The story you will read today has plenty of unanswered questions and a fact that just makes you scratch your head. Let me start with the head scratcher. According to our German Family Tree, a man named Henry Emde married a woman named Mary Isenberg in 1855. That couple had a son named Freidrich Heinrich Emde, and although his documents call him Frederick, a few family trees on Ancestry.com call him “Henry”. That son then married a woman named Mary Isenberg in 1894. I may have to research that story some more and perhaps write about that situation in the future. However…Are you ready for this?…today’s birthday boy is another son in that family named Henry Emde. And, if that is not enough, there was another Henry Emde who married Sophia (Apping) Sewing. And all of these Henry Emde’s have records in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim.

Wilhelm Heinrich Emde was born on April 8, 1867, thus making today his 159th birthday. Believe it or not, this is not the date that led me to tell this story on April 8th. I will explain this later in this post. Henry was the son of Henry and Mary (Isenberg) Emde. His baptism record is found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. An image of his baptism record is displayed below.

Henry is found in the 1870 census at the age of 3. His father was a farmer in the Union Township of Bollinger County.

Next, we find Henry in the 1880 census when he was called 14 years old. I think he was only 13. As I have explained in previous posts, I think a new township was created in the 1870’s in Bollinger County that was named the Whitewater Township. That is where we find the Emde’s living in 1880. So, that does not mean that they moved to a different farm. To add to the confusion, Henry’s maternal grandfather, Henry Isenberg, was included in this household. That means there were 3 generations of Henry’s in this family group.

Henry was confirmed at Trinity, Friedheim in 1882. His confirmation record is shown below.

Since we cannot view the 1890 census, and Henry would get married in the 1890’s, we will now take a look at the woman who would become his bride. Her name was Aurelia Carolina Hemenway was born on July 4, 1875. That means when Aurelia was celebrating her 1st birthday, our country was celebrating its centennial birthday. Aurelia was the daughter of Addison and Amanda (Moran) Hemenway. Since Aurelia and her parents are buried in the Crossroads Methodist Cemetery in Sedgwickville, I think that is where Aurelia was baptized. Aurelia is found in the 1880 census at the age of 4. Her father, who is said to be born in Vermont, was a farmer in the Whitewater Township.

A new Lutheran congregation began near where the Emde’s and Hemenway’s lived called Lixville Lutheran Church around 1891. Henry Emde married Aurelia Hemenway on April 8, 1896 at Lixville Lutheran. This wedding date is the one I found when searching for someone to write about today. This couple would be celebrating their 130th wedding anniversary today. It also means that Henry got married on his 19th birthday. We have the church records for Lixville Lutheran in our museum, even if those records have not been included in our German Family Tree yet. This couple’s marriage record is pictured here.

I am also able to display this Missouri marriage license for this wedding. On this document, it looks like the person filling out the form spelled Aurelia’s surname as Hemmingway. It also calls her Ola.

Henry and Aurelia had one child, a daughter named Addie, who was born in 1897. Addie’s baptism record is also found in the books of Lixville Lutheran. The couple listed as Addie’s sponsors is the pair mentioned earlier as being an Emde/Isenberg couple.

In the Lixville Lutheran records, I found a list of communicant members of that church written down in 1898. It included several Emde names, including 3 men named Henry.

I think today’s Henry Emde is the one crossed out at the bottom. He attended communion 3 times in 1898. However, in the 1900 census I will show next, Aurelia is called a widow, so Henry must have died between 1898 and 1900. I looked for a death record for Henry in the Lixville books, but failed to find him. I also failed to find where Henry was buried. Of course, perhaps he is found in the Lixville Lutheran Cemetery and not marked.

In the 1900 census, Aurelia is found living with her mother and her family, and they were living in St. Louis. Her father had died in 1895. Aurelia is called a seamstress.

I also located a few entries for Aurelia Emde in St. Louis city directories. Below is one from the year, 1904. I located her address which was not far from what became known as Forest Park. In 1904, Forest Park was the home of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the 1904 World’s Fair.

Aurelia Emde died in 1908 at the age of 33. She is buried in the Crossroads Methodist Cemetery in Sedgewickville.

Quite a few people associated with this Emde story died at early ages. Certainly, both Henry and Aurelia died at very young ages. I will add that their daughter, Addie, died in 1916 before she turned 20 years old. Her death certificate says she died of tuberculosis. I thought this story might be a short one because of Henry and Aurelia’s early deaths, but I discovered quite a few other fascinating facts relating to this story, and it turned out to be about the same length as a typical blog post.