Today’s birthday girl was born in Altenburg, Missouri, but like so many others who have had their stories told on this blog, she would migrate to the big city of St. Louis and spend most of her life there. She would get married, but she and her husband were childless. However, despite that, we will see that several of their census entries exhibited quite large households.
Augustine Mathilda Gaebler was born on July 9, 1875, so if she was still alive, she would have to blow out 150 candles on her birthday cake. Mathilda was the daughter of Gottlob and Theresia (Zwickelhuber) Gaebler. She was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg, but I am unable to display church records today. Mathilda is found in the 1880 census at the age of 4. Her father was working at a brickyard in Altenburg.
Not long after she was born, the Gaebler family moved to the Pocahontas area. Mathilda was confirmed at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Pocahontas in 1889. After that church record, I found no evidence that she was living in this area. The evidence points to the fact that Mathilda moved to St. Louis after that to find work. She would get married prior to the 1900 census, so we will now look at the man who would become her husband.
Augustin Johann Enzmann was born on July 17, 1867 in Vienna, Austria. August was the son of Theodore and Katharina (Peter) Enzmann. I found this baptism record for August from a Vienna parish.
It was not until August was about 26 years old that he came to live in America. Documents says that he arrived in this country in 1893. That means we do not find him in an American census entry until after he was married.
August Enzmann married Mathilda Gaebler on May 16, 1899 in St. Louis. The marriage record shown below indicates that they were married at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church.
In the 1900 census, we find the newlyweds living in St. Louis where August was a bartender.
By the time of the 1910 census, we find August with a different occupation. He was a keeper of a hotel. If you look toward the bottom of the entry, you will see some members of Mathilda’s Gaebler family, including her parents. Her father was a janitor at the hotel, and her sister was a waitress at that establishment. Except for Mathilda, her mother, and her sister, all of the boarders at the hotel were males. In a city directory I found for August Enzmann, the address for the hotel was in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis right on South Broadway.
We find a similar entry in the 1920 census. The entry spills over two census pages. At the top of the entry, you will find Enzmann and Gaebler family members. Mathilda’s mother had died in 1914, so she is no longer found in this entry. Two of August’s nieces are found in this list. As before, all of the hotel roomers were males.
August has a different occupation when we find the Enzmann’s in the 1930 census. He is called the proprietor of a shoe repair business. His household consisted of just himself and Mathilda.
The last census entry in which we find both August and Mathilda was the one taken in 1940. This time, they were boarders in the Clara Mueller household. August, at the age of 72, no longer had an occupation, but Mathilda, at the age of 64, was a cook at a lunch room.
August Enzmann died later in 1940 at the age of 72. His death certificate indicates that he died at the Lutheran Hospital in St. Louis. His usual occupation listed on this form was boarding house proprietor.
Mathilda Enzmann died in 1945 at the age of 70. She died while she was a patient at the St. Louis City Hospital according to her death certificate shown here.
August and Mathilda Enzmann are buried together in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in St. Louis.
My father was born and raised in East Perry County but spent most of his life in St. Louis. I fondly remember traveling to Perry County to visit relatives when I was a boy. I wonder if this Enzmann couple had any opportunities to visit Mathilda’s relatives in the Perry County area during their lifetimes.