You will be reading the story of Pastor Gotthilf Loeber today. When the Gesellschaft arrived in the United States in 1839, one of the pastors who brought his family was Rev. Gotthold Heinrich Loeber, who originated from Eichenberg, Germany. Pastor Loeber brought along his wife, three children, and a sister. They traveled across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the ship, Republik. We see them on that ship’s passenger list below.

Other posts have been published on this blog about the members of this Loeber family and their descendants. Today’s the story will focus on the youngest of the Loeber’s on the above list, Gotthilf Loeber, who was just 3 years old when he made the trip. His aunt, Christiane Loeber, who died in 1840, along with his older brother and sister, who were members of the original class that attended the Log Cabin College in Altenburg, have had their stories told. Gotthilf has been mentioned in a few previous posts, but I have yet to tell his complete story…until today.

Gotthilf Simeon Loeber was born on February 19, 1835 in Eichenberg, Germany where his father was the pastor. His mother’s maiden name was Wilhelmine Zahn. Today would be Gotthilf’s 190th birthday. I am able to show his baptism record from his father’s church.

After their arrival in Perry County, the Loeber family is found in the 1840 census. It would turn out to be the only census entry in which we find Gotthilf living in Perry County, and even then, we do not see his name. The children’s names were not given in that year’s census entries. Just numbers are listed in columns for age and gender. Gotthilf is the third “1” from the left…the youngest male.

Gotthilf was confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, his father’s church, in 1848. A list of Gotthilf and other members of his confirmation class is shown here. I have highlighted Gotthilf’s name. This is a document that confirms Gotthilf’s birthday as being February 19th. I cannot help but point out that my great grandfather, Gottwerth Schmidt, is the name right below Gotthilf’s.

Gotthilf’s father died in 1849, and several things happened shortly after his death. First, the Log Cabin College, which had transformed to become Concordia Seminary, training Lutheran pastors, was moved to St. Louis in 1849. Gotthilf was attending that college, so he moved to St. Louis also. In addition, since Gotthilf’s mother would have been living by herself after her husband’s death, she likely moved to St. Louis also. Although I was unable to locate Gotthilf’s mother in the 1850 census, I did find Gotthilf in a list of students who were attending Concordia Seminary in that year’s census. His name is spelled as Gottfried Lober, and he was 15 years old at the time.

There are other notable names on the image above. There is a 17 year-old girl toward the top named Maria Lochner. She would marry Gotthilf’s brother, Christoph Heinrich Loeber, not long after this census and move to Frohna, where her new husband was the 2nd pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church. Martin Stephan’s name is also on this list. He was the son of the deposed leader of the Gesellschaft, Rev. Martin Stephan, Sr. Further down the list is Theodore Gruber, the son of Rev. Charles Gruber, the first pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown.

We have had a bunch of snow overnight, so I am not going to the museum this morning. I think the Loeber Family binder that we have may tell me where Gotthilf went to be a pastor after he graduated from the Seminary. I seem to think that he may have gone to Wisconsin near Milwaukee to serve his first congregation. I was unable to locate Gotthilf in the 1860 census. That leads us up to his marriage that took place in 1864. So, we will turn our attention to discuss the woman who would become his bride.

Maria Elisabeth Rullmann was born on July 6, 1837 in Germany. Maria was the daughter of Johann Heinrich and Caroline Rullmann, but I was not able to determine her mother’s maiden name. In the 1850 census, we find Maria at the age of 13. This entry says her younger sister, Louisa, was born in Missouri and a younger brother was born in Wisconsin. It appears that the Rullmann’s had come to America in the 1840’s. Maria’s father was called a laborer, and the Rullmann’s lived in Milwaukee.

I have a suspicion that Maria may have had a child out of wedlock during the 1850’s when she was a teenager. There is a gravestone in the Forest Home Cemetery for a youngster named Sophia Rullmann, who was born in 1854 and died in 1856. Findagrave.com identifies Maria Rullmann as the mother.

Next, we find Maria in the 1860 census at the age of 22. She was still living with her parents in Milwaukee and is called a servant girl.

Gotthilf Loeber married Maria Rullmann on November 6, 1864. I am going to first display a Milwaukee marriage record for this couple. First of all, this document indicates that at the time of this wedding, Rev. Gotthilf Loeber was a pastor in Niles, Illinois, which is located in the Chicago metropolitan area. They were married by Rev. Friedrich Lochner who was the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. Rev. Lochner’s story has appeared on this blog before, mostly because his first wife was Lydia Ottilie Buenger, another member of the first class at the Log Cabin College.

I was surprised to find this couple’s church marriage record on the LCMS collection on Ancestry.com. The wedding took place at Trinity Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. Since this form includes the maiden name of Gotthilf’s mother, Zahn, I figure that Maria’s mother’s maiden name is also included. It looks like a short name, but I cannot read it.

In the image above, I also included the next marriage record, which attracted my attention because the groom was a Lochner. Ludwig Lochner was Rev. Friedrich Lochner’s brother. I briefly looked into the life of Ludwig and discovered that he also would become a Lutheran pastor.

I think Gotthilf and Maria had just one child, a girl named Minnie, who was not born until 1876. After their wedding, Gotthilf took his new bride back to Niles, Illinois. We find this couple in the 1870 census which says Gotthilf was a minister of the Gospel. A young man named Ludwig Kruger was living with them. He was called a German teacher.

When the 1880 census was taken, the Loeber’s were still living in NIles. Their child, Minnie, was 4 years old.

At some point in time, this photograph was taken of Rev. Gotthilf Loeber.

We cannot view the 1890 census, but if we could, I suspect that the Loeber’s may have moved to Wisconsin. Gotthilf Loeber died in 1891 at the age of 56. I am able to display a Wisconsin death record for him. He died in Wayside, Wisconsin, which is not far from Green Bay.

In the 1900 census, Maria Loeber was a widow living in Milwaukee. She was living with her daughter and had no occupation. There is a special note that Minnie had no occupation because of sickness.

Minnie Loeber died in 1903 at the age of 26. A Milwaukee death certificate below gives some details about her death.

Marie is found in the 1910 census at the age of 72. She was living with Eleonore Gudant, another widow, and Elizabeth Rullmann, and all 3 must have been sisters.

The next census in which we find Maria was the one taken in 1920. We find the same trio of women in the household.

Maria was 94 years old when listed in the 1930 census. Another widowed sister had joined their household named Caroline Rolf.

Maria Loeber died in 1931 at the age of 94. Gotthilf, Maria, and Minnie are each buried in the Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.

We can also see this inscription on a stone in that cemetery that dedicates Gotthilf’s service as a Lutheran minister.

I did not think that I would find so much information about Gotthilf’s life. I found quite a few documents that are not the typical types that are usually found on this blog. There were no descendants in this branch of the Loeber family, but we know that there are still folks in this country that carry the surname, Loeber.