The birthday girl for today’s post was a Lorenz. There were two clans of Lorenz’s who settled in Perry County. One is what I call the “Altenburg Lorenz’s”, who arrived on the original ships in 1839, and the other I call the “Farrar Lorenz’s” who arrived here a bit later. Today’s birthday girl was an Altenburg Lorenz.

Hedwig Magdalena Lorenz was born on March 25, 1895, so today would be her 130th birthday. Hedwig, who like many girls with this first name, was often called Hattie, was the daughter of Christian and Ida (Schlimpert) Lorenz. Hedwig was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. An image of her baptism record from that congregation’s books is displayed below.

Hattie is found in the 1900 census at the age of 5. Her father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

A 1915 plat map shows the location of the Lorenz farm just east of the town of Altenburg.

In the 1910 census, Hattie was a teenager. Several other Lorenz siblings were born during the previous decade, including a set of twin girls, Maria and Martha.

I suspect that during the 1910’s, Hattie may have gone to St. Louis to find work. I think that is how she met her future husband. His name was Martin William Nolting, who was born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1895. Martin was the son of Herman and Eliza (Hotmar) Nolting. There are a few later documents that state that Martin was born in Beaufort, Missouri. In the 1900 census, we find Martin at the age of 5. His father was a farm laborer in the St. John’s Township in Franklin County, Missouri.

The map below illustrates that St. John’s Township was located near the city of Washington and not far from Beaufort.

In 1908, Martin was confirmed, and I located his confirmation record in the Missouri Synod collection of church books found on Ancestry.com. He was confirmed at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Washington. Martin is included in the list of 1908 confirmands shown here.

In the 1910 census, Martin and his widowed mother were living in Washington, Missouri. Martin was called a laborer in a shoe factory as a teenager.

Martin Nolting served in the military during World War I. I was unsuccessful at finding a World War I draft registration form for Martin, which makes me think that he enlisted prior to the time when those registrations were completed. Those registrations did not begin until June of 1917, and I found Martin as a passenger on a ship heading off to war in July of that same year. He was on the ship, Tenadores.

A military record for Martin’s World War I service can be viewed here. It says he served overseas for over 2 years, and he is called a cook.

I found the passenger list for the ship, Zeppelin, which brought Martin back home in 1919.

I am able to display one more document that shows more details about Martin’s military service. Below is an image of the application for a military headstone for Martin after he died.

Before I describe the marriage of Martin and Hedwig, let me say that I was unable to find either one in the 1920 census. That was also the year when these two were married. I do not know if they would have been found separately or as a married couple in that year’s entry.

Martin Nolting traveled down to Perry County to get married to Hattie Lorenz on July 1, 1920. Normally, I display the church record before any civil records for a wedding, but this time I will first show the Missouri marriage license. Please note that Martin was living in St. Louis when this wedding took place. It says Hedwig was from Altenburg.

Next, I will display the church marriage record from the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. This document says Martin was from Beaufort, Missouri.

We can also look at this marriage certificate. This document not only says Martin was from St. Louis, but also gives his exact address there. Yet, I was unable to find Martin in a St. Louis census entry for 1920.

Martin and Hattie had 2 children. When the 1930 census was taken, we see these 2 children in the Nolting household. They were living in St. Louis where Martin was a maintenance man for a yeast company.

Martin Nolting died in 1933 at the age of 38. His death certificate below says his cause of death was multiple sclerosis. I think this may be the first death certificate I have displayed on this blog that gives this disease as a cause of death.

The widow, Hattie Nolting is found in the 1940 census with her two children. I wasn’t able to decipher what her occupation was called, but she was working for an electric company. I happen to think that she may have been employed by the large Wagner Electric Company in St. Louis.

The final census entry we can view is the one taken in 1950. Just her son, Kenneth, was living with Hattie, who was still working for an electrical company.

Hattie Nolting died in 1993 at the age of 98. Both Martin and Hattie Nolting are buried in the New Bethlehem Cemetery in St. Louis.

In the first year of this blog, I wrote a post about Hattie’s two younger sisters who were twins. That post was titled, Together in Birth and Death. The twins, Maria and Martha, never married and would spend much of their lives in St. Louis. I remember my cousin, Milton Schlimpert, telling me the story about how he traveled to St. Louis with his aunt, Meta Schlimpert, on a train to visit the Lorenz twins. I now have to wonder if Milton and Meta also got to visit with Hattie Nolting while they were in St. Louis. Hattie certainly would have been a widow at that time, so Milton would have never known Martin Nolting, but may have heard stories about him.

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After publishing this story, my cousin, Audrey Schlimpert, who is Milton’s sister, provided this photo of the Christian Lorenz family which includes Hattie. She is standing in the back in the middle in the white dress. The Lorenz twins are the two younger ones in front in the white dresses.