Today, you will be reading the story of another person who was part of the large Engelhart family that lived in the Pocahontas area. That surname is made up of two words, engel and hart. Engel is the German word for “angel”. The word, hart, from what I could determine, could have two different meanings. A more geographical meaning for this word calls it a wooded area. Another meaning which has more to do with names is that it refers to a person who is hardy, brave, or strong. I prefer to use the second meaning which would lead us to describe those in the Engelhart family as being “hardy angels”. This post will highlight a “hardy angel” who is today’s birthday girl.

Bertha Amalia Engelhart was born on July 15, 1883, so today would be her 142nd birthday. Bertha was the daughter of Joseph and Theresia (Gumpelmeier) Engelhart. Our German Family Tree lists 9 children in this Engelhardt family, and Bertha was #7. She was baptized at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Pocahontas. I am unable to display Bertha’s actual baptism record, but in the binder we have for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Pocahontas, we find this information about her.

You cannot see it in the above image, but Bertha was listed with others in this binder who were confirmed at St. John’s, Pocahontas in 1897. Then, in 1900, we find Bertha in the Engelhart census entry at the age of 16. Her father was a farmer in the Shawnee Township.

A plat map produced in 1930 shows the Joseph Engelhart farm located just west of the town of Pocahontas. If I could show the area to the right of this image, you could see how close their farm was to that town.

I am going to display several Engelhart family photos in this post as we go along. The family picture below was taken in 1904. The caption will help you identify Bertha in the photo. I had used this photo in a post about Caroline and August Kasten a while back and identified those two with the red arrows. Caroline was Bertha’s older sister.

I do not know when this portrait of Bertha was taken, but perhaps it was about this time in her life.

Next, we find Bertha in the 1910 census. She and 2 younger brothers, all in their 20’s, were still living with their parents.

Another Engelhart family photo was taken on the occasion of Joseph and Theresia’s 50th wedding anniversary in 1917. Bertha is the second woman sitting to the right of her father.

Bertha would never get married. In the 1920 census, she was still living with her parents, along with a younger brother, August. With both of her parents in their 70’s, I figure that Bertha was very helpful to her mother with the housekeeping chores.

Bertha’s mother died in 1922. Then, in 1929, another family reunion photo was taken. The caption can direct you to which one is Bertha.

In 1930, Bertha’s father was living in the Theodore Martin household. So, Bertha was no longer living with her father when that year’s census was taken. We find her living in Jackson, Missouri. The head of the household where Bertha was living was Lena Penzel, a 74 year-old widow who had no occupation. Bertha, at the age of 46, and Sadie Ludwig, age 26, were roomers who both worked at a shoe factory.

When the 1940 census was taken, Bertha was still living in Jackson. She was the head of the household, and her niece, Melva Kasten, was living with her. Melva can be found in the front row of the 1929 family photo shown above. She was just a child then. Bertha was a cook at a restaurant, and Melva was working at the shoe factory.

The last census the public can view is the one taken in 1950. Bertha, at the age of 66, was a waitress at a cafe. A lodger named Edna Bester was living with her.

Bertha Engelhart died in 1967 at the age of 84. Her death certificate says the cause of death was cancer of the colon.

Bertha is buried in the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery in Pocahontas.

I had breakfast with Jim Lichtenegger, the president of the Perry County Historical Society, this morning. Jim is a member of St. John’s, Pocahontas. I asked him if there were any more people with the Engelhart name who still lived in the area. He said he only knew of two people who are Engelhart’s. So, this large Engelhart family apparently only has a few descendants left nearby who still carry that surname. However, there must be plenty of descendants from this family scattered elsewhere, and I am sure there are several of them who still carry the name, Engelhart. Several people I could call “hardy angels”.