Most of the posts on this blog tell the story of a highlighted pair of individuals who manage to find each other and get married. Today’s tale is not about a pair, but a trio. I will start where I usually end. Below is a photo of the gravestone of today’s main characters with the name of Ochs (pronounced Oaks).

Today, you will read the story of a trio of unmarried siblings who spent almost their whole lives living together, two brothers and a sister. It begins with a birthday boy.

Emanuel Michael Ochs was born on December 23, 1875, thus making today his special 150th birthday. Emanuel was the son of Christian and Mary (Knoll) Ochs. A previous post was written about these parents titled, Christian and Mary – An OK Friedenberg Couple. Emanuel was the firstborn child in his family. He was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg, so we cannot view an image of his baptism record. Before I move on to a census entry for him, let me detail the birth of his younger brother.

Leo Heinrich Ochs was born on April 2, 1878. Like all the Ochs children, he was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. A sister was also born in early 1880. I will not be telling her story today. So, when the 1880 census was taken, we find the Ochs family with 3 children, two boys and a girl. Their father was a farmer in the Central Township.

One more child was born into this family in the 1880’s. Rosa Ann Ochs was born on April 17, 1883, and she, too was baptized at Peace, Friedenberg. If we were able to view the 1890 census, we would find 2 sons and 2 daughters in the Ochs household, but that census is not available. The next opportunity to view a census was in 1900. The Ochs family is shown in the entry below. All 4 of the Ochs children are included, along with Annie Knoll, the widowed mother of Mary Ochs and grandmother of the children in the list. Annie would die later that year. The 2 sons, Emanuel and Leo, were helping their father on his farm.

I have to display two different census entries for this trio of siblings for the 1910 census. Mary, the mother, had died in 1903 at a rather young age, and Leo and Rosa were still living with their father. Leo was helping with the farming, and Rosa was doing the housekeeping.

Emanuel, on the other hand, was living in the Frederick Rauh household as a hired man. Fred had several young children, none of which were old enough to be helping with the farming.

This may look like Emanuel was living far away from his parents, but the Rauh household is on the same census page as that of the Ochs household. And, if you look at this plat map from 1915, you will see the Christian Ochs farm located very near a farm identified as the F.G. Raugh farm. I can almost picture Emanuel walking home to visit his parents or help with their farming on occasion. Brother Leo could also have been helping on the Rauh farm when needed.

Both Emanuel and Leo had their World War I draft registrations completed when America entered that war. I thought the 2 brothers registered at the same time, but there are different dates on each of these forms and 2 different registrars.

In the 1920 census, all three Ochs siblings were back together living with their father.

Their father died in 1924, so when the 1930 census was taken, Emanuel, Leo, and Rosa were the only 3 in the household. Emanuel and Leo were farming, and Rosa is not given an occupation. However, I have to think that she was doing the housekeeping.

Next, we find the 3 Ochs in the 1940 census. The men were in their 60’s, and Rosa was in her late 50’s. She is back to being called a housekeeper.

I think Emanuel was too old to be required to complete a World War II draft card, but Leo was not. Leo’s draft card is shown here. He was 64 years old at the time.

Leo Ochs died in 1946 at the age of 68. Pericarditis is given as the cause of death on the certificate pictured here.

I found 2 different obituaries for Leo, one in the Perry County Republican and one in the Perry County Sun.

In the last census we can view, the one taken in 1950, we find just Emanuel and Rosa. If I read this correctly, it says both of them were involved in working with a truck patcher. An internet search informs me that a truck patcher was used to repair asphalt. It would be used for tasks such as repairing potholes on the roads. On both Emanuel and Rosa’s entries, it also says “farm”.

Rosa Ochs died in 1960 at the age of 76. Her death certificate is pictured below.

An obituary for Rosa was published in the Perry County Republican.

Emanuel, the oldest of the Ochs trio, died last. He died in 1968 at the age of 92. His death certificate says he was living in Perryville.

I was not able to locate an obituary for Emanuel, probably because he died too recently. All 3 of the Ochs siblings are buried in the Peace Lutheran Cemetery in Friedenberg. Their gravestone photo was shown earlier.

I have written a few posts on this blog about siblings who were lifelong singles who lived together for most of their lives. This is another example of one of those stories that involves three such siblings who, with the exception of Emanuel working on a local farm in 1910, lived together from cradle to grave. I may have to tell the story someday of Emma, their only sister who got married.

In closing, I cannot resist suggesting that a father named Christian and a mother named Mary, who had a son born 2 days before Christmas and named him Emanuel, did so intentionally. I have to think that they may have been inspired by the celebration of the birth of Immanuel, Jesus Christ, “God With Us”.