Just yesterday, I was told that our museum received a donation of some albums full of photos of people from the Palisch family. They are filled with outstanding professional photographs. However, like so many collections of photos that people have, only some of them were identified. Then, when I was looking for a story to write for today, I ran across this one that will be about one of the original Palisch’s to show up in Perry County back in 1839. I wish I knew whether any of the people’s images in those photo albums would be either the husband or wife you will read about today. I will begin with the Palisch bride.

Ernestine Wilhelmine Palisch was born on August 6, 1831 in Lobtau, Germany. Lobtau is a neighborhood in the Dresden metropolitan area. Wilhelmine was the daughter of Johann Gottlieb (J.G.) and Johanna (Kaempfe) Palisch. When Wilhelmine was 7 years old, she boarded the ship, Johann Georg (another J.G.), along with her family and many other Germans, mostly from Saxony, who were part of the Gesellschaft. The passenger list shown below says she was 6 years old, but I think she was a bit older than that.

Wilhelmine was confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg in 1845. Then, when she appears in the 1850 census, she was a newlywed, so we will now take a look at the man who would become her husband. His name was Johann Julius Rabold, who was born on April 23, 1828 in Schwarzburg, Germany. He was from a location in Germany that was only 25 miles away from where my Schmidt family lived in Kahla. This person’s name is about evenly distributed between being called John or Julius on documents. I will use Julius. He was the son of Johann Christian and Eva Margaretha (Stark) Rabold. When he was a teenager, Julius came to America with his family aboard the ship, Favorite, in 1842.

Two of Julius’s sisters on the above list ended up being my great-great grandmothers. I wonder how I would properly describe my relationship to Julius, the brother of my great-great grandmothers.

Julius Rabold married Wilhelmine Palisch on August 28, 1850, so today would be this couple’s 175th wedding anniversary. There is a church marriage record for this couple in the books of Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown, but it says that the wedding took place in the Altenburg church.

Another church marriage record is found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. I cannot explain why the record of this marriage was included in two different church books.

I am also able to display two different civil records for this event from Perry County books. First, here is one on which Rev. Schieferdecker listed 3 different weddings that he had performed.

Below is the other civil record for this occasion.

Thanks to the fact that the 1850 census for the Brazeau Township was not submitted until October of that year, we find this recently married couple in the entry shown below. Julius was a farmer.

According to Family Search, this Rabold couple had 3 children, two sons followed by a daughter. However, our German Family Tree lists 5 children. It includes a set of twins, one that died right away, and the other being stillborn. Since all of their children were born after 1857 when Rev. Schieferdecker organized Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg after being removed from Trinity, these Rabold children were all baptized at Immanuel. In the 1860 census, we find the Rabold’s with just one son.

The 1870 census lists 3 Rabold children. Julius was still farming in the Brazeau Township.

The 1880 census turns out to be the last one in which we find Julius, partly due to the fact that we are unable to view the 1890 census. One son and one daughter were still living with Julius and Wilhelmine.

Julius Rabold died in 1895 at the age of 66. His church death record is found in the books of Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. That record says that he died of old age and the flu. In today’s day and age, it would sound rather unusual to say that a 66 year-old would die of old age. I think it is possible that the Rabold’s may have joined Concordia, Frohna after their daughter, Julia married Ferdinand Schuessler, who was from Frohna and where the Schuessler’s ended up living.

Wilhelmine Rabold is found as a widow in the 1900 census. It looks as if Wilhelmine was the head of her own household, but we also see that she is listed in this entry right below her daughter’s Schuessler household.

The last census in which we find Wilhelmine was the one taken in 1910. Once again, she is found right below the Schuessler household, so I figure they might have been living in separate dwellings on the same property.

Wilhelmine Rabold died in 1915 at the age of 83. Her nephew, Dr. Gotthilf A. Palisch, the doctor in Frohna, signed her death certificate below. Her son-in-law, Ferdinand Schuessler is listed as the informant.

Both Julius and Wilhelmine Rabold are buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna, but Findagrave.com only has a gravestone photo for Julius.

I have previously written some posts about the children of this Palisch/Rabold couple. Now you know the story of the couple that my crazy mind has called a P.R. Firm found in Altneburg and Frohna. There are plenty of people who still carry the Palisch surname around Altenburg and Frohna, but I admit that I do not know anyone around here with the Rabold name.