I will be telling the story of a Thurm man who marries a Schade woman today, but it will not be the first story in which there was such a marriage. The post, Paul, A Member of the Thurm Throng in Bremer County, Iowa, also told of a Thurm man/Schade woman wedding. Not only that, the two Thurm men were brothers, and the two Schade women were sisters. I will begin with today’s birthday boy.

Edward Reinhard Thurm was born on March 1, 1886, thus making today his 140th birthday. Edward was the son of Gerhardt and Johanna (Kutscher) Thurm. Edward was the first of 10 children born into this Thurm family. He was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Edward’s baptism record is displayed here.

Edward is found in the 1900 census at the age of 14. He had been confirmed at Immanuel, Altenburg in 1899. His father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township. Already at such a young age, Edward was called a farm laborer.

I was unsuccessful at finding Edward in the 1910 census when he would have been in his 20’s. I do know that Edward’s brother who also married a Thurm was living in Bremer County, Iowa when the 1910 census was taken, but I failed to find Edward there either. Since Edward would get married in 1914, we will now take a look at the woman who would become his bride. Her name was Ida Emilie Schade, who was born on August 10, 1892. Ida was the daughter of Robert and Elisabeth (Engert) Schade. Like her future husband, Ida was also baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. We can view her baptism record below.

Ida is found in the 1900 census at the age of 7. Her father was also a farmer in the Brazeau Township. I found evidence in Mary Dillon’s Wittenberg book that the Thurm’s and Schade’s mentioned in this post attended the Ridge School in 1898.

Ida is found in the 1910 census, but she was not living in Perry County. We find her and her sister, Rosa, living in St. Louis. They were lodgers in the Louisa Kastler household and both working at a nursery. Ida was 18 years old at the time.

Edward’s brother, Paul, had married Ida’s sister, Rosa in Altenburg in 1913. A year later, Edward Thurm married Ida Schade at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. All of the marriage documents I will show, including this church marriage record, say that Edward was living in Bremer County, Iowa when he got married.

I am also able to display 2 different civil marriage records for this event.

I have every reason to believe that Edward took his new bride back up to Bremer County, Iowa after he got married. We find this pair living in that area of Iowa for the rest of their lives. They had 3 children, 1 son followed by 2 daughters. All 3 of these children have baptism records found in the books of a church called St. John’s and having a Tripoli address. I found several churches in Bremer County which had the name St. John’s. Several of them were Lutheran churches, but those were not part of the Missouri Synod. That area of Iowa was known to be the headquarters of the Iowa Lutheran Synod. I happen to think that the Thurm’s were members of a church called St. John’s (Crane Creek) Lutheran Church near Tripoli. I am going to display the baptism record of their son, who was named Edmund. He was born in 1916. It looks like both Edward and Ida’s fathers went to Iowa for this baptism to be sponsors of this baby.

Here is what the Crane Creek Lutheran Church looks like now.

Edward had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. He is given a rural Tripoli, Iowa address and was called a farmer.

In the 1920 census, we find the Thurm’s with 2 children in their household. Also included in their entry was Reinhard Schade, Ida’s younger brother. Edward was called the farmer, and Reinhard was called a farm laborer.

Next, we find the Thurm’s in the 1930 census with all 3 of their children. They were living in the Warren Township in Bremer County, which was not far from Tripoli. Reinhard Schade was still living with them, along with another Altenburg native, Herbert Mueller, who was the son of Anton Mueller. It looks like Reinhard remained in Iowa the rest of his life, and he never married.

In the 1940 census, the Thurm’s household just included their immediate family members. Their son, Edmund, was helping his father on his farm.

During the next decade, the Thurm’s moved to Black Hawk County and were living not far from Waterloo, Iowa. Edward and his son, Edmund, were working at a meat packing plant.

Edward Thurm died in 1971 at the age of 85; Ida Thurm died in 1986 at the age of 93. These two are buried together in the Garden of Memories Cemetery in Waterloo.

Quite a few of the Thurm family in Altenburg migrated to Bremer County, Iowa. In fact, I think it is safe to say that more of the Thurm’s ended up in Iowa than those who remained in Altenburg. In addition, there were others from this area that moved there. I can understand why these farmers moved to that area where the farmland was flat and contained the fertile, black dirt for which Iowa is famous. Most of those who ended up there were originally members of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg, but Herbert Mueller was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church. And in the case of Herbert Mueller, he would find his bride near here and move back to Altenburg.