A number of Preusser stories have been told on this blog. Today, you will read about the parents of several of those Preusser’s. It all begins with a birthday boy.
Friedrich Gustav Preusser was born on October 21, 1854, thus qualifying him to be today’s birthday boy. He would be 170 years old today. In this area, this surname is pronounce Proy’-zer. Gustav was the son of William and Sophia (Schlandstaedt) Preusser. The Preusser’s arrived in this country at about the same time as the Gesellschaft in 1839, and they appeared very early in East Perry County records, but they were not part of the Stephanites. Gustav was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. We can take a look at an image of his baptism record from that congregation below.
Gustav is found in the 1860 census at the age of 6. His father was a carpenter in the Brazeau Township.
Next, we find Gustav in the 1870 census. This time, his father was called a farmer. Gustav was 15 years old.
Gustav would get married in 1880, but he was still single when the census was taken for that year. His father had died in 1876, and his mother had died in January of 1880, so neither of them appear in this 1880 entry. Gustav, at the age of 25, was living in the household of his older brother, August, and helping him on his farm.
Now, we will take a look at the woman who would become Gustav’s wife. Her name was Anna Christiana Jahn, who was born on March 13, 1860. This surname is pronounced as Yon among the German population here. Anna’s parents, Friedrich and Magdalene (Kaufmann) Jahn, were members of the German Lutheran Immigration society that arrived in 1839. Anna was also baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.
Anna did not make it into the 1860 census, so the first one in which we find Anna was the census taken in 1870. She was 10 years old at the time. Her father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.
Anna’s mother had died in 1877, and then her father married Maria (Haertling) Koch, in 1879. Anna was 20 years old in this entry. There were a bunch of Jahn girls in this household.
Gustav Preusser married Anna Jahn on October 21, 1880. They were married on Gustav’s 26th birthday. That also means that today would be this couple’s 144th wedding anniversary. This bride and groom had been baptized in Trinity’s first permanent church, which is now part of our museum, but they were married in the new church sanctuary that had been built in 1867. The church marriage record for this couple is displayed here.
We can also look at this civil record from Perry County for this wedding.
Our German Family Tree lists 8 children born to this Preusser couple. Since we cannot view an 1890 census, all of these children had been born before the next census we can view in 1900. There were 7 children in this entry because one had died as an infant. Gustav was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.
The Preusser’s are next found in the 1910 census. Four children were still living with their parents. Susanna Jahn, a sister of Anna, was also living with them.
In the 1915 atlas of plat maps, we find the Gustav Preusser farm located south of Altenburg.
The last census in which we find Gustav and Anna was the 1920 census. Gustav is called a retired farmer, and his son, Arthur is called the farmer.
Anna Preusser died in 1924 at the age of 64. Her death certificate says that she had influenza when she died.
An article was published in the Altenburg News section of the Perry County Republican about Anna’s death.
Gustav Preusser died in 1928 at the age of 73. The cause of death sounds like he had a stroke.
Gustav and Anna Preusser are each buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg.
There are still people around East Perry County who carry the surname, Preusser. I am sure some of them descend from today’s couple. Others may trace their family tree back to two other brothers of Gustav who lived to adulthood.