I got caught today. I was at least halfway through writing a different post, including gathering a bunch of new documents pertaining to it, before I realized that I had already written the story in a previous post. I am going to place the blame on my poor, deteriorating memory. So, I switched gears and decided to share an old story written on this date back in 2016. That means this was the first post that I wrote on today’s date.
I started gathering what I thought would be a few extra documents for it, but ended up finding much more about the main character’s life than I had done before. The main character was Paul Kutscher, a man born in New Wells who became a Lutheran teacher. That tale said Paul had married another girl from New Wells, Helen Reisenbichler. Helen was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. I displayed Paul’s baptism record in that previous post, but not Helen’s. Below is an image of her baptism record from that congregation’s books.
Also, in the prior post, I displayed Paul Kutscher’s World War I draft registration that indicated that he was a student at Concordia College in River Forest, Illinois. I did not realize at that time that Paul actually did serve in the military during that war. I must say that I was surprised to discover this. I think this is the first time that I have found that a man studying for church work was found serving in the military after filling out a draft registration form. Below is Paul’s military record, which shows that was not sent overseas during that conflict. It indicates that he enlisted in Maywood, Illiinois, which is right next to River Forest.
Next, I will display some census entries that show Paul living in the St. Louis area and working as a Lutheran teacher. He was a teacher at Salem Lutheran School in Black Jack, Missouri, a town located in the northern part of the metropolitan St. Louis area. Here is his 1930 census entry.
Next, we find the Kutcher’s in the 1940 census.
Helen Kutscher died in 1942 at the age of 37. Her death certificate below says she died of an aneurysm.
Helen is buried in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Black Jack.
Now, I have to tell you that I discovered something else that I did not know before. Paul Kutscher married again in 1944. His second wife was Norma Merkt. We can view a marriage certificate for this couple below.
In the 1950 census, we find Paul and Norma living in Olivette, another metropolitan community in St. Louis. I suppose it is possible that Paul may have become a teacher at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Olivette, but I have found no evidence to prove it.
Paul Kutscher died in 1974 at the age of 77. When I first wrote the story about Paul, I would not have been able to view his death certificate, but now, I now I can. That certificate below says he had prostate cancer when he died at the Lutheran Hospital in St. Louis.
Norma Kutscher died in 2001. Paul and Norma are buried together in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Black Jack.
Back when I was a teenager living in North St. Louis, I played a lot of youth group softball games at the field located at Salem Lutheran School in Black Jack. I know that Teacher Kutscher was still alive at that time and was likely retired. I wonder if he ever decided to attend one of those games and watched me play.