Maria Louisa Dambach was born on August 2, 1859, thus qualifying her to be today’s birthday girl. Today would be her 167th birthday. Mary was the daughter of Jacob and Magdalena Dambach. Almost all family trees on Ancestry.com give Mary’s mother’s maiden name as Pope, and that is what we will see on Mary’s death certificate. However, Family Search gives her maiden name as Bub. Mary was the last child born into a very large Dambach family. A few of Mary’s siblings were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim, but Mary’s is not found there. In the 1860 census, Mary is found at the age of 1. Her father was a farmer in the Apple Creek Township.

When the 1870 census was taken, Mary was 11 years old.

The 1880 census was the last one in which we find Mary before she got married. She was the last of the Dambach children to be still living with her parents.

Mary would get married a year later, so we will now take a look at the man who would become her husband. His name was Charles Friedrich Dickmann, who was born on April 27, 1853. Charles was the son of Friedrich and Wilhelmina (Grossheider) Dickmann. Like was the case with the Dambach’s, a few of the Dickmann’s were baptized at Trinity, Friedheim, but not all of them, and Charles’s baptism record is not one of them to be found there. Charles is found in the 1860 census at the age of 7. His father was a farmer in the Apple Creek Township.

I failed to locate this Dickmann family in the 1870 census. So, the next census I can display which included Charles is the one taken in 1880, the year before he got married. He was 27 years old at the time, and he and his father were both called farmers.

Charles Dickmann married Mary Dambach on March 13, 1881. I am not sure where this couple was married, but my best guess is that they were married at the Arnsberg Lutheran Church. We can view 2 marriage records below from Cape Girardeau County.

According to our German Family Tree, Charles and Mary had 10 children. When their first 2 children were confirmed, their confirmation records at Trinity, Friedheim state that these 2 were born in Arnsberg. They were likely baptized at Arnsberg Lutheran Church. The rest of the Dickmann children were baptized at Trinity, Friedheim. Because we cannot view the 1890 census, by the time we find the Dickmann’s in the 1900 census, they already had quite a full household. There were 9 children in this list, along with Charles’s mother. As you can see, most of the Dickmann children were females. Charles was a farmer in the Apple Creek Township, along with the help of one of his sons.

One more child was born into this family in 1902, yet another daughter. When the 1910 census was taken, there were 7 children in the Dickmann household, only one of them being a son. That son was helping on his father’s farm.

Charles Dickmann’s life came to a tragic end in 1912. He was 58 years old when he died. His death certificate below says a fall from his barn led to his death.

An obituary for Charles was published in the Perry County Sun.

Mary Dickmann is found as a widow in 3 more censuses. In the 1920 census, Mary was the head of the household and living with her son, Arthur, who had married Hulda Springer, and their son. Mary and Arthur were both called farmers.

In the 1930 census, Mary was once again called the head of the household. This time, she was living with her daughter, Ida, who had married Edgar Klaus. Edgar had died of pneumonia in 1925, so Ida was also a widow. Ida’s daughter, Laverne, was also in the household. No one in the household had an occupation. I will say that Edgar’s brother, Norbert, and his family look like they were neighbors of Mary.

The last census in which we find Mary was the one taken in 1940. The same trio of characters we saw in the previous census are in this entry. Mary was 80 years old at the time.

Mary Dickmann died in 1943 at the age of 84. Her death certificate gives the main cause of her death to be pneumonia. She died 3 days after her 84th birthday.

I found an obituary for Mary that was printed in the Cash Book Journal. It says she spent her last 3 years in Perryville.

Both Charles and Mary Dickmann are buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Friedheim.

Mary spent just over 30 years as a widow. This Dickmann family takes up 5 pages in our German Family Tree. If this couple had not had almost all daughters, their family would have taken up many more pages. I find it interesting that 2 of the Dickmann daughters married men named Sewing, 2 other daughters married men named Ruesler, and 2 other daughters married men named Klaus. You don’t see that every day.