I had all kinds of records and photos picked out for a new post to publish today, but I have been assigned an agenda that will make it impossible to accomplish that task. Perhaps I will write that story tomorrow…a day late. So, instead, I am going to republish an old story that was first posted on May 21st back in 2017. It especially caught my attention because about a week ago, we had the privilege at our museum of having some descendants from this family visit who still live in California.
Below is a brief description of the life of Moritz Petzoldt as it appears in our German Family Tree. It comes from a Petzoldt family binder that we have at our museum, and I know that the woman who visited is the primary person who put that binder together.
[Petzoldt FamilyBook]: Moritz Petzoldt was born 25 Mar 1844 in Lengenfeldt Voightlande, Saxony Germany, he immigrated to the USA in 1848, he married Emilie Schwindt on 21 May 1871 in Troy, Madison Co IL, The family moved to California in August 1883, where they attended Trinity Lutheran Church, a german-speaking church. Moritz had his own harness & saddle shop on Spring Street in Los Angeles CA, where he was a maker of high-class harnesses, Both Moritz & Emilie are buried in Inglewood Cemetery in Inglewood CA;
I am going to display a few census entries that exhibit Moritz’s migration from Perry County to Los Angeles. First, we find Moritz in the 1850 census at the age of 6. His father. Augustus Petzoldt, was a farmer in the Brazeau Township. Augustus was the brother of Friedrich Florian “The Face” Petzoldt.
Later, when the 1870 census was compiled, we find Moritz living in Troy, Illinois which is found in Madison County, not far from Collinsville. He was called a 25 year-old saddler.
The GFT info says that Moritz married Emilie Schwindt on May 21, 1871. If that is the case, today would be this couple’s 155th wedding anniversary. However, the date for this wedding is given as May 27, 1871 on the Family Search site.
As is stated in the information from the Petzoldt book, these Petzoldt’s moved to Los Angeles in 1883. In the 1900 census, that is where we find this Petzoldt family. Moritz is called a harness maker, and there were 4 children in his household. You can see that 2 children in this list were born in Illinois, and the other 2 were born in California.
It just blows my mind that there was once a saddle shop in downtown Los Angeles with connections to Perry County. And we love it when people from faraway places make the pilgrimage back to their roots and find their way into our museum. What a treat that was.