The birthday girl for today’s post is Lulu Eleonora Kieninger, who was born on July 30, 1896. Lulu would have to blow out 130 candles on her birthday cake if she was alive today. Lulu was the daughter of Henry and Martha (Litzelfelner) Kieninger. She was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church in Pocahontas. An image of her baptism record from that church’s books is shown below. Hers was just the 8th baptism record in this relatively new congregation in Pocahontas.

Lulu is found in the 1900 census at the age of 3. Her father was a wagon and carriage repairer in Pocahontas. Lulu was the youngest child in her family.

Lulu was confirmed at Zion, Pocahontas in 1909. We can view her confirmation record below.

Next, we find Lulu in the 1910 census as a teenager. This time, her father’s occupation was called “furniture and undertaking” in a furniture store in Pocahontas. Included in the Kieninger household was a 5 year-old orphan named Regina Johnson.

Lulu was no longer living with her parents when the 1920 census was taken. Like so many other single young women in those days, she went to St. Louis to find work. In that year’s census entry, Lulu was a servant in the William Miller household doing housework. She was 24 years old at that time.

Lulu found her husband in St. Louis and got married later in 1920, so we will now take a look at the man who would become her husband. His name was William Ross Trower, who was born in St. Louis on January 8, 1886, so he would have been about 10 years older than Lulu. William was a “junior”, the son of William, Sr. and Emma (Farley) Trower. I am unaware of where William was baptized. In the 1900 census, William was already a teenager, and his father was called a gate keeper.

In the 1910 census, William was in his 20’s and still living with his parents. Both William and his father worked for the railroad. William was called a clerk, and his father was called a watchman. William’s sister, Mary, who had married a Bergfeld, had also gotten divorced and was included in this household, along with Mary’s daughter, Helen.

William had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. He is called a salesman and employed by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

In 1920, prior to his getting married later that year, William appears in that year’s census at the age of 35. He was living in the household of his sister, Mary, who had gotten married again. Her husband was Henry Kottkamp. It looks as if William had the same occupation as a salesman for the tire company.

William Trower married Lulu Kieninger on August 31, 1920. A St. Louis marriage record says this pair was married by a Lutheran pastor named Rev. Friedesch. St. Louis has been crossed out in the portion mentioning the pastor and replaced with St. Charles. I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out which church that pastor served, but failed to find out.

William and Lulu had 2 chldren, a boy followed by a girl, both born in the 1920’s. When the 1930 census was compiled, we see both of these children listed in the Trower household. The Trower family was living in the household of Lulu’s parents and a few of her sisters. It looks like Lulu and her sister, Ella, were proprietors of a confectionary in St. Louis. William was an insurance salesman.

In the 1940 census, William Trower was called the head of the household and still working as an insurace salesman. Lulu was the operator of her own confectionary. Lulu’s father and sister, Ella, were living with the Trower’s.

The last census the public can view is the one taken in 1950. The Trower household consisted of William, Lulu, and Ella Kieninger, who was still single.

William Trower died in 1966 at the age of 79, three days short of his 80th birthday. His death certificate below says that he died at the Barnes Hospital in St. Louis and was buried on his birthday, January 8th. William’s usual occupation box says that he was a retired insurance agent.

Lulu Trower did not die until 1997 at the ripe old age of 101. That means Lulu was a widow for over 30 years. Both William and Lulu Trower are buried in the Memorial Park Cemetery in Jennings.

Lulu Kieninger was one of those women who found work in St. Louis early in her life, found her husband there, and lived in the big city of St. Louis for the rest of her life. In her case, it even looks as if her parents later followed her to St. Louis when they were in the last years of their lives. In fact, Lulu’s parents are buried in the same cemetery in which she is buried. The Trower’s and Kieninger’s lived not far from where I was born and raised in Jennings. I will also add that the “Wittenberg Cousins” who used to regularly gather in Altenburg, were descended from the Kieninger family. They would sometimes talk about a candy store in St. Louis. I figure that was the confectionary mentioned in this article.