We have a 150th birthday to celebrate today. Juliane Magdalena Ernestine Militzer was born on February 1, 1875, the daughter of Christian and Maria (Grebing) Militzer. A previous post about Julia’s parents can be found at Double Wedding in the Hole. Julia was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. We can take a look at her baptism record from that congregation’s books below.
Julia is found in only one census that we can view prior to her marriage. In the 1880 census entry, she was 5 years old, and her father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.
A later plat map illustrates that the Militzer farm was located just west of Altenburg right on the road connecting the two towns of Altenburg and Frohna. The red boxes point out the Militzer land.
We are unable to look at the 1890 census because those records were consumed in a tragic fire. Then, Julia got married prior to the 1900 census, so we will now look at the man who would become her husband. His name was Gotthilf Lebrecht Schilling, who was born on September 27, 1865. That makes him about 10 years older than Julia. Gotthilf was the son of Friedrich and Theresa (Schuessler) Schilling. Like his future wife, Gotthilf was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. His baptism record can be viewed below.
Gotthilf is found in the 1870 census. I think there are some mistakes on this entry from that year’s census. Perhaps all the children’s ages were placed behind the wrong child. For example, Gotthilf was around 4 years old, and his older sister, Mary was about 7 years old, but this entry says Pauline was 7 years old and Mary was 4 years old. The mother, Theresa, is also said to be 63 years old when she was only 33. Gotthilf’s father was also a farmer in the Brazeau Township.
Gotthilf’s father died in 1873. There is no birth or death information for him in our German Family Tree. However, in a previous post, Schilling German Origins, I posted this photo of a portion of his gravestone, which happens to be found not in the cemetery, but in my barn (It’s a long story). That gravestone says he was born on March 11, 1828 and died in 1873.
Next, we find Gotthilf in the 1880 census at the age of 14. Our GFT does not contain information about his confirmation, but he must have been confirmed at about the same time as this census was taken. His mother was the head of the household, and although it does not say it, I think Gotthilf would have been helping with some farming.
Gotthilf Schilling married Julia Militzer on November 7, 1895 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. The church marriage record for this couple is displayed below.
I am also able to display two civil records for this wedding. First, here is the Missouri marriage license.
We can also view this marriage certificate.
Our German Family Tree lists 7 children born to Gotthilf and Julia. All of them were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. When the 1900 census was taken, we find 3 children in the Schilling household. Gotthilf was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.
In the 1910 census, there were 6 children in this family. One more child would be born later that year.
When the plat maps were produced for Perry County in 1915, we find the G. Schilling farm indicated on the map below by the red arrows. Gotthilf’s brother, Ferdinand, also had a farm nearby. That farm is indicated by the blue arrow.
The next census in which we find the Schilling family is the one taken in 1920. Six of the seven Schilling children were in the household. Their oldest son, Paul, was a farm laborer in Jackson County, Illinois when this census was taken.
Gotthilf Schilling died in 1930 at the age of 64. If I am reading this correctly, the death certificate below says he died of arteriosclerosis with something of the brain. For some unknown reason, a doctor from Pocahontas signed off as the doctor on this document.
Gotthild died on April 8th, and the 1930 census was submitted on April 16th, so we do not find him in that year’s entry. We find Julia as a widow, and it was only her son, George, who was living with her. George was doing the farming.
The same duo is found in the 1940 census. These two were just 10 years older.
George Schilling married Flora (Lorenz) Mangels in 1947. In the 1950 census, we find Julia living with George’s family, which consisted of him and his wife and a daughter who was a child from Flora’s first marriage. It looks like her name was Rose Schilling in this entry, but she was really Rose Mangels.
Julia Schilling died in 1965 at the age of 90. Her death certificate below says she died at the Perry County Memorial Hospital, but her place of residence was in rural Frohna. She had a fall that resulted in a broken hip that contributed to her death.
At some point in time during their lives, Gotthilf and Julia must have become members of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wittenberg. They are buried in that church’s cemetery in Wittenberg.
When I was a young boy, our family would visit my father’s relatives in East Perry County. It became a real treat for me to go fishing, especially when we stayed at my Uncle Oscar and Aunt Lorna Schlimpert’s place in Seelitz. When we arrived at their place, I could hardly wait to grab a fishing pole and head out to catch bluegills in one of their ponds. Every once in a while, the Schlimpert’s would take us to fish in the Brazeau Creek. They owned some property between the two Schilling farms which was right along the creek. On one of those occasions, I hooked a catfish that was so much bigger than any bluegill I had ever caught. It must have been about 2 feet long and weighed several pounds. It was one of the proudest moments of my childhood.
This story brings back those fishing memories. For some reason, I remember seeing a mailbox with George Schilling’s name on it when we went fishing at the creek. Also, we had several occasions to visit Rudy Schilling, who was married to my father’s half-sister, Clara Loebs. They lived on the farm on the map above that is labeled Ferdinand Schilling. Those boyhood stories took place in the 1950’s, not long after the last census which was displayed earlier.