Today’s story has certain similarities with the one I wrote yesterday, Fred Rauh and His Bergmann and Schubert Wives. I even wrote the title for today’s story to match the one from yesterday. I have actually written part of this story in a previous blog post, Childless Couple Adopts. That post started from a different direction and the main characters in today’s post did not get much attention. I will begin this post by looking at the woman who ended up with Weber and Leimbach husbands.

Wilhelmina Pauline Hoffmann was born on August 28, 1871, the daughter of Charles and Mary (Mueller) Hoffmann. Wilhelmine was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. We can take a look at her baptism record from that congregation’s books here.

Wilhelmine is found in the 1880 census at the age of 9. Her father was a farmer in the Shawnee Township.

Wilhelmine got married before we can view her in another census entry, so we will now take a look at the man who would become her first husband. His name was Friedrich Wilhelm Herman Weber, who was born on July 8, 1858. Herman was the son of Charles and Fredericke (Giebner) Weber. That makes him what we call a “Ridge Weber”. Herman was also about 13 years older than Wilhelmine. Herman was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. We can view his baptism record below.

Herman is found in the 1860 census at the age of 2. His father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

Next, we find Herman in the 1870 census when he was 12 years old. The Weber family had added 4 more children in the previous decade.

The last census in which we find Herman as a single man is the one taken in 1880. His father had died in 1879, so his mother was the head of the Weber household. Herman and his older brother, Ferdinand, were doing the farming.

Herman Weber married Wilhelmine Hoffmann on October 24, 1889, so today would be this couple’s 137th wedding anniversary. They were married at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. The church marriage record for this occasion is pictured here.

I will also display 2 civil marriage records for this couple.

The photograph below was taken of the bride and groom.

Our German Family Tree and Family Search list 5 children born to Herman and Wilhelmine. They were all baptized at Immanuel, Altenburg. In the 1900 census, there were 4 children and 2 young farm laborers in the Weber household. Herman was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

When the 1910 census was taken, the Weber household included 4 children and a farm laborer named Herman Jungclaus. At this point, let me say the surname, Jungclaus, was another name commonly found on The Ridge.

Herman Weber died in 1917 at the age of 58. He is one of those rare people for which I was not able to locate a Missouri death certificate. I did locate this Perry County Sun obituary for Herman.

Wilhelmine would get married again in 1918. Her second husband was Charles Adolph Leimbach, whose wife, Clara, had died in 1916. Most of the early details of the lives of Charles and Clara can be found in the previous post mentioned earlier. The title of that post mentions that the Leimbach’s had adopted a child named John, but that youngster died as an infant. Charles Leimbach married Wilhelmine Weber on September 19, 1918 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. The church marriage record for this pair is shown here.

The Missouri marriage license for this pair is pictured here.

This wedding photo of Wilhelmine and Charles was already published in the previous post about them.

No more children were born to this couple, but when we see them in the 1920 census, they had an adopted child, George Leimbach, included in their household. I think this son was adopted by Charles and his first wife because George’s parents had died in 1911 and 1912. George became an orphan then, and was likely taken in and adopted not long after those deaths. By the way, George Jungclaus was a cousin of Herman Jungclaus who had once been a worker on Herman Weber’s farm.

The last census in which we find Charles and Wilhelmine is the one taken in 1930. They had an empty nest at that time. Their adopted son, George Jungclaus, was living with one of Wilhelmine’s Weber children, Otto, and doing farm labor. That Weber household was just 2 pages away from this entry, so George did not live very far away from his adoptive parents.

Wilhelmine Leimbach died in 1936 at the age of 64. Myocardiitis is given as her cause of death on the certificate below.

An obituary for Wilhelmine was printed in the Perry County Republican.

Charles Leimbach died 2 years later in 1938. He died of a stroke according to his death certificate below.

We can also read Charles’s Perry County Republican obituary.

Wilhelmine and both of her husbands are buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg.

Wilhelmine Hoffmann’s life took her from the Shawnee Township in northern Cape Girardeau County to The Ridge in Perry County. She also would become a member of two different Immanuel Lutheran Churches during her lifetime. She began at Immanuel, New Wells and ended at Immanuel, Altenburg. That is where she and her two Ridge husbands are buried.