A notable member of the 1839 Gesellschaft was named Agnes Buenger. She first married Rev. Otto Herman Walther, and after he died, she married Rev. Ottomar Fuerbringer. Agnes was also the brother of Rev. J.F. Buenger. Today, you will read the story of another Agnes Buenger. She will lead us to yet another Lutheran minister.

Agnes Amalia Dorothea Buenger was born on May 3, 1863, the daughter of Rev. Johann Friedrich (J.F.) and Johanna Sophia (Reissner) Buenger. Agnes was baptized at the church where her father was a pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Louis. Since some of that congregation’s books are now part of Ancestry.com’s Missouri Synod collection, I am able to display Agnes’s baptism record below.

If you look at the sponsors listed on the above images, you will see the name, Agnes Fuerbringer. She is the Agnes mentioned in the first paragraph, and apparently today’s Agnes was named after her. At the top of the sponsor list is the name, Johann Gottlob Walther. Johann is the only son from the marriage of the first Agnes Buenger and her husband, Rev. Otto Herman Walther. Agnes also must have gotten her other middle names, Amalia and Dorothea, from two other female sponsors.

Agnes is found in the 1870 census at the age of 7. Her father is called a minister in St. Louis.

Next, we find Agnes in the 1880 census at the age of 17. Please note that there is a woman named Monica Reissner listed in this household who is called a cousin. Monica would not have been Pastor Buenger’s cousin, but she would have been related to Agnes’s mother. I will refer to Monica later in this story.

Before I move on, let me display this photo of Agnes that I think was taken prior to her marriage.

I have no documentation to provide proof, but I think Agnes became a Lutheran school teacher after this census was taken and before she got married. The two photos below reportedly show Agnes with what appear to be quite a few students. One photo shows Agnes with the female students, and the other with the male students. I think you will agree that the woman in these photos is the Agnes Buenger shown in the photo above. As a former teacher myself, I am fascinated by these photos. Apparently, all of the students (and Agnes) were instructed to cross their arms and not smile. I can spot a few students in each photo that were having trouble with the instruction to not smile.

Agnes would get married during the 1880’s, so we will now take a look at the man who would become her husband. His name was Henry Herman Wind, who was born on November 10, 1862 in Germany. Henry was the son of Johann Conrad and Anna Elizabeth (Klein) Wind. Today would be his 164th birthday. When Henry was 17 years old, he came to America aboard the ship, Salier, in 1880. We can view him on that ship’s passenger list shown here.

Henry got here early enough in 1880 to make it into that year’s census. We find him in the Anthony Wind household and called Anthony’s brother. Both Anthony and Henry were called carpenters.

It must not have been long after this census that Henry attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis to study for the ministry. I have this suspicion that Henry may have been married to someone else before marrying Agnes. I will show a census entry soon that will show two children that were born prior to the year Henry and Agnes were married. It is possible that Henry may have become a pastor in Kansas for a short time before becoming a pastor in Millard, Nebraska, a municipality in the Omaha metropolitan area.

Henry Wind married Agnes Buenger on November 10, 1889 in St. Louis. Yes, that means he got married on his 27th birthday. It also means that today would be this pair’s 137th wedding anniversary. This couple was married at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. Their church marriage record is displayed here.

I am also able to show this St. Louis marriage record for Henry and Agnes. It says that Henry was from Douglas County, Nebraska, which is where Omaha is located.

This wedding photograph was taken of Henry and Agnes.

The first census entry we can view which contains this Wind couple is the one taken in 1900. In that entry, the Wind household contains 7 children. However, the two oldest children were born before 1889 when Henry and Agnes were married. The daughter named Anna, born in 1884, was said to be born in Missouri. The next child, Fritz, born in 1886, was born in Kansas. Had Henry gotten married in St. Louis, took a call to Kansas, and then made his way to Nebraska? I figure the first child born to Henry and Agnes was Henry, born in Nebraska in 1891. The others, starting with a child born in 1895, were born in Wyoming. Henry was a minister in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1900.

During the next decade, the Wind family made a move to Dolton, Illinois. Dolton is a municipality in the Chicago metropolitan area. The Wind household included 5 children, the last one being born in Illinois. Henry is called a clergyman.

Agnes Wind died in 1916 at the age of 52. All I found to describe her death is this Illinois death record which does not give a cause of death.

Agnes Wind is buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Chicago.

We find Henry as a widower when the 1920 census was taken. Three of his children were still living with him in Dalton, and he was still a Lutheran pastor.

During the next decade, Henry made another move. In the 1930 census, he was living in Buffalo, New York. He was still called a clergyman, but this entry says that he had another wife whose name was Alwine.

Let’s take a look at the woman who was Henry’s second wife. Her maiden name was Alwine Stevener, who was born on September 7, 1884 in St. Louis. Alwine was the daughter of John and Bertha (Leinhop) Stevener. Alwine is found in the 1900 census living in St. Louis with her parents at the age of 15. Her father was a food dealer. In parentheses, it says “Stevener Bros.”

The 1910 census says that Alwine was 25 years old and said to be a clerk in an office in St. Louis. She was still living with her parents. Her father was called a merchant.

The last census in which we find Alwine prior to getting married was the one taken in 1920. This is where it gets interesting. Alwine was living in the Henry E. Wind household. Henry E. was Rev. Wind’s nephew, and his wife was Alwine’s sister, Meta nee Stevener. Alwine was called a 35 year-old bookkeeper.

Rev. Henry Wind came back to St. Louis to marry Alwine Stevener on November 20, 1927 at Grace Lutheran Church in St. Louis. The church marriage record below says that Rev. Wind was from Buffalo, New York. The witnesses for this wedding were Henry E. and Meta Wind.

After getting married, Pastor Wind took his new wife with him to Buffalo, and we see how she ended up in the 1930 census shown earlier. Then, during the 1930’s, Henry and Alwine made their way back to St. Louis. They are found living in the Clayton neighborhood of that city, which is where Concordia Seminary is located. Henry, at the age of 74 was still called a minister. Living with them was Alwine’s single sister, Emily Stevener.

I located this photo of Rev. Henry Wind pictured behind a pulpit.

I also am able to display this photograph of Henry Wind and his wife. The place where I found this photo on Ancestry.com says that this is Henry and his first wife, Agnes, but I think it is more likely that it is his second wife, Alwine.

Henry Wind died in 1943 at the age of 80. Chronic myocarditis is given as his cause of death on the certificate below.

Alwine Wind died in 1959 at the age of 74. On her death certificate, we find Emily Stevener, her sister, as the informant. It also says that Alwine died at the Good Shepherd Nursing Home in Overland.

Rev. Henry and Alwine Wind are buried together in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in St. Louis.

Researching the life of Henry and Agnes Wind has helped me solve a mystery. In a previous post, I mentioned that Monica Reissner had made her way to Laramie, Wyoming to become a midwife. I could not figure out what prompted her to move to Wyoming. Now it makes sense that she would move out there when Pastor Henry Wind had taken a call to Cheyenne, which is just down the road from Laramie.

Agnes Buenger from St. Louis went “Gone with the Wind” to several locations during her life. After Agnes died, her husband came back to St. Louis again to find a second wife, and after their wedding, she was “Gone with the Wind” to Buffalo, New York. That couple then returned to their roots in St. Louis for their final years and are buried there. The Wind’s had gone, but the Wind’s returned.