The main character of today’s post is Joseph Amberger who would be married to 4 women during his life, and he outlived every one of them. Joseph farmed some land very near the little town of Belgique in the Mississippi bottoms not far from the Mighty Mississippi. Belgique was primarily a Catholic community, but there is no evidence that Joseph was part of the Catholic church. There’s also no evidence that he was part of the Lutheran church either.

John Joseph Amberger was born on December 18, 1830 in Germany. A few later census entries say that he came to America in 1854. I failed to find him in the 1860 census, so I am not sure where he spent his first few years in this country. The first record I found for Joseph is an Illinois marriage record for him. It says he was married in 1864 in Jackson County, Illinois, just across the river from Perry County.

Joseph’s first wife was Sarah Elizabeth Boshars. I know practically nothing about her. I was not able to identify the names of her parents or the date of her birth. About the closest I can come to when she was born was 1846. That is the date found on her Findagrave.com site, but I do not see that year on her gravestone. Joseph Amberger married Sarah Boshars on February 11, 1864. According to the Illinois marriage record below, these two were married by a justice of the peace.

I think that this couple had 2 children. In the 1870 census, we find the Amberger’s living in the Bois Brule Township with those 2 children. Joseph was a farmer. I am pretty sure that he was farming the land shown in the above plat map. Another tidbit about Sarah’s life is found in this entry. It says she was born in Arkansas.

Sarah Amberger died in February of 1871, probably at about 24 years of age. Joseph would get married again a few months later. His second wife was Mary Ann Griffith, who was born on October 27, 1847. I think that Mary’s parents were William and Elizabeth (Crain) Griffith. Since her mother was a Crain, I have to wonder if she was associated with that name given to an island in the plat map shown earlier. Mary was born in Illinois, and that is where she got married to Samuel Cook in 1865. However, Samuel died in 1869, leaving Mary as a widow.

Joseph Amberger married Mary Cook on April 10, 1871 in Perry County. This pair was also married by a justice of the peace.

Joseph and Mary had one child, a girl born in 1872. I should have been able to locate Joseph Amberger in the 1880 census, but I failed. However, I found this very puzzling census entry from Chester, Illinois that I think is the household of Mary (Griffith) Amberger’s parents. It includes a 16 year-old granddaughter by the name of Mary Cutrel.

Mary Amberger died in 1883 at the age of 36. That leads us up to Joseph’s 3rd marriage, which is also the event that led me to this story. Let’s take a look at his 3rd wife. Her name was Mary Ann Cutrel, who was born on August 15, 1863. That would seem to indicate that Joseph’s 3rd wife is the Mary Cutrel in the above census entry.. The age is correct. According to some family trees on Ancestry.com, Mary was the daughter of Fountain and Mary Ann (Griffith) Cutrel. If this is the case, then Joseph’s second wife, Mary Ann Griffith must have been married (or at least had given birth to a child) prior to her next two marriages to Samuel Cook and Joseph Amberger. That would also mean that Joseph Amberger’s 3rd wife was the daughter of his 2nd wife (by another man), and she would have been about 32 years younger than Joseph. I am so confused.

Joseph Amberger married Mary Cutrel on March 1, 1885, thus making today this couple’s 140th wedding anniversary. These two were married in Perry County by a justice of the peace according to their Missouri marriage license shown below. This document says that Mary Cutrel was from Randolph County, which is where Chester is located.

Based on family trees on Ancestry.com, I think this couple had 7 children. In the 1900 census, we find an Amberger household with 5 children. All of these children were born to Joseph’s 3rd wife.

Joseph’s 3rd wife, Mary, died in August of 1902 at the age of 39. Just a few months later, Joseph got married again. His 4th wife was yet another Mary. Her name was Mary Dunker. It is probably the case that this was Mary’s married name. I do not know what her maiden name was, nor did I find her date of birth. Joseph and Mary were married on December 19, 1902. They were married by the probate judge, Charles Weber.

I do not know what happened to Joseph’s 4th wife, but it looks as if she died prior to the 1910 census. In that year’s entry, Joseph was called a widow. There were 4 remaining Amberger children in his household.

Joseph is found in his last census in 1920 at the age of 87. He was living in the household of his daughter, Josephine, who had married Everett Phillips.

Joseph Amberger died in 1922 at the age of 91. It is on his death certificate that we find Joseph’s date of birth, but it does not assist us at knowing the names of his parents.

Joseph and his first 3 wives are buried in the Preston Cemetery which is located near McBride, Missouri. There are a few other Amberger gravesites in this small cemetery as well.

The story of Joseph Amberger was certainly a researching challenge. It is a tale that has some puzzling aspects. Not long ago, I wrote the story of his son, Otto Amberger, titled, The Amberger’s on Puckett Island. In that post, it was told that Otto was baptized as an adult at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. So, there are a few Lutheran records to be found for Amberger’s in our German Family Tree.