A wedding took place in or near Friedheim on this date 175 years ago, and I will attempt to tell the story of that bride and groom today. The marriage record for this couple is found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. Since that congregation’s first called pastor, Rev. Franz Julius Biltz, arrived on the scene in 1848 and began keeping the church’s records, this marriage was one of the first ones to take place at that congregation. Rev. Biltz was one of the first graduates of Concordia Seminary in Altenburg. Let’s take a look at the groom first.

Ernst Christian Wilhelm Maintz was born on September 29, 1821 in Braunschweig (also called Brunswick), Germany. William was the son of Johann Ernst Fredrich Ludwig and Engel Marie Justine (Puster) Maintz. Other spellings I found for the Maintz surname were Mantz and Menz. I do not know an exact year when William came to America, but the first records I found for him were from the year, 1850.

The bride was Hanne Louise Wilhelmine Elisabeth Haupt, who was the daughter of Heinrich Christoph and Maria Wilhelmine (Ische) Haupt. I found two different dates for Wilhelmine’s birth. One that I located on a family tree in Ancestry.com says she was born on February 16, 1831, but another one I found on Family Search says she was born on February 26, 1832. One thing is fairly certain. She was born in Sudheim, Germany. Wilhelmine is often called Minnie on documents. The map below shows the two cities of Sudheim and Brunswick (Braunschweig) in Germany. They are about 58 miles apart.

The Haupt family came to this country in 1842 aboard the ship, Gustav. Wilhelmine was 8 years old at the time.

Before I move on, let me say that William was not the only Maintz to show up in southeast Missouri at about this time. Nor was Wilhelmine’s Haupt family the only Haupt family to settle in this vicinity. Both of those names show up prominently in the Trinity, Friedheim records.

William Maintz married Wilhelmine Haupt on April 1, 1850. As said before, that makes today this couple’s special 175th wedding anniversary. The church record from Trinity, Friedheim’s books is displayed below. Pastor Biltz spelled William’s name as Menz on this document. The “Sdh” shown on the right side indicates this was a Sudheim wedding. The location known as Sudheim in Missouri back in those days would later be called Kurreville. I doubt if either the congregation in Friedheim or the one in Sudheim had any kind of church building other than perhaps a log cabin at that point in time. I suspect this wedding likely took place at the Haupt home. By the way, Easter Sunday was on March 31st that year, so this couple got married the day after Easter, also after the Lenten Season was over.

I am able to show two more civil records for this event. Here is the first one.

Here is the other one.

I was having trouble locating William Maintz in the 1850 census. I figured that he was either still single or he had gotten married prior to when that census was taken. Then I found this census entry for Wilhelmine’s family. It appears that all the members of this household are Haupt’s, but I think the William (age 29) and Mene (age 18) are actually William and Wilhelmine Maintz. William was doing the farming.

According to our German Family Tree, there were 7 children born to this pair between 1851 and 1866. All of them have baptism records in the Trinity, Friedheim books. When the 1860 census was taken, there were 5 children in their family. Also included in their household was an 80 year-old man named Henry Curre (probably Kurre), who was also farming. The Maintz’s were living in the Apple Creek Township.

William served in the Union Army during the Civil War. I can display 2 different military records for him. Both of them show William being part of the 56th Enrolled Missouri Militia, but with different commanding officers. The first one indicates some service in 1862, and the second in 1864.

After the war, we find the Maintz’s in the 1870 census with all 7 of their children. They were still living in the Apple Creek Township.

The 1880 census finds the Maintz family living in the Whitewater Township. I do not know if they actually moved, or if the township boundaries had been changed. William was still farming.

The only type of census we can view for 1890 is one which lists soldiers and widows of the Civil War. We can view this entry in that census for William. I have highlighted his name on the entire page on which he is found. This entry gives some details about the soldier’s service.

The last census in which we find William is the one taken in 1900. At the age of 78, he was still farming in the Whitewater Township.

William Maintz died in 1900 at the age of 78. Minnie is found in the 1910 census living with her youngest son, Fred, and his family. Fred was also a farmer.

Wilhelmine Maintz died in 1918 at the ate of 87. We are able to view her death certificate.

Both William and Minnie Maintz are buried in the Kurreville Cemetery in Kurreville. There are 10 grave sites at that cemetery with the surname Maintz found on Findagrave.com including ones for William and Minnie. However, only 4% of the grave sites are photographed, and we are not able to look at the gravestone photos of today’s highlighted couple.

My wife always scrunches up her nose when I ask her to get me some braunschweiger when she goes to the grocery store. She is not a fan of braunschweiger, so I’m not sure she is really thrilled with the fact that her husband is a “Braunschweiger Man”. However, Minnie Haupt was likely thrilled to find her “Braunschweiger Maintz” and married him 175 years ago.