Today’s post had its beginning when I discovered that a man from Staunton, Illinois married a woman in Friedheim. That man happens to be today’s birthday boy. The groom only shows up in our German Family Tree because of that Friedheim marriage record, and he then returns to his home, taking his bride with him after that wedding. I am going to begin this story with the bride because she was the one who has other church records in our GFT.

Augusta Catherine Wilhelmine Marie Wehmueller was born on November 27, 1861, the daughter of Henry and Wilhelmine (Stollen) Wehmueller. Augusta was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. We can view an image of that baptism record here.

Augusta is found in the 1870 census at the age of 9. Her father was a farmer in the Apple Creek Township.

Augusta was 18 years old when the 1880 census was taken.

Now, it is time to take a look at today’s birthday boy. His name was George Adler, who was born on September 23, 1856. That makes today his 170th birthday. George was the son of Jacob and Emily (Fischer) Adler. His birth took place in Staunton, Illinois. There is a Zion Lutheran Church in Staunton that was established even before the Missouri Synod was formed. If the Adler’s were Lutherans, then George’s baptism record is likely to be found in that congregation’s books. George is found in the 1860 census at the age of 4. His father was a farmer in Macoupin County, Illinois, which is where Staunton is located.

George was a teenager when the 1870 census was taken. H was helping his father on his farm. You can see that his father was originally from Switzerland, and his mother was from Hanover.

George is in one more census prior to his marriage. The 1880 census shows George, at the age of 24, along with his father, who were doing the farming together.

There are a few other Adler’s included in our German Family Tree, some which have connections to Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. One of the connections to that congregation is the fact the there was once a pastor who served that congregation for a few years around 1850 by the name of Rev. John Reissner. In 1850, Jacob Adler married Pastor Reissner’s sister, Catherine Reissner. In 1851, Rev. Reissner took a call to Zion Lutheran Church in Staunton. Pastor Reissner died later in 1851. Meanwhile, Jacob Adler’s first wife, Catherine, died in Staunton 1853, and Jacob then married George’s mother. I have to wonder if these Reissner/Adler connections may have been somehow related to George finding his wife in Friedheim.

Here is another factor that may have played into this scenerio. Another marriage took place in 1850. Rev. J.F. Buenger, one of the builders and teachers at the Log Cabin College, after his first wife died, then married Sophie Reissner, the sister of both Jacob Adler’s first wife, and Rev. John Reissner. Franz Julius Biltz had been a student of J.F. Buenger at the Log Cabin College. Now that Rev. Buenger was a pastor in St. Louis and Rev. Biltz was a pastor in Concordia, Missouri, maybe these two pastors played matchmakers by putting together George Adler from Staunton, Illinois with a Wehmueller girl from Friedheim.

The bottom line is that I do not know for sure how George Adler became acquainted with Augusta Wehmueller. What we do know is that this pair got married on November 9, 1884 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. We can take a look at this couple’s church marriage record below. This document says that George was from Staunton.

George and Augusta had one child, a son named Aaron, who was born in 1894. In the 1900 census, the Adler’s are found living in Staunton with their son and Augusta’s widowed mother, Wilhelmina Wehmueller. George had a confections business in Staunton.

Next, we find the Adler’s in the 1910 census with the same 4 people in their household as we saw in 1900. However, George had changed his occupation. This time he was a hardware merchant. His son, Aaron, was a hardware salesman.

When the 1920 census was taken, George was still in the hardware business, but his son was a clothing merchant.

The last census entry in which we find George was the one taken in 1930. At the age of 74, George still had the same job. He and Augusta had an empty nest.

George Adler died in 1932 at the age of 76, leaving Augusta as a widow. We can view a transcription of George’s Illinois death record below.

Augusta is found in the 1950 census living by herself in Staunton.

Augusta Adler died in 1941 at the age of 79. Her Illinois death record is displayed here.

George and Augusta Adler are each buried in the Staunton City Cemetery in Staunton.

I am thinking that there was once a building located in Staunton that housed the Adler Hardware Store. I wish I could show our readers a photo of it.