Today, you will read the story of two sisters who were lifelong singles. Until the time near their death, these two are found on the same census page. And most of their time, they lived in or near Frohna. One of the sisters has a birthday today.

Ernestine Sophia Militzer was born on December 1, 1859, so today would be her 165th birthday. Ernestine was the daughter of John and Caroline (Wachter) Militzer. She was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. An image of her baptism record is pictured here.

Ernestine was just a baby when the 1860 census was taken. Since the Militzer’s are found on the same census page as Rev.Christoph Loeber’s family, I figure that they lived in Frohna. Ernestine’s father was a carpenter. Ernestine’s name was given as Austine in this entry.

The other girl that will be highlighted in this post, Lina Emilie Militzer, was born on February 9, 1864. Lina was also baptized at Concordia, Frohna. We can take a look at her baptism record below.

Both Ernestine and Lina are found in the 1870 census at the ages of 10 and 6 respectively. There were 6 children in the Militzer family, and all of them were girls. This time their father was called a millwright. I think he likely worked for the Weinhold’s Frohna Flour Mill.

Next, we find the Militzer sisters in the 1880 census. Ernestine, at the age of 20, was called a servant, and the father was back to being called a carpenter.

We have to wait until 1900 to view another census. In 1898, Ernestine and Lina’s mother died. So, when we see the Militzer’s in the 1900 census, their father was a widower. John was called a cabinet maker. Ernestine had no occupation listed, but Lina was called a dress maker.

When I was researching for my book, Wittenberg ’04, I was looking for a person in East Perry County who was a dress maker who could have made Lydia Weinhold’s wedding dress. I looked at the above census entry, and chose to use Lina Militzer to do that job for Lydia. Of course, I do not know if that was actually the case. Fairly early in their lives, these sisters had this photograph taken. They are wearing very intricate dresses that are both similar and different from each other. I like to think that Lina made these dresses.

John Militzer died in 1909, so he is not found in the 1910 census. The Militzer sisters were 50 and 46 years old, with Ernestine listed as the head of the household. Neither one of the single sisters had an occupation listed, but there was a young man, Theobald Wukasch, living with them and doing farm labor.

Theobald would go on to become a Lutheran teacher, and his story was told in the post, Wukasch and Wampner. Also, Ernestine and Lina’s younger brother, Martin Militzer, would also become a Lutheran teacher. His story appeared in the post, Mr. Martin Militzer.

When the 1920 census was taken, we see just the two unmarried sisters in their household. Neither one had an occupation listed.

The 1930 census is the only one in which we find Ernestine and Lina not living in the same household. Ernestine was living with Martin Fischer in Altenburg at the age of 70. Martin was a 65 year-old widowed farmer, and Ernestine was called a servant.

On Findagrave.com, I found another photo of Ernestine at a later time in her life.

Lina was still living in Frohna at the age of 66. She was living with her sister, Martha, whose husband, Rev. Joseph Fiehler, had died a few years earlier.

Lina Militzer died in 1933 at the age of 67. Her death certificate shown below lists her sister, Ernestine, as the informant.

Ernestine Militzer died a year later in 1934 at the age of 74. We can also view her death certificate.

Ernestine and Lina Militzer are each buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna.

Since these two sisters died at about the same time, they are likely buried near one another in this cemetery. Like so many other stories like this that I have written about lifelong unmarried siblings, these two spent almost their entire lives living with each other.