One of the places where quite a few German Lutherans who were born and raised in Perry County ended up living much of their lives is the area around Potter, Nebraska. I have written several of those stories on this blog. You will read another one of those stories today. I will begin by looking at today’s birthday boy.

Johann Wilhelm Mueller was born on April 24, 1890, so today would be his 135th birthday. John was the son of Martin and Amalia (Naumann) Mueller. Here is a photo of John’s parents.

That puts John into the clan that we refer to as the “Frohna Mueller’s”. He was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. His baptism record is pictured here.

John is found in the 1900 census at the age of 10. His father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

A later plat map shows where the Mueller farm was located.

In 1910, when the next census was taken, John was no longer living with his parents. I happen to think that he lived in St. Louis at that time. However, although there are quite a few John Mueller’s found in the 1910 St. Louis census, I could not find one that I was confident that he was the correct John Mueller in any of those entries. I did find a 1910 city directory for St. Louis that also gave many men named John Mueller. There were even 3 different John W. Mueller’s. I think John may be the one highlighted in yellow in the image below.

Now, we will take a look at the woman who would become John’s bride. Her name was Maria Elizabeth Grosse, who was born on May 31, 1894. Mary was the daughter of John and Lina (Petzoldt) Grosse. She was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. I have to display her baptism record in 2 images.

The 2 photos below show Mary at a very young age.

Mary is found in the 1900 census at the age of 6. Her father was a carpenter in Altenburg.

A photo of Mary’s family was taken when Mary was still young. I think Mary may be the one standing right in front of her father.

In the plat maps for Perry County made in 1915, we see the John Grosse property located in Altenburg not far from Immanuel Lutheran Church at the intersection of Main Street and Highway Y.

In the 1910 census, Mary was a teenager.

I think that Mary may have moved to St. Louis during the early years of the next decade to find work. John Mueller married Mary Grosse on November 2, 1915. These two were married at Emmaus Lutheran Church in St. Louis. The Missouri Synod collection of records on Ancestry.com does include some old records from that congregation, but their marriage records only go up to 1912. The St. Louis marriage record below says both John and Mary were from Altenburg.

I am able to display this wedding photo of John and Mary.

Not long after this couple was married, they moved to Venedy, Illinois. When John filled out his World War I draft registration, it gives him a Venedy address and says he had a garage business.

According to his obituary which I will display later, John owned and operated a store during his time in Venedy. Below is a photo of the store where he worked.

We never see the Mueller’s in a census entry while they lived in Venedy, but they did have one of their 4 children there. By 1920, the Mueller’s had moved to Potter, Nebraska. They had a daughter that was said to be born in Illinois. John was a carpenter.

Sometime after the above census entry was taken, John entered a different line of work. In the 1930 census, the Mueller’s were living in Brownson, which is located between Potter and Sidney, Nebraska. John was a foreman for the railroad. Several little towns had been established in this area of Nebraska when the railroad was built that ran through ones like Brownson. There were 3 children in the Mueller household at this time. In this census and in his remaining census entries, John’s surname was spelled Miller.

Next, we find the Mueller family in the 1940 census. John still had the same job with the railroad, but this time the family was living in Sunol, another small town along the railroad on the east side of Sidney.

John had his World War II draft card completed in 1942. He had his surname spelled, Miller, on this form which gives him a Sunol address. His employer was the Union Pacific Railroad.

The last census the public is allowed to view is the one taken in 1950. John’s obituary says he had health issues that caused him to leave his job with the railroad. In this entry, he is called a janitor for the city high school.

John Miller died in 1957 at the age of 67; Mary Miller did not die until 1991 at the age of 97. I can display an obituary for each of these Miller’s. First here is the one for John.

And here is the one for Mary.

John and Mary are buried together in the Greenwood Cemetery in Sidney.

Some people on Ancestry.com have shared quite a few photos of people in this Mueller/Grosse family tree. I am going to share some of them in a gallery here. The thumbnails can be enlarged by clicking on them.

I have a few photos of Mary Miller that must have been taken after her husband’s death.

I am going to show one more photo separately because I want to make a comment. This is a fairly early photo of Mary, and it may have been taken either right before she got married or right after. I believe that the bridge in the background is the famous Eads Bridge located in St. Louis.

In conclusion, I would like to throw another factor into this story. I find it hard to believe. I have already written the story of another John Mueller on this blog titled, A Nebraska Builder. That John Mueller was also born and baptized in Frohna, and he was born just 3 years before the main character of this post. In fact, that man also had a middle name of William. And if that isn’t enough, the other John William Mueller had a mother whose maiden name was Grosse. That other John Mueller got married in Frohna and prior to the 1920 census moved to Potter, Nebraska where he was a carptenter. Howeve, unlike today’s John Miller, he remained a carpenter during all his working days.

I have a hypothesis which is worthy of considering. I think today’s John William Miller may have changed his surname’s spelling from Mueller to Miller in order to distinguish him from the other John William Mueller. I will also point out that today’s birthday boy changed the spelling of all of his names from Johann Wilhelm Mueller to John William Miller. Perhaps someone in this Mueller/Miller family tree could let us know if my hypothesis is true.