I do not often get directed to a story through a confirmation record, but that is the case today. It is in the confirmation record that we find the date of birth for one of today’s main characters. I will be highlighting 3 sisters in today’s post, and the confirmation record for today’s birthday girl is the only one for any of these 3 to be found in our German Family Tree.

Irene Martha Ernestine Mueller was born on October 8, 1899, so today would be her 125th birthday. Irene was the daughter of a Mueller/Mueller couple. Her parents were Ernst and Helma (Mueller) Mueller. Irene’s father was a Lutheran pastor, and at the time of her birth, he was serving St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Wood Lake, Minnesota. Before I move on, let me tell you that the other 2 characters who will be highlighted in this post were older sisters of Irene, Gertrude and Erica Mueller. When the 1900 census was taken, the Mueller’s are found living in the Posen Township of Yellow Medicine County in Minnesota, and all 3 of today’s characters are found in this census entry. Gertrude was 10, Erica was 9, and Irene was just 8 months old. Their father was called a minister.

I located this photo of the parents of this rather large Mueller family.

By the time of the 1910 census, Rev. Mueller had moved his family to Quincy, Illinois. In that year’s census entry, there were 9 children in the Mueller household. It says the 2 oldest children were born in Kansas, followed by 7 children who were born in Minnesota. Of the 3 sisters I will be focusing on today, Gertrude was born in Kansas, while Erica and Irene were born in Minnesota. Gertrude was old enough to be working at a notion store. Their father is described as a clergyman.

As you may have figured out already, I will be telling the story of 3 sisters who never married. It will also be one in which we find these 3 in all of the census entries I will display today. Rev. Ernst Mueller was the pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Longtown from 1911-1918. It was during that time when Irene was confirmed at Zion in 1914. That confirmation record is displayed here.

While Rev. Mueller served Zion, 4 of their children got records into that congregation’s books. Two other younger brothers were also confirmed there, and an older sister, Lydia, was married there. The story of Lydia’s marriage was told in the post, A Different Longtown Mueller Wedding. The latest of these records in the Longtown books took place in 1915.

When the 1920 census was taken, some more changes occurred in this family. First, we find them living in St. Louis. We also see that Ernst Mueller is no longer called a pastor, but a newspaper editor. Gertrude had no occupation, Erica was called a librarian at a department store, and Irene was a credit clerk at a bank. I find it amazing that the Mueller couple also had an adopted boy at the age of 2. This entry says that child was born in Virginia, but later census entries say he was born in Missouri. I cannot help but wonder if this child had spent some time in the Lutheran Orphans Home in St. Louis before adoption.

In 1920, Irene was also found in a yearbook for Washington University in St. Louis. She is seen in the photograph below which includes all the students who were part of the Thyrsus Society, a dramatic club. I have no idea which one in Irene.

In the 1930 census, Ernst and Helma were in their 60’s. Ernst was doing literary work at a biweekly paper. Gertrude (age 40) still had no occupation while Erica (age 39) was a saleslady at a department store and Irene (age 31) was a bookkeeper at a title guarantee company. Another sister, Hildegard, had been married to a man named Matthews and had a child. Hildegard, called a widow in this entry, and her child were also included in the Mueller household.

The 1940 census shows the Mueller parents in their 70’s with no occupations. Gertrude also had no occupation, but Erica was a saleslady. Irene is called a comptometer operator.

I discovered that a comptometer was an early version of what might now be called a calculator, an adding machine. A photo of an early one is shown below.

The last census we can view is the one taken in 1950. Ernst was called a retired minister in this entry at the age of 90. Helma was 86 years old. Gertrude, at age 60, still had no occupation. I believe there may have been some reason she was unable to work during her lifetime. Erica, at age 58, was pricing clothing at a department store. Irene, at age 50, continued to do comptometer work for an electric company.

Although we cannot view any later census entries, I assume the 3 sisters would have been living with each other in those entries. Both of their parents died in the 1950’s. All 3 of them would have been included in the 1960, 1970, and 1980 censuses. Since Erica died in 1982 and Gertrude died in 1986, only Irene would have been found in the 1990 census. Irene died in 1991. A bunch of the Mueller family members, including the parents, are buried in the Sunset Memorial Park in Affton.

The amazing fact about this Mueller family is that so many members lived to very advanced ages. A few children in this family died as youngsters, but those that lived to adulthood exhibited amazing longevity. Here is a list of many of those members along with their ages at their death.

• Rev. Ernst Mueller – 95 years old
• Helma Mueller – 91 years old
• Hildegard Matthews – 88 years old
• Gertrude Mueller – 96 years old
• Erica Mueller – 91 years old
• Lydia Schwehn – 89 years old
• Eleanore Landgraf – 94 years old
• Irene Mueller – 91 years old
• Gerald Mueller – 90 or 91 years old

It really is an amazing list of family members who lived to a ripe old age. Add to that the fact that so many of these siblings spent most of their lives living in the same household.