In the German language, the word, schön, means “beautiful”. The Americanized spelling of that word is schoen. The surname, Schoen, has appeared on this blog several times, and I always am tempted to call a Schoen woman as being beautiful. And as for me, I have a schoene Frau. Having said that, I am going to begin with today’s birthday boy, and he was the son of a man that has been referred to as “The Face” on this blog on several occasions also. The Face gets his name because he has his carved face on his gravestone in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg. I am not going to say that he has a schoene face.
The Face’s oldest child, Herman Petzoldt, was born on March 8, 1841, so he would be celebrating his 185th birthday today. He was born in Lengenfeld, Germany, the son of Friedrich Florian (The Face) and Christiane (Maennel) Petzoldt. In 1848 or 1849, the Petzoldt family came to the United States and settled near Altenburg, Missouri. Herman is found in the 1850 census at the age of 9. His father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.
The last census in which we find Herman prior to his marriage was the one taken in 1860. He was 19 years old at the time. Four daughters had been born into this Petzoldt family during the 1850’s. Amalia (called Mala), who was born in 1858, was the first of the Petzoldt children to be baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg after it had split from Trinity’s congregation in 1857.
When the Civil War broke out in America, Herman spent some time in the Union Army. I located two records of his military service which are shown here.
It was not long after the Civil War that Herman got married, so we will now look at his beautiful bride. Her name was Ernestine Wilhelmine Schoen, who was born in Germany on December 28, 1842. Ernestine was the daughter of Ernst and Henrietta (Zentmeier) Schoen. The Schoen family came to America in 1853 according to a later census entry. Our German Family Tree says another Schoen child was born in 1855 and baptized at Trinity, Altenburg, but that child died just days after he was born. Ernestine is found in the 1860 census at the age of 17. Her father was a farmer in the Apple Creek Township. I figure this Schoen family became members of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Pocahontas not long after their arrival in America.
Herman Petzoldt married Ernestine Schoen on February 12, 1865 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Pocahontas. Since we cannot view actual images of church records from that congregation, I can only display 2 different civil marriage records from Cape Girardeau County for this wedding.
Our German Family Tree lists 8 children born to Herman and Ernestine. Not all of them lived to adulthood. Their first 2 children were baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg, but the rest of them were baptized at St. John’s, Pocahontas. In the 1870 census, we find the Petzoldt’s with 2 children. One of those children was also named Herman, so today’s birthday boy would become known as Herman, Sr. He was a farmer in the Apple Creek Township.
In the 1880 census, there were 5 children in the Petzoldt household.
I am going to display two photos that include some members of the Herman Petzoldt, Sr. family. The captions help identify some people in the photos.
Since we cannot view the 1890 census, the next one in which we find the Petzoldt’s is the one from 1900. Herman was still farming in the Apple Creek Township. It may have been around this time that this Petzoldt family became members of the new congregation, Zion Lutheran Church in Pocahontas, that was established in 1889.
The 1910 census shows Herman and Ernestine living in the Herman, Jr. household. Just Herman, Jr. is listed as the farmer. Herman, Sr. and Ernestine were in their late 60’s.
Herman Petzoldt, Sr. died in 1916 at the age of 75. You can see that Rev. Fleiss, the pastor at Zion, Pocahontas, was the informant on Herman’s death certificate below.
Even though Ernestine died in 1920, she was still alive when that year’s census was taken. She was living with her daughter, Agneta, who had married Ernst Rastl.
Ernestine Petzoldt died in April of 1920. Her death certificate is displayed here.
Both Herman and Ernestine Petzoldt have death records in the books of Zion Lutheran Church in Pocahontas, and it is in that congregation’s cemetery that we find them buried.
The gravestone photos above are not found on Findagrave.com. I found these two photos on someone’s Ancestry.com family tree. Perhaps our friend, Diane Anderson, can add these photos to Findagrave.com when she gets a chance.