I am going to begin today’s post with a sort-of debate. Here is the question. When does an old century end and a new one begin? Technically, the answer is that a century ends when a year that ends with a double-zero, like 1900, reaches its last day on December 31st. And the new century begins with the year with an “01” at the end, such as January 1, 1901. The reason for this is that there is no 0 date in the timeline of history. There is no year between 1 B.C. and 1 A.D. That means the first century would end when the first 100 years would pass, and that means the year 100 A.D. However, I think most of us would rather consider the end of a century to be the December 31st in the year that ends with “99”, such as 1899. That’s because you get to change the hundreds place in the year when you get to January 1st, such as 1899 to 1900. I know that is what I consider to be the end-of-the-century. In today’s post, I will treat December 31, 1899 one of those end-of-century dates.

I found today’s characters by doing a search for someone who was born on December 31, 1899, which I consider to be the final date of the 19th century. I did not just find one such birthday; I found two. And the two had some very interesting things in common. One was a baby girl, and one was a baby boy. I will start with the girl.

Johanna Clara Emma Heeszel was born on December 31, 1899, and like both of today’s birthday babies, today would be Johanna’s 125th birthday. She was the daughter of John and Clara (Miesner) Heeszel.

Now, for the baby boy. Wilhelm Gustav Weseloh was also born on the same day, the son of John and Emma (Weis) Weseloh.

Now, we come to some of the similarities in these two babies. Both of them were born in the Fountain Bluff Township in Jackson County, Illinois. And both of these babies were baptized at Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob, Illinois. And, if that’s not enough, both of these babies were baptized on the same day at that church. They were both baptized on January 14, 1900 which happened to be a Sunday. What are the chances? Below are the 2 baptism records for these two end-of-century birthday twins. They are the first 2 baptism records in that church’s books for 1900. Since these records stretch out over two pages, I have to display these in 2 images.

When the 1900 census was taken, we find these two youngsters in entries that are just 2 pages apart from one another. Here is the entry for Johanna. She was called 5 months old, and her father was a farmer in the Fountain Bluff Township.

Next, here is the entry for William. He was also called 5 months old, and his father was also a farmer.

For Johanna Heeszel, the 1900 census entry would be the only one in which she would be found. Johanna died in 1901 before her 2nd birthday. Her death record from the books of Christ Lutheran Church is pictured here. She died from pneumonia. Her death record is the first one in Christ’s books for 1901.

Johanna is buried in the Christ Lutheran Cemetery, but Findagrave.com has no gravestone photo.

William Weseloh is found in the 1910 census at the age of 10. Three other younger siblings had been born in the previous decade. The family was still living in the same location, and William’s father was still farming.

William had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. He is given a Jacob, Illinois address, and he was a farm laborer for Julius Moeckel.

The Weseloh family made a move to St. Louis prior to the 1920 census. In that year’s entry, we find William working as a packer for a fur company. His father worked for a drug company, and several other siblings were part of the work force.

William Weseloh died later that year at the young age of 20. Both peritonitis and appendicitis are given as causes of death for him. This form also says that William was a packer for the Funston Fur Company.

William is buried in the Freidens Cemetery in St. Louis. Both of his parents, who died later, are also buried in that cemetery.

Sadly, another similarity between these 2 end-of-century birthday babies is that neither one of them lived a full life after dying at quite young ages. They did not get the opportunity to marry and have children. And for two people who had the highest probability of living until after 2000 to make the claim to have lived during 3 different centuries, they did not even come close to seeing that happen.

Before I close this post, I have a great desire to share another story that supposedly took place on December 31, 1899. If you have not heard this story before, I hope it fascinates you. On that date, the ship, SS Warrimoo was located not far from the intersection of the International Date Line and the Equator. The ship’s captain decided that he would get his ship to that location exactly on December 31st at midnight. Whether that ship was actually there at that point in time is a matter for debate, but if it was, then that ship would therefore have been simultaneously in two different seasons (winter and summer), in two different hemispheres, on two different days, in two different months, in two different years, in two different decades, in two different centuries. This situation is illustrated in the image below.

Happy New Year!