Let me establish the setting for the beginning of today’s story. A bride from Feulersdorf, Germany marries a groom from Wiesentfels in a parish church in Krögelstein. The map shown below shows the relative proximity of these 3 German towns in Bavaria. They are each about 2-3 miles away from each other.
I did a little search on the internet for churches in Wiesentfels and Fuelersdorf and came up empty. It appears that these 3 nearby villages had their parish church located in Krögelstein. Below is a photo of the town of Krögelstein with its church on top of the hill.
According to the Friedenberg Remembrances book, a wedding not only took place in this church, but it occurred 200 years ago on this date. I have no other documentation other than what is printed in that book to confirm this date, but I nonetheless cannot resist telling the story of a special event that may have taken place exactly 200 years ago. I am going to begin by taking a look at the groom.
Johannes Lang was born on March 15, 1799 in Wiesentfels. John was the son of Johann and Maria Barbara (Knauss) Lang. If I am right about the church in Krögelstein, then it is likely that is the place where John was baptized.
The bride’s name was Catherine Bergmann, who was born on March 3, 1803 in Fuelersdorf. Catherine was the daughter of Clemens and Anna (Schmäusser) Bergmann. In a previous blog post titled, Great Great Great Granddaughter of Count Schmeuszer, a daughter of Count Schmeuszer married Peter Lang, who was John Lang’s brother. Perhaps someone in the Bergmann or Lang families can inform us whether Count Schmeuszer was a relative of Anna Schmäusser. Back to Catherine. She likely was also baptized at the same church as her future husband.
According to information on Family Search, this couple had 6 children, all born in Germany. Then, in 1840, this Lang family came to America aboard the ship, Clementine. That ship carried several other people who settled in Perry County. Here is an image of the ship, Clementine.
Along with John and Catherine Lang on that ship were 6 children and another 22 year-old person with the Lang surname. We can see this group on the passenger list from the Clementine below. It’s a bit confusing to keep the John’s and Barbara’s straight in this entry. The father, John, was called a farmer from Wiesentfels.
The Lang family settled in Perry County near Friedenberg after arriving in this country. We find them in the 1850 census living in the Brazeau Township. Back in those days, that township was one of just a few townships in this county. There were 3 children living with their parents. I know that at least 2 of their children were married prior to 1850. John was a farmer.
John Lang (the father) died in 1860 at the age of 61. There is a rather puzzling entry for John on Findagrave.com. Like the information we have in the Friedenberg Remembrances book, it says that John died in Perry County. For some reason, the entry on Findagrave.com says he is buried in the Wesleyen Cemetery in St. Louis. That cemetery no longer has new burials in it. There is no gravestone photo for John. Here is what that entry says.
We find Catherine Lang as a widow in the 1860 census. She was living with her son, another John Lang and his family. Believe it or not, John had married Barbara Bergmann. They were living in the Cinque Hommes Township.
I was unable to find Catherine in the 1870 census. The last one in which we find her was the 1880 census. She was living in Perryville, and once again, she was living with her son, John, and his family. John was a blacksmith. Catherine was 77 years old at the time.
Catherine Lang died in 1893 at the age of 90. Several folks that have family trees on Ancestry.com say that she probably died in Randolph County, Illinois. If that is the case, then she likely moved over there to live with her daughter Maria and her husband, Conrad Lanz. Their story was told not long ago in the post, Lang Marries Lanz – Out with the G; In with the Z. They lived in the Ruma, Illinois area. I was unable to locate an Illinois death record or a place where Catherine was buried.
The marriage of a Lang and a Bergmann that likely took place 200 years ago united two families that became prominent in the Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. I have previously written quite a few posts about people with these two surnames. And I will confess that posts about the Lang’s and the Bergmann’s always pose plenty of challenges. One challenge is that each of those families reuse first names over and over, especially John, George, Barbara, and Catherine. If you look closely, you will see several of those first names showing up in this story. I am sure that I will be challenged in the future if I do any other Lang or Bergmann stories.
Thanks for writing this, Warren. I’ve been meaning to visit Krögelstein to learn a bit more about some of my ancestors from Wiesentfels (and some of the other immigrants to Perry County). Prior to the Napoleonic Wars, the Wiesentfels area was part of the Bishopric of Bamberg, which was ruled directly by its Catholic bishop. After Napoleon secularized the Bishopric, it was annexed by the Electorate of Bavaria, which Napoleon also elevated as the newly-proclaimed Kingdom of Bavaria. While Bavaria as a whole was majority Catholic, the Upper Franconian region adjoining Bamberg to the east was majority Lutheran. Along this dividing line (which was not unlike the Highway 61 dividing line in southern Perry County), there were many examples of those in the local religious minority attending their preferred church a few miles away on the other side.
Like you, I found the FindAGrave memorial you referenced for “John Joseph Long” at Wesleyan [Methodist] Cemetery in St. Louis a bit puzzling, especially for a Lutheran living in Perry County, so I did a little investigating. I concluded the details it purported actually conflated two different individuals. The cemetery’s burial register indicates a 10-month-old “John Long” was buried there on 3 Dec 1860. Obviously, he would have been far too young to have been part of the couple featured in this blog post. Meanwhile, the birth details a contributor entered on FindAGrave appear to have been taken from the entry for “Johann Lang” in Friedenberg Remembrances, which indicates he was born 15 March 1799 in Wiesentfels and “died 1860 in Perry County, Missouri”. That estimated death information was probably based on the fact that he was not enumerated with his wife and children in the 1860 US census and his widow sold her share of his estate to their second eldest son in February 1860. However, the Last Will & Testament of John Lang was dated 22 January 1852 and recorded for probate on 30 January 1852 in Perry County, indicating he died there toward the end of January. He was likely buried at Friedenberg Cemetery, but there’s no known grave marker and any church record that existed would have been destroyed by the 1942 parsonage fire that’s been referenced many times on this blog.
Please be aware that Andreas Schmeißer/Schmeußer was NOT a Count — that piece of incorrect information got a lot of mileage by appearing erroneously in the “Friedenberg Remembrances” book. He was married to Margaretha von Giech who was from a gräflich (countly) noble family.
Thanks for setting me straight. I got that tidbit from a bio about Peter Lang I found on Ancestry.
Great story today.And I love the picture of the town with the church on the hilltop. The name wissenfels Seems vaguely familiar and I might have covered that in the bavarian group binders that I put together years ago.
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Also, if there’s any question about what towns were covered by a parish.The “map guide to the German parish register”.Books is the simplest way to see that on a clean page.
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