The setting for today’s story begins in Perry County, but does not take long before it shifts up to St. Louis. The bride in today’s story was born near Perryville and baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church. Her name was Martha Anna Christine Sittner, who was born on April 14, 1878. Martha was the daughter of Charles and Margarethe (Amschler) Sittner. Her baptism record from Immanuel’s books is displayed here.

Martha is found in the 1880 census at the age of 2. Her father was a farmer in the Central Township.

We have to wait 20 years before we are able to view Martha in another census. At some point in the interim, the Sittner family moved to St. Louis. In the 1900 census, Martha was 22 years old and working as a saleslady in St. Louis. Her father had died in 1888, and her mother was the head of the Sittner household. All of Martha’s siblings were part of the work force.

Martha would get married during the next decade, so we will switch our attention to the man who would become her husband, who also happens to be today’s birthday boy. His name was Henry George Holtman, who was born on July 15, 1881, thus making today his 145th birthday. Henry was the son of Frederick and Henrietta (Behrens) Holtman. A few later documents say that Henry was born in St. Louis, but I failed to find him in the 1900 census when he would have been about 19 years old. That means I am not able to show a census entry for Henry when he was still single.

Henry Holtman married Martha Sittner on June 22, 1905. The St. Louis marriage record shown below says that they were married by a justice of the peace.

I located two baptism records for children born to Henry and Martha. Both are found in the books of Zion Lutheran Church in St. Louis. Their first child was born in 1906. The baptism record for Margaretha Holtman is shown here.

In the 1910 census, we find the Holtman’s with one child in their household. Also included in their entry was Martha’s brother, Charles Sittner, who was a bartender. Henry was a police officer in St. Louis.

Another daughter named Evelyn was born in December of 1910, and that child was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church in early January of 1911. We can view Evelyn’s baptism record below.

As it turns out, Martha Holtman died on January 27th, about 3 weeks after that baptism. She died at the age of 32. Her death certificate below gives acute intestinal nephritis as the cause of death.

We can read Martha’s obituary here.

Martha Holtman is buried in the New Bethlehem Cemetery in St. Louis. Both her death certificate and her gravestone say that Martha’s year of birth was 1879, which does not agree with her baptism record.

Several things must have happened during the next decade with Henry. First of all, Henry must have had a difficult time dealing with an infant after his wife died. In fact, it is likely that the baby died not long after his wife died because Evelyn in not found in the next census entry for Henry. Also, Henry got married again not long after Martha died. His second wife was Lydia Herre, but I do not know much about her. The only marriage record I located was a notice that was placed in a St. Louis newspaper about them getting married in 1913. When Henry had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918, it lists his wife as Mrs. Henry George Holtman. In that document, it says Henry was a police officer for the St. Louis Police Department.

When the 1920 census was taken, we find Henry, Lydia, and Margarite in the Holtman household. Henry had the same occupation. You can see that Lydia was about 10 years older than Henry.

Next, we find the Holtman’s in the 1930 census with the same trio of household members. This time, Margarite was called a step-daughter. She would have been the step-daughter of Lydia, but not for Henry.

In the 1940 census, we find the same characters as were found in the previous census entry. Henry was still a city police officer.

Henry had his World War II draft card completed when America entered that war. It says Henry was a police sergeant.

The last census in which we find the Holtman couple was the one taken in 1950. Neither Henry nor Lydia had occupations.

Lydia Holtman died in 1951 at the age of 80. I find it puzzling that Lydia was called single on her death certificate, yet she was living at the same address as her husband, Henry Holtman.

Now, we get to the very tragic end of Henry Holtman’s life. He died in 1955 at the age of 73. His death certificate below says he died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. The coroner ruled the death a suicide.

An article about Henry’s death was published in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Both Henry and Lydia Holtman are buried in the Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.

I cannot begin to know the reasons behind Henry’s suicide. I do know that it really saddens me whenever I discover someone who ends their life in this way. I almost did not write Henry’s story when I discovered his cause of death. I know I have rejected stories in the past when I find suicides. I also know that I have previously written about people who have committed suicide. Whether we like it or not, and I certainly don’t, suicide happens. This time, I decided to tell this police sergeant’s story. I like to think that plenty of uniformed St. Louis police officers showed up for Henry’s funeral.