Today’s story may turn out to be rather short. That is probably a good thing because our museum has a school group visiting us this morning, and I will be involved in giving them their tour.

I found a wedding anniversary that took place on this date, and that why I am telling the story of Johann Friedrich Wichern. Friedrich was born on October 1, 1812. It looks like he was a junior because his father was also Johann Friedrich Wichern. His mother’s maiden name was Margaretha Peters. Friedrich was baptized in Scheeßel, Germany, and we can view his baptism record below.

The next document that I found for Friedrich was his marriage record, so we will now take a look at the woman who would become his bride. Her name was Engel Volckmer, who was born on September 2, 1817. Engel was the daughter of Jacob and Dorothea (Wichern) Volckmer. Wichern was apparently a rather common name in the Scheeßel vicinity. I was also able to locate Engel’s German baptism record which is shown here.

Friedrich Wichern married Engel Volckmer on May 18, 1841, thus making today this couple’s 185th wedding anniversary. This pair was married in Scheeßel, and I can show you their church marriage record.

According to Family Search, this Wichern couple had 8 children. Quite a few German baptism records for these children can be found by visiting Family Search. We can see the list of their children below as they are listed on Family Search.

First of all, you might notice that almost all of these children were girls. The only boy must have died early. You also might notice that there are two girls named Maria and another two girls who were named Anna. The first Maria died prior to when the second Maria was born in 1851. Also, the first Anna Wichern died in 1851. Then, in 1856, the second Anna was born. The Wichern parents had a habit of giving the same name for a child with that name had who had previously died. I have to think that if their last child born in 1860 would have been a boy, they might have named him Johann. There were 5 Wichern children who were alive when Friedrich came to America in 1878. Those 5 children are included in our German Family Tree. Their daughter, Margaretha got married in Germany and remained there. Four daughters eventually ended up in the United States.

We have a Wichern family binder in our research library, and in that binder, I found this paragraph describing the life of Friedrich Wichern. You can see that two of Friedrich’s daughters came to America before he came.

Engel Wichern, Friedrich’s wife, probably died in Germany prior to 1878. Then Friedrich and 2 of his daughters, Maria and Catherine, came to America aboard the steamship, Leipzig, in 1878.

Here is a photograph of the S.S. Leipzig.

The only U.S. census record in which we find Friedrich Wichern was the one taken in 1880. He was living with his daughter, Anna, who had married John Heins. Friedrich was 63 years old and called a laborer.

The Wichern family binder includes this photograph of Friedrich Wichern. It is a copy of a photograph, so the quality is not that good.

Friedrich Wichern died on December 7, 1890. He died during a time when Perry County kept death records. Friedrich’s is shown below in 2 images. It gives pneumonia as a cause of death.

Friedrich Wichern’s church death record is found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.

Friedrich has an entry on Findagrave.com for Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg. However, that entry does not include a gravestone photo. Since it’s such a beautiful morning, I decided to go to this cemetery to see if I could locate his gravestone. I did not find one, but I did locate an area with no gravestones that is likely where Friedrich was buried. The gravestone in the foreground is that of Johanna Schmidt, who died in May of 1890. The next gravestone in the background is that of Claus Ehlers, who died on December 31, 1890. I figure that Freidrich’s grave is in the open space between those stones.

I cannot end this story here because, in the course of researching it, I discovered another interesting, yet tragic, fact. On the day after Friedrich died, his son-in-law, John Heins, the husband of his daughter, Anna, also died. His is the next death record found in the books of Trinity, Altenburg. His gravestone is also not pictured on Findagrave.com, and I figure that he is also buried in the open area of the above photo, right next to Friedrich.

Because all of Friedrich’s children were daughters, there were no more Wichern’s to be found in the next generation that came from this branch of the Wichern family tree. The 4 daughters who came to America are buried in 4 different cemeteries. One is buried in the Trinity Cemetery in Altenburg, one in the Concordia Cemetery in Frohna, one in the Christ Cemetery in Jacob, Illinois, and one in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Collinsville, Illinois.