Claus Heinrich Brueckner is today’s birthday boy. He was born in Kaken, Germany on June 25, 1850, so today would be his 175th birthday. He was the son of Heinrich and Anna (Rademaker) Brueckner. We are able to view his German baptism record below from the books of the Oldendorf parish which was likely the closest church to Kakan.

He was called Heinrich or Henry during his life. I will use Henry. He would get married in Germany in 1872 according to a Brueckner family history, so let’s take a look at his bride. Her name was Johanna Sophia Maria Imbusch, who was born on February 8, 1851 in Elm, Germany. Maria was the daughter of Dietrich and Katharina (Wahlen) Imbusch. The map below shows the proximity of Kaken and Elm. The distance between them is less than 5 miles.

One of Henry’s brothers, John Brueckner, had already gone to the United States prior to Henry and Maria did. You could make the point that Henry followed his brother to America.

Henry and Maria had one child in Germany, a daughter named Anna, who was born in 1873. Then, in 1874, a group of Brueckner’s came to America aboard the ship, S.S. Neckar. The group consisted of Henry, Sr. and Anna Brueckner, Henry, Jr. and Maria, and the baby, Anna.

I am able to display a photo of the S.S. Neckar. Steamships had become more common by the 1870’s.

There was an early family tragedy in this story. The S.S. Neckar arrived in New York City on May 4, 1874, and after the Brueckner family arrived in Perry County, Henry’s mother died on May 25th of that year. So, Anna (Rademaker) Brueckner’s time of living in America was very short.

After settling in the Salem Township of Perry County, Henry and Mary had more children. Our German Family Tree lists 11 total children in this Brueckner family. I will provide evidence that there may have been 12 children all together. One of the reasons for this large number of children is the fact that there are only 8 dates of birth for these children. There were 3 cases of multiple births in this family. As was often the case with multiple births back then, several of those babies died early. Some are listed as stillborns.

We find the Brueckner household in the 1880 census with 3 children, two of them born in Missouri. The 2 year-old child, Henry, had a twin sister, who had died in 1879 at the age of 1, so she does not appear in this entry. Henry was a farmer in the Salem Township.

Some more children were born after the 1880 census, including two more multiple births. One of those multiple births presents a mystery. Our GFT says that twin brothers were born on December 15, 1885, but I think there is evidence that points to the possibility that Mary Brueckner was carrying triplets. Below, we find a pair of baptism records for Christoph Martin and Heinrich Immanuel Brueckner found in the Salem, Farrar books.

We can also take a look at the Perry County birth records for these two boys. One is at the bottom of a page and the other at the top of the next page. Also, the records spread over two facing pages, so I have to display 2 images for each birth record and 2 more separate images for the two boys. The first 2 images are for Christoph

The following 2 images are the ones for Heinrich.

However, in a separate listing of still births in the Perry County records, we also find a record for a male stillborn which has the same date, December 15, 1885, and listing the same parents. There is no name given for stillbirths.

I think Mary was carrying triplets. Another piece of evidence is this death record for a child that died on December 15, 1885 in the Salem, Farrar books. This child also has no name.

I found one more set of records that cements my conclusion that there were triplets. In 1887, we find death records in the Salem, Farrar books for the other 2 boys. One died on October 5th and the other on October 8th.

Stillborn children do not get baptized, but they do sometimes get included in the death records in church books. I think we have enough evidence that Mary was carrying triplets, all of which died before they were ever included in a census entry. That also means that I think we ought to have 12 children listed in our German Family Tree for this Brueckner couple.

The 1900 census would be the last one in which we find today’s birthday boy. There were 5 children in the Brueckner household. Henry was still farming in the Salem Township.

Henry Brueckner died in 1904 at the age of 54. He died before Missouri kept death records, but the church death record from the books of Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar says that he died of dysentery. Then, in 1910, we find Mary as a widow. In addition to 2 single children, her son, John, who had married Emma Lohmann in 1905, and their daughter, were living with Mary. Mary is called a farmer, and 2 of her sons were called farm laborers.

When the plat maps were produced for Perry County in 1915, we find a farm owned by Mary Brueckner located not far from Farrar.

The last census entry in which we find Mary was the one taken in 1920. She was still living with John and his family, but this time John was listed as the head of the household.

Mary Brueckner died in 1924 at the age of 73. Her death certificate below mentions that “old age” was a contributory cause of her death. I guess things have changed since back in those days. I doubt if too many certificates of death nowadays would list “old age” to be a cause of death for a 73 year-old person.

An obituary for Mary appeared in the Perry County Republican.

Henry and Mary Brueckner have sites for the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Farrar on Findagrave.com, but only Mary has a gravestone photo.

Before I close, I would like to credit a few of our friends with some help on this post that is not visible by just looking at the images and reading the story. First of all, when I went to Family Search to locate documentation for this post, almost all of the attached records for Henry and Mary Brueckner were put there by a person identified by tyams. Although I have never asked him about it, I have every reason to believe it was Timm Yamnitz, the same person who composed the last 2 posts on this blog. Tyams is the primary contributor on Family Search on almost all the individuals that I have researched for my stories. Also, for this post, the “twins or triplets” mystery in this story is one that I probably only would have discovered by looking at the Fritsche/Miesner family tree on Ancestry.com. That tree is authored by Lori Adams. Her family tree includes almost all of the characters who have lived in this area. I have no idea how Timm and Lori have found the time to do so much family research on people from this area. I do know that I am much better equipped to write my stories thanks to these 2 amazing people.