I did something for today’s post that I do not often do. Almost every story that I have told on this blog begins with me looking for a church record that took place prior to 1900. I do that primarily because I am able to find more records for people that far back in history. There are privacy rules keeping a researcher from finding out about people who might be still alive. Today, because I knew it was going to be written on Pearl Harbor Day, I decided to see if there were any interesting records in our German Family Tree that took place on December 7, 1941. That is how I ran across the story of today’s couple. Their marriage took place on that infamous day. I will begin with the bride who had her beginning in Perry County.
Ella Anida Bergmann was born on March 1, 1912, the daughter of Martin and Elizabeth (Boxdorfer) Bergmann. Ella was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg, so we are unable to view an image of her baptism record. I wrote the story of Ella’s parents back in 2019 in the post titled, Devastated by Disease. In that post, Ella was mentioned, and I admitted that I was not able to find records for her beyond 1920. Today, I made a more concerted effort to find her story, and you are about to read it. Ella is found in her 1920 census entry which would turn out to the the only one in which she was living in Perry County. She was 7 years old at the time. Although you cannot see it on the image below, her father was a farmer in the Central Township.
As it is indicated in the previous post that I wrote about this family, they were devastated by disease. Both of Ella’s parents died in 1922. I do not know who helped raise Ella after her parents’ deaths, but I do know that she was confirmed at Peace, Friedenberg in 1925. This time, I did find Ella in the 1930 census. She was a servant in the Wallace Rindshoff household in St. Louis. Wallace was a secretary for a paper wholesaler.
During the next decade, Ella made another move. In the 1940 census, she was living in Denver, Colorado. She was once again called a servant. She was living in the household of J.E. Bona, who was a mortician in Denver. She was 28 years old at the time.
Now, we will take a look at the man who would become Ella’s husband. His name was Jack Theodore Neighbor, who was born on December 8, 1920. That means that Jack was about 8 years younger than Ella. Jack was the son of Elmer and Mary (Brill) Neighbor. Jack was born too late in 1920 to make it into that year’s census. In the 1930 census, we find Jack at the age of 9. His father is called a gasoline salesman in Denver.
I located this high school photo of Jack from the yearbook of South High School in Denver.
In 1940, Jack was 19 years old and driving a cab for a hotel. His father was a salesman for a cemetery. I am guessing that Jack got to know Ella through his father’s work with morticians.
Jack Neighbor married Ella Bergmann on the actual day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. That was also the day before Jack’s 21st birthday. It is at this point that I was surprised to find this couple’s church marriage record. The books of Emmaus Lutheran Church in Denver are found in the LCMS church records collection now found on Ancestry.com. I certainly did not expect to find this record. Japan attacked the United States on a Sunday morning. The marriage record shown here says that this couple was married in the church parsonage. I have to think that this wedding took place in the afternoon after church services were conducted at Emmaus on Sunday morning.
Later that evening, the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, went on the radio with a message for the nation concerning the attack on Pearl Harbor. You can listen to it by clicking on the video below. The next day, President Roosevelt gave his famous “Day of Infamy” address to the nation.
In 1942, Jack had his World War II draft card completed. It said that Jack was employed by the M.D. Barnett & Company.
In September of 1942, Jack went off to fight in that war. His military record below states that he served until 1946. He was discharged on his wife’s 34th birthday.
I found no evidence that Jack and Ella had any children. In the 1950 census, we find this couple living in Denver. Even though it was just the 2 of them, Jack’s name was on one census page, and Ella’s name is at the top of the next page. Jack was a tramway operator. That was the year that the Denver Tramway Corporation discontinued using street cars. After that, it was mainly a bus operation.
I cannot look at any more census entries, but I did locate several city directory entries over the years for the Neighbor’s. Here is one from 1959. It says that Jack was a supervisor for the Denver Tramway Corporation.
Next, here is a directory produced in 1977. Jack had the same occupation, and the Neighbor’s had the same address.
Jack Neighbor died in 1987 at the age of 65; Ella Neighbor died in 1999 at the age of 87. Both Jack and Ella are buried in the Fort Morgan National Cemetery in Denver.
There are a few other aspects of this story that connect with my life story. First, Ella (Bergmann) Neighbor would have called Rev. Marvin Bergmann her nephew, because his father, Rev. Elmer Bergmann was Ella’s brother. As a student at Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska, Rev. Marvin Bergmann was one of my religion professors.
Also before I bring this story to an end, I would like to share just a bit of history for Emmaus Lutheran Church in Denver. That congregation was established in 1907. It was in existence until 2016. I think when this church closed, its church records were given to the Concordia Historical Institute in St. Louis, who then made them available on Ancestry.com.
But there is more to this church’s story. This church has been resurrected and renamed Renewal Church, which is a satellite location of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Denver. It was established in 2017, and it uses the same church sanctuary as before. You can read about Emmaus’s difficult closing in 2016 in the first link given below. You can read another article about its new start in the second link.
https://www.westword.com/news/emmaus-lutheran-church-has-been-resurrected-as-renewal-9672910
The second newspaper article mentions that the pastor of Renewal Church in 2017 was Rev. AJ Mastic. This is where this story connects with me. When I served at Salem Lutheran Church in Springdale, Arkansas, I witnessed the courtship of AJ and one of the teachers on my staff, Megan Boeger. I also attended their wedding. After I retired, Pastor Mastic took the call to Renewal Church in Denver. He spent several years there, but a few years ago he took a call to Pathfinder Church in St. Louis. That is the name used by the congregation that was called St. John’s Lutheran Church in Ellisville for a lot of years. Recently, their school, which is still called St. John’s, came to visit our museum, and I got to see Megan again. I also have discovered that Megan’s Boeger family can trace some roots back to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chester, Illinois. I have also discovered that a Schlimpert in my family tree married a Boeger from Chester several generations ago.
Sometimes, I am just plain amazed at what I find when I start researching a story. One of the great things we get to experience at our museum in Altenburg are the connections that surprise us when someone walks through our museum’s door. And, by the way, I am about to head off to the museum to spend my day there as a volunteer docent. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by and surprise me.