Today’s birthday boy is a man named Joseph Wilhelm Reisenbichler, who was born on September 20, 1893. That would make today his 133rd birthday. William was the son of Gottlieb and Maria (Pilz) Reisenbichler. He was the last child born into that family. William was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. An image of his baptism record is displayed here.

William is found in the 1900 census at the age of 6. His father was a farmer in the Shawnee Township. William’s older brother, Christian, was mentioned in a post two days ago. He was the man who was a partner with Henry Putz in the undertaking business in Pocahontas.

A new Lutheran congregation officially began in Pocahontas in 1894, and William’s father was one of its charter members, as seen in a list of those church founders below. William was almost qualified to be one of the first baptisms at Zion Lutheran Church in Pocahontas. That was where William was confirmed in 1907.

William was a teenager when the 1910 census was compiled. He and another older brother were helping on their father’s farm. His mother had died in 1906, so his father was a widower.

William had his World War I draft registration completed in 1917. He is given a rural Jackson address and was farming for himself. It says he was born in Pocahontas.

William is found in the 1920 census as the head of a small Reisenbichler household. His father, at the age of 76, was no longer farming, so William was the only one in the household doing the farming. Along with his father, his older single sister, Bertha, was living with William.

William would get married toward the end of the next decade, so we will now take a look at the woman who would become his bride. Her name was Else Rosalie Emilie Bachmann, who was born on August 20, 1894. Her baptism record shown here spells her name as Else, but she would go by the name Elsie during her life, and that is the name on her gravestone. Elsie was the daughter of Joseph and Emilie (Schmidt) Bachmann. She was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. Her baptism record is pictured here. Elsie had 3 female baptism sponsors, and she ended up with 2 of their first names in her name, Rosalie and Emilie.

Elsie is found in the 1900 census at the age of 5. Her father was a farmer in the Apple Creek Township.

The photo below of the Joseph Bachmann family was supposedly taken in 1897, but I know it must have been taken in the 1900’s. The youngest child in the picture, Leah, was born in 1899. Elsie is standing on the far left.

Elsie was a teenager when the 1910 census was taken. She had been confirmed at Grace, Uniontown in 1908.

Elsie was still single when the 1920 census was taken. Her father had died in 1915, so Elsie’s brother, Enos, was the head of the Bachmann household. The household also included Elsie and two of her sisters, as well as her mother. Elsie is called a servant who was working out, which means she may have been a housekeeper for a different family.

William Reisenbichler married Elsie Bachmann on January 1, 1929 at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. We can view their church marriage record below.

I will also display 2 other civil records for this wedding. All of these marriage records indicate that William was from Pocahontas.

When the 1930 census was taken, we find this couple living in the Shawnee Township. They had yet to have any children, and William was farming.

In 1930, plat maps were produced for Cape Girardeau County. The William Reisenbichler farm was located south and east of Pocahontas, not far from the village of Leemon.

This Reisenbichler pair had 2 daughters. In the 1940 census, we find William, Elsie, and those 2 daughters, Delores and Lorna.

William Reisenbichler died in 1946 at the age of 53. Myocarditis was given as his cause of death on his death certificate.

An obituary for William was published in the Cash Book Journal.

Elsie is found as a widow in the 1950 census. She was living with her 2 teenage daughters. Her daughter, Delores, was a typist at the county recorders office.

Elsie was likely included in 3 more census entries, but those are not made public yet. Elsie died in 1982 at the age of 87, too recently to view her death certificate. William and Elsie Reisenbichler are each buried in the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Pocahontas.

Most of the married couples that are characters on this blog spend some of their lives as single people and most of their lives being married. As far as William was concerned, he only lived about 1/3 of his life as a married man. Elsie, on the other hand, only lived about 1/5 of her life with a husband. My wife reminded me the other day that it will not be long before I will be married as long as I was a single man. I did not get married until I was 39 years old, and we have now been married a bit over 37 years. When we celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in a few years, I suppose I should celebrate the fact that I will then have lived longer as a married man than as a single one.