Not long ago, I wrote the story titled, Rudolph Roth and the Cigar Dealer’s Daughter. In that post, it was noted that Rudolph’s brother, Leo Roth, a man from Wittenberg, had married a girl, Linna Mueller, from Uniontown. Today, you will read about yet another brother in that Roth family, and he was another Wittenberg man who found his bride in Uniontown. Not only that, today’s birthday boy married the sister of his brother’s bride.

Gottfried Christian Roth was born on February 2, 1900, thus making today his 125th birthday. Gottfried was the son of Christian and Agnes (Schuessler) Roth. His baptism record is found in the books of Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. An image of his baptism record is pictured here.

Gottfried was born early enough in 1900 to be found as a baby in that year’s census. His father was a teamster in Frohna, probably working for the Frohna Flour Mill.

The way I have it figured, the Roth family moved to a farm in Wittenberg in 1904 because that is when some church records from that family start showing up in the books of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in that town. When the 1910 census was taken, Gottfried was 9 years old, and his father was a farmer. I purposely put the Schmidt household into this image to demonstrate that they were living in Wittenberg. Emanuel and Bertha Schmidt were my grandparents, and I know that they were living in Wittenberg at that time.

Gottfried had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. He was given a Wittenberg address, and he was working on Theodore Boehme’s farm.

In the 1920 census, Gottfried was not living with his parents, but he lived not far away from them. He was not only working for Theodore Boehme, but he was living in the Boehme household. The Boehme farm was also located in the Wittenberg area. Theodore Boehme had married Gottfried Roth’s older sister, Laura.

Now, we will turn our attention to the woman who was living near Uniontown that was going to become Gottfried’s bride. Her name was Bertha Friedericke Mueller, who was born on December 15, 1900. Bertha was the daughter of Gottfried and Ida (Landgraf) Mueller. She was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. We can take a look at her baptism record below.

Bertha was born too late in 1900 to make it into that year’s census, so the first one in which we find her was in 1910. In the meantime, her mother died in 1903 when Bertha was just 3 years old. Then, her father married Martha Telle in 1904. Bertha was 9 years old in the 1910 census entry. Her father was a farmer in the Apple Creek Township.

In a later plat map, we find that the G.H. Mueller farm was in Cape Girardeau County on the south bank of the Apple Creek near the city of Appleton. Uniontown is found just north of the Apple Creek in Perry County.

In the 1920 census, Bertha was 19 years old and still living with her parents.

I have a theory about how Gottfried Roth became acquainted with Bertha Mueller. In 1919, her sister, Linna, married Leo Roth at Grace, Uniontown. Gottfried and Bertha certainly would have attended that wedding. Then, after Leo and Linna were married, Bertha must have traveled to Wittenberg to visit the Roth’s, and we also know that Gottfried and Bertha were each sponsors for a babies born to Leo and Linna.

Gottfried Roth married Bertha Mueller on August 16, 1925 at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. We can view this couple’s church marriage record below. You can see that it says Gottfried was from Wittenberg, and Bertha was from Old Appleton.

I am also able to display two civil documents for this wedding. Here is this couple’s Missouri marriage license.

A marriage certificate for Gottfried and Bertha is pictured here.

A short article was printed in the Perry County Republican concerning this wedding. It states that these newlyweds were going to be living with Bertha’s parents after the wedding.

Finally, I am also able to show you this photograph of the bride and groom and their wedding party. The people in the photo have been identified on an Ancestry.com family tree: (L to R) Maria Hopfer Schuessler, Hugo Roth, Gottfried Roth, Bertha Mueller, Walter Mueller and Frieda Mueller Loebs. The flower girl is Helen Hemmann Weber.

According to our German Family Tree, this couple had 3 children. In the 1930 census, we find Gottfried and Bertha with their first child. Included in the household were Bertha’s stepmother and 2 of her Mueller brothers. Gottfried was a farmer.

When the 1940 census was taken, the Roth’s had all 3 of their children.

In 1942, Gottfried had his World War II draft card completed. It gives him an Old Appleton address.

The last census the public can view is the one taken in 1950. Gottfried is called a farm operator, and his 2 sons as well as Bertha are called a farm helper, a farm hand, and a farm worker.

At some point in time, Bertha Roth and her Mueller siblings gathered for the photo shown below. From left to right we find Dora, Linna, Esther, Bertha, Frieda, Walter, and Herbert. They are also standing in the order of their birth from oldest on the left to youngest on the right. The 4 women on the left were daughters of Ida Landgraf, and the 3 on the right were children of Martha Telle. I think this photo was taken on the occasion of Bertha’s wedding anniversary because just Bertha, Frieda, and Walter were wearing flowers. Frieda and Walter were in Bertha’s wedding party.

Gottfried Roth died in 1987 at the age of 87; Bertha Roth died in 1996 at the age of 95. Both Gottfried and Bertha are buried in the Grace Lutheran Cemetery in Uniontown.

There is a theme to be found in this post. If you look once again at the photo of Mueller siblings, the 4 sisters, Linna, Esther, Bertha, and Frieda, all married men from Wittenberg. I think the Leo Roth/Linna Mueller wedding in 1919, started this parade of Mueller women finding their Wittenberg men. Also, after Bertha married Gottfried in 1925, there was another Mueller wedding at the end of 1926 and yet another near the beginning of 1927. Take a look at the two marriage records below from the books of Grace, Uniontown.

The two grooms in the above image, George Loebs and Ernst Doering, were not Roth’s, but they were close neighbors to the Roth’s in Wittenberg. I personally have more interest in the wedding of George Loebs and Frieda Mueller because I called the Uncle George and Aunt Frieda. George Loebs was my father’s half-brother. And I will also add that George’s mother, as well as my father’s mother, had the maiden name of Bertha Mueller. So, my grandmother was another Berthan Mueller. How about that?

My imagination goes wild just thinking about these Wittenberg men courting women near Old Appleton in the early part of the 1900’s. Did they have access to one of those newfangled Model T Fords? Did they travel by horse and buggy to court their future Mueller wives?