Now that we have reached the year, 2025, I have to get used to searching for some different numbers. I get to search for years that are multiples of 5, which should be easier to remember. As a former math teacher, I know that my students found it easier to work with numbers that were multiples of 5, so it ought to be easier for me.

Today’s birthday girl is Louise Elizabeth Knoll, who was born on January 1, 1895, thus making today her 130th birthday. Louise is given the middle name of Elizabeth in our German Family Tree, but a later Social Security document gives her a middle initial of R. Louise was the daughter of John and Wilhelmine (Mehner) Knoll. She was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg, so we cannot view an image of her baptism record. Louise is found in the 1900 census at the age of 5. Her father was a farmer in the Bois Brule Township.

Next, we find Louise in the 1910 census as a teenager. By this time, there were 7 children in the Knoll family, and most of them were girls.

Now, we will take a look at the man who would become Louise’s husband. His name was Ernst Martin Leopold Moeckel, who was born on November 15, 1892. Ernst was the son of Charles and Mathilda (Seberosky) Moeckel, whose story was told in the post, Moeckel and His Mathilde. That Moeckel story was one which began in Perry County, Missouri, but ended up in Jackson County, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River. That is where Ernst was born near Jacob, Illinois. His baptism record is found in the books of Christ Lutheran Church in Jacob. We can look at that record below in two images. Even Ernst’s baptism sponsors include other surnames that originated in Perry County…Bronnenkant, Ross, and Nennert.

Ernst is found in the 1900 census at the age of 7. His father was a farmer in the Fountain Bluff Township.

In the 1910 census, Ernst was 17 and working with his father on his farm.

The exact date for the marriage of Ernst Moeckel and Louise Knoll is a mystery to me, but Ernst’s later obituary states that he was married in 1914.. It is also a mystery to me how Ernst managed to even get to know Louise since they lived on opposite sides of the river. Ernst had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. This form says he was a farmer near Jacob, and he had a wife.

The 1920 census shows that the Moeckel’s were still living in the Fountain Bluff Township where Ernst was farming. Included in their household was Ernst’s widowed father and Louise’s younger sister, Julia.

It must not have been long after the above census was taken that Ernst and Louise relocated to Chester, Illinois. This couple had one child, a daughter named Mathilda, who was born in 1921 in Chester. I found Mathilda’s baptism record in a binder we have in our museum including some records from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chester.

When the 1930 census was taken, that is where we find the Moeckel family. This time, Ernst was called a painter.

In the 1940 census, the Moeckel’s were still living in Chester, but this time, Ernst was called an edge trimmer at the shoe factory.

The 1940 census is the last one I can display for this family because I failed to find them in the 1950 census even though I know they were still alive, and they likely still lived in Chester. Ernst had his World War II draft card completed in 1942. He had a Chester address and his employer was the International Shoe Company.

Ernst Moeckel died in 1988 at the age of 95. I located his obituary which is shown here.

Louise Moeckel died in 1990 at the age of 95. Ernst and Louise Moeckel are buried together in the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery in Chester. I find it interesting that their gravestone says, “The Lord Is Our Shepherd”, not “The Lord Is My Shepherd”.

Some day I should count how many stories that I have written about a bride and groom who were found on each side of the Mississippi River.

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I thought some of you might like to look at some statistics for our blog for the past year and for all time. This past year, we had a bit of a setback in views because we lost our museum’s Facebook page and had to create a new one. We are still in the process of getting more of our Facebook followers back. We almost had a post per day this past year.

In another set of stats, it says that this past year was the one in which we wrote the most number of words. I am sure that is because we also had the second highest number of posts for a year. The previous high for posts was back in 2017 when Carla Jordan was writing quite a few more posts, but at that time both she and I wrote shorter stories.

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