who has a baptism record that we find in a local congregation’s books and is included in our German Family Tree. I am going to begin with her in this post despite the fact that she was born about 9 years after her future husband.

Esther Emma Elizabeth Rauh was born on June 24, 1908, the daughter of Charles and Louisa (Bergmann) Rauh. Esther was child #9 out of 13 children born into this Rauh family. She was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church in Longtown. We can take a look at an image of her baptism record from that congegation’s books.

Esther is found in her first census in 1910 at the age of 1. She was one of 7 children in this entry. Her father was a farmer in the Union Township.

Some photos of this Rauh family are found in a Rauh family book that we have in our research library. One of the people responsible for putting this book together was Charley Rauh, who authored many books that we offer iin our museum’s gift shop. Charley, who died not long ago, would have called Esther, Aunt Esther.

Inside this book, we discover that Esther is one of the women to which this book is dedicated.

Here is a photograph of the Rauh home when it was located in Longtown. Some members of the Rauh family are seen pictured in front of that home. The caption identifies the people.

Another photo was taken of the Rauh family when Esther was quite young.

The Rauh family relocated during the next decade. They moved to the Shawnee Township near Pocahontas. That is where we find them in the 1920 census. A child was born and baptized in Longtown in 1914, but the next child born in 1918 was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church in Pocahontas.

Two years after the above census, Esther was confirmed at Zion, Pocahontas in 1922. Her confirmation photo is displayed here.

Esther would get married prior to the 1930 census, so we will now turn our attention to the man who would become her husband. He also happens to be today’s birthday boy. His name was Wiley Jefferson Macke, who was born on August 28, 1899. That means today would be his 125th birthday. Wiley was the son of William and Hittie Belle (Sachse) Macke. I am not aware of where Wiley was baptized, but a later military record says his place of birth was Jackson, Missouri. The Macke family is found living in Jackson when the 1900 census was taken. Wiley was not even a year old yet. His father was a blacksmith.

In the 1910 census, Wiley was 10 years old, and his father was still a blacksmith in Jackson.

I was unable to locate a World War I draft registration form for Wiley. I think that may be because he enlisted in the Navy before he was required to register. The Navy recruitment form shown below indicates that he was in the Navy in June of 1918.

A military record shown below says that Wiley served in the U.S. Navy from 1918-1924.

I found the 1920 census entry for Wiley to be rather unique. He is found in a U.S. census form living in Shanghai, China. Wiley is included in a list of sailors who served aboard the ship, USS Wilmington, which was apparently docked in Shanghai.

Below is a photo of the USS Wilmington.

A Wikipedia article about this ship’s history gives this description of that ship’s actions during the time when Wiley was a sailor in the Navy. If Wiley was aboard this ship during the years mentioned in this article, he would have had the experience of travelling all over the world on that ship.

Somehow, this young sailor managed to become acquainted with a farmer’s daughter from Pocahontas, and on June 12, 1927, Wiley Macke married Esther Rauh at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau. We can look at a transcription of this couple’s church marriage record.

I am also able to display 2 civil records of their wedding. Here is the Missouri marriage license for this pair.

I am also able to display this marriage certificate for this event.

The Rauh family book also includes this wedding photo of Wiley and Esther. It illustrates several characteristics of a “Roaring Twenties” wedding.

The Macke’s had the 4 children listed in this information from the Rauh book below.

In the 1930 census, we see 2 children in the Macke household. Wiley was a mechanic in a garage in Jackson.

Another child was born in the next decade. In the 1940 census, Wiley’s widowed mother was the head of the Macke household. She was called a seamstress. Three children are included in this entry. Wiley was a mechanic at the Brenneke Chevrolet Company in Jackson. Several people I talked to this morning had memories of this Chevy dealership in Jackson and said it still was in business until about 20 years ago.

Wiley had his World War II draft card completed iin 1942. It gives him a Jackson address, but says he was employed by Rudert & Sons in Cape Girardeau.

The last census we can view is the one taken in 1950. The Macke’s were living in Pocahontas, and Wiley was called an auto mechanic for an auto sales and service company. Three sons were in the household.

Wiley Macke died in 1995 at the age of 95; Esther Macke died in 2010 at the age of 102. These two are buried in the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Pocahontas. Wiley’s gravestone recognizes his military service during World War I.

Prior to her death, at the age of 97, Esther sat down with Charley Rauh and Bill Tinsley to be interviewed prior to the publication of the Rauh family book. Some of that interview is transcribed in that family book, and you could come to our museum to read it.

I am going to include a few other photos that have Esther in them. These are not even all of them found in that book. Esther gives me the impression that she was quite a humorous character. One of the photos pictures her in overalls and wearing a tie.

The Macke’s oldest child, Tom Macke, went on to attend Concordia, River Forest to become a Lutheran teacher. He would spend a lot of years as a teacher at Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau

In closing, let me point out that the 1920 census record from China is the first time I have run across a census record that listed people who were living outside the boundary of the United States. It makes me wonder about how the census takers over the years have accounted for members of the military who were serving around the world when the census was taken.