If you are like me, when you get to the end of today’s story, you will have as many unanswered questions as I do. I will also state that a rather large selection of passenger lists will be included in this post, rather than a lot of census entries

The birthday boy for this post is Wilhelm Johann Conrad Poehner, who was born on July 27, 1891. That means today would be his 135th birthday. William was the son of Johann and Anna (Peterson) Poehner. Many documents you will see in this post say William was born in Crosstown. He was baptized at Cross Congregation Church located between Longtown and Crosstown. William’s baptism record can be viewed below.

This Poehner family did not remain in Perry County for very long. By the time of the 1900 census, the Poehner’s were living in Marissa, Illinois, which is located between Bellville and Chester. William was 9 years old, and his father was a carpenter.

William was no longer living with his parents when the 1910 census was taken. He was 18 years old and living in St. Louis with a man named William Benson, who was a barber. William was a painter for a carriage company.

William had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917. He is given a St. Louis address and was doing automobile painting for a motor car company based in Detroit.

William did serve time in the military during that war. His military record is displayed below. He did get sent overseas from August of 1918 until July of 1919.

A later application for a military headstone gives further details about his service.

I was unable to locate William in the 1920 census, but I did find this passport application that was submitted in 1920. The interesting fact on this form is that he was going to the Belgian Congo as a missionary. I wonder how William became qualified to be a missionary when all the other things we have noted were going on in his life. I will add that sometimes documents do not always tell the full story about someone’s life.

The photo for William on this passport is shown below.

I found one more document for William prior to his marriage. We find him as a passenger on the ship, Marracaibo, which was sailing from Curacao, an island nation near the northern coast of South America in October of 1923. I have to conclude that he was heading back to America to get married.

William would get married soon after this, so we will now turn our attention to the woman who would become his bride. Her name was May Walker, who was a Leap Year Day baby, born on February 29, 1896. May was born in Canada, the daughter of Adam and Dorothy (Moynes) Walker. In the 1901 Canadian census, May was called 5 years old, and her widowed father was a moulder. The Walker’s are found living in the Victoria Province (County) in Ontaria. That location is not far from Toronto.

Next, we find May in the 1911 Canadian census. This time the Walker’s were found living in the Prince Province in Ontario, which is located near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. May was 14 years old at the time. Her father had apparently gotten married again, and May’s stepmother and two of her older sisters were working in a grocery business.

I found no other evidence of May until right before she got married in 1923. On the passenger list for the ship, Commewyne, we find May Walker, who was traveling aboard that ship on December 13, 1923. It says she was a teacher in Venezuela. It also states that May could speak English, Spanish, French, and German.

I have to conclude that May was on her way back to America to get married because William Poehner married May Walker on December 26, 1923 in Manhatten, New York. I found separate New York marriage records for William and May.

I do not know if these photos, which seem to be cropped from one that includes both of them, was one taken for their wedding, but I needed a place to put them into this blog, so this is where you get to see them. Putting them together like this almost makes it look like just one photo.

There is evidence that the Poehner’s were living in the nation of Columbia in South America after their wedding. According to Family Search, two children were born in Columbia, one of which died at a very young age. Now, I am going to display another set of passenger lists on which either William or May or both traveled in the next few years in the order that they happened. That does not mean that I know what was happening to cause them to be passengers. First, I located a passenger list for the ship, Garabobo, which included May Poehner. The ship left from New York in March of 1924. May is called a missionary on this document. I did not locate a passenger list showing William leaving America in 1924, but I assume that he did.

Here is a passenger list for the ship, Cristobal, on which we find May Poehner traveling by herself. She arrived in New York on October 31, 1926.

Next, we find William Poehner and his 10 month-old son named Alden (born in Columbia). That ship had sailed from the Canal Zone. It was arriving in New York on November 8, 1926. William’s address in the United States is given as St. Louis.

May Poehner is found crossing the Detroit/Canada border on November 24, 1926 with her child, Alden. I find it interesting that the “relative or friend” on this form was a woman from Marissa, except they say she was in Missouri, not Illinois. There is no Marissa, Missouri.

William Poehner is found coming back to the United States in 1927 aboard a ship called Favorita. That ship arrived in New Orleans from the Canal Zone. It says his address in America was in St. Louis.

William Poehner is found traveling by himself aboard the ship, G.W. Cobb, which arrived in Key West, Florida in January of 1929.

In April of 1929, we find all the members of this Poehner family traveling aboard the ship, G.W. Cobb, which came from Cuba. That ship also arrived in Key West, Florida.

We find just William traveling to the United States once again aboard the ship, G.W. Cobb, which arrived from Cuba on January 24, 1930.

The Poehner family is found living in Arredondo, Florida when the 1930 census was taken. Arredondo is found in the Gainesville vicinity. This census was submitted in April of 1930, after William had arrived earlier that year. William is called a farmer. There were 2 children in the Poehner household, one born in Columbia, South America, and the younger one born in Missouri.

In 1938, we find yet another passenger list which shows the entire Poehner family returning from Brazil on the ship, Pan America. That ship arrived in New York. It gives the United States address for this family in Zephyrhills, Florida, which is not far from Tampa.

The only other document I located for this Poehner couple prior to their deaths is this World War II draft card for their son, Vernon. It says his mother, Mrs. W.J. Poehner lived in Zephyrhills.

I failed to find the Poehner’s in the 1940 or 1950 censuses, even though I know they were still living. The only other thing I can tell you about William and May is that they died and were buried in California. William Poehner died in 1975 at the age of 83; May Poehner died in 1985 at the age of 88. Each of them are buried in the Memory Gardens Cemetery in Concord, California near San Francisco. William’s gravestone acknowledges his World War I military service.

This post may be another award winner. I think it may be the post on this blog that mentions the most states and countries in it. William Poehner certainly did not spend his life from cradle to grave in Perry County. He just spent a short time here before traveling all over the place and marrying a Canadian bride.