I think I am going to find it easier to write today’s post than most. The bride and groom each have surnames consisting of only 4 letters. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be for my left pinkie finger to properly hit the “Z” key. I will begin with the person who arrived in Perry County first. That was the bride.

Maria Lang was born on January 11, 1830 in Wiessenfels, Germany. Mary was the daughter of Johann and Catherine (Bergmann) Lang. Mary’s family came to America in 1840 aboard the ship, Clementine. Several other families that settled in Perry County were also aboard that ship. They were the Klobe’s, the Popp’s, and a Bergmann. There were also 2 separate Lang families on that ship, both of which were headed by a man named Johann Lang. Mary can be seen on that ship’s passenger list below. She was 10 years old at the time.

Mary would get married during the first decade when she was living in Perry County, so we will now look at the man who would become her husband. His name was Conrad Lanz, who was born on April 27, 1825 in Merzhausen, Germany. Conrad was the son of Johann Heinrich and Anna Catherina (Hooss) Lanz. His mother’s maiden name, Hooss, is another name that showed up in Perry County at a very early time. Conrad arrived in America in 1848 by making the voyage across the Atlantic aboard the ship, John Carver. We can see Conrad on that ship’s passenger list below. He would have been about 23 years old at the time. He was called a tailor.

A year after he arrived, Conrad Lanz married Mary Lang on October 19, 1849. That means today would be the 175th wedding anniversary for this pair. These two were married at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg, so we are not able to view a church marriage record. However, I am able to display 2 civil marriage records from Perry County. Here is the first.

Here is the other one. Rev. E.O. Wolff was the pastor of Peace, Friedenberg at the time.

I am going to have to rely on a family tree found on Ancestry.com to give the number of children born to this couple. That tree lists 10 children born between 1850 and 1876. Not all of them lived long. The only child we find in our German Family Tree is Louise Lanz, who was born in 1857 and died in 1858. That child is probably found in our GFT because she was buried in the Peace, Friedenberg Cemetery. I suspect that there were 5 Lanz children who were born in Perry County were baptized at Peace. When the 1850 census was taken, the Lanz’s had just had a baby who is listed as one month old. Conrad was a tailor in Perryville.

Next, we find the Lanz family in the 1860 census. There were 3 children in their household, and Conrad was still a tailor. A few other laborers were found in this entry, along with another tailor who likely was working with Conrad.

It is recorded that the Lanz’s moved to Illinois in 1863 during the Civil War. In the 1870 census, we find the Lanz family living in Randolph County, Illinois. The post office listed on this census page was Ruma, Illinois.

Conrad Lanz died early in 1880, so he does not appear in the 1880 census. He died at the age of 54. Someone has included a short biography for Conrad on his Findagrave.com site. This bio indicates that the Lanz’s were members of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Evansville, Illinois when Conrad died.

We find Mary as a widow in the 1880 census. She and her remaining children were living in Evansville. There was a 4 year-old girl living in her household, but I cannot tell you who she was. The family tree I used says her name was Cora Naga Lanz, but I don’t think her last name was Lanz. The only son in this entry was called a farm laborer.

Mary is still found in the 1900 census at the age of 70. She was included in the household of her daughter, Sophia, who had married Friedrich William Botterbrodt in 1881, but he died in 1891. I think Botterbrodt is a variation on the word butterbrodt which means butter bread. So, there are 2 widows in this census entry. There was also a niece, age 18, who was also named Sophia.

Mary Lanz died in 1901 at the age of 71. If we had access to the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church books, we would likely find the death records for Conrad and Mary. Both Conrad and Mary are buried in the St. Peter’s Lutheran Cemetery in Evansville. Each of them has an entry for that cemetery on Findagrave.com, but neither one has a gravestone photo.

The characters in this post were early residents of Perryville. Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville did not get established until after the Lanz couple moved to Illinois. That would mean that this Lutheran couple would have worshiped at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. Many of the early names to be found as members of Peace are found on the passenger lists of the Clementine and the John Carver. I have seen several examples of these early families struggling with whether they wanted to live in Missouri or Illinois. Some tried Illinois and later moved to Perry County. The Lanz’s made the decision to move to Illinois after trying Perry County.