You will be reading a story today that is a bit different than usual. Instead of beginning with a date of birth or a wedding anniversary, this post had its beginning in a date that had to do with a fairly familiar building in this area. The sentences shown below refers to an event that took place on October 15, 1896 that is found in our German Family Tree.

“On 15 Oct 1896, Mary Magdalena Loebs sold her home in St Louis MO. In 1901, she built a new house next to the beer storage cellars in Wittenburg MO.  The house, recessed into a hillside, still stands today. It is located at 53 PCR 447, just south of the junction of PCR 444 & PCR 447 in Wittenberg MO, and is the only remaining house still standing in downtown Wittenberg MO.”

I must admit that this information piqued my interest because Mary Magdalena Loebs is a person found in my own family tree. I also have to admit that a few previous posts have already been written about Mary Magdalena Loebs. One in particular that connects Mary Magdalena to my family is the one titled, Three Generations of George Loebs. Ancestry.com calls her my great-grandaunt. I would probably prefer to call her my great grandfather’s sister. Since I have already dealt with her life before, today I am going to focus mostly on what took place later in Mary Magdalena’s life. I also plan to share some additional photos that can be found in a Loebs family binder that we have in our research library.

I will begin today’s story with an event that took place in 1883. It was that year that George and Magdalena Loebs moved their family to Wittenberg. In a history we have for the town of Wittenberg, it includes this paragraph about the Loebs couple. Mary Magdalena, who had been born and raised in Altenburg, was now back living in Perry County for a while.

George Loebs did not operate the brewery in Wittenberg for very long because he died in 1885, leaving Mary Magdalena as a widow. Apparently, Mary Magdalena would move back to St. Louis at some point after her husband’s death because the GFT entry shown above says she sold her home in St. Louis on today’s date, October 15th.

It took a few years before it was completed, but Mary Magdalena Loebs had a home built by 1901 in Wittenberg. In Mary Dillon’s Wittenberg book, we find this photo that includes the Loebs house. It is the white house partially hidden by trees on the right.

I will also mention that Mary Magdalena’s brother, my great grandfather, Gottwerth Schmidt, had his home in Altenburg not far from the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery. Here’s a fairly recent photo of that house.

I am not sure how long Mary Magdalena lived in the house she had built in Wittenberg. I know that she was found living in the Brazeau Township when the 1900 census was taken, but by the time of the 1910 census, she was living in the Byrd Township where her daughter, Bertha, was living. Bertha had married Charles Boehme and had a home in Jackson.

A few photos were taken of Magdalena later in her life. First, this photo was taken of Mary Magdalena Loebs with her older brother, Gottwerth Schmidt.

Three other photos have previously been displayed on this blog, but I am going to use ones that are found in the Loebs family binder that include some information about her. It says this first photo was taken when she was living with the Boehme’s in Jackson.

Here is a photo that includes Mary Magdalena and one of her granddaughters.

Here is a photo of just Mary Magdalena when she was much younger.

There is also a photo of the Loebs house in Witternberg in the Loebs family binder. It says this photo was taken back in 2006. I believe the Holley family was living in the house at that time.

After eating breakfast at Lindy’s Morning Table, I had the thought that I should include a present-day photo of the Loebs house for this post, so off to Wittenberg I went. Here are two photos of the Loebs house from different angles. I am sure that it was a magnificent house back in its heyday.

There are only two remaining buildings in the old town of Wittenberg from back in its early history. One of them is the Loebs house, and the other is the old post office. I took this photo this morning of that building.

If I was to speculate, I would say that the next building to float away in a flood would be the post office.

I thought I had published the gravestone photo for Mary Magdalena Loebs in a previous post, but I now do not think I have. It is shown here. She is buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg.