I ran across the fact that a couple found in our German Family Tree were married on this day back in 1841. While researching this couple, I discovered that I have already written the story of another couple who were married on that date at the same church, In other words, there was a double wedding on that date. In the course of looking at the civil records for those weddings, I found an additional tale to tell in this post. I will briefly tell the story of the other couple involved in that double wedding today and then veer off to tell the story about another man who was not even a Lutheran.

First of all, if you would like to read the story of the other couple married on November 14, 1841, it was titled, My Darling, Clementine. I just want to add that the bride in that tale was Clementine Buenger, part of the 1839 Gesellschaft. She also shows up as a character in my book, Mama Buenger: Mother of a Synod. She would marry a shoemaker from St. Louis named Gottlob Neumueller. When Clementine first arrived in Missouri, she and the Buenger family lived on the land where the Log Cabin College was built. By 1841, her mother had moved her family to St. Louis.

The other wedding that took place on November 14, 1841 was one that united Heinrich Wilhelm Boettcher and Susanne Meyer. Henry was also one of the original immigrants who came as part of the Stephanites in 1839. He came by himself aboard the ship, Olbers. We can see his name on the passenger list for that ship shown below.

In the book, Zion on the Mississippi, we find Henry listed among the passengers who came to America. Like Gottlob Neumueller, Henry was a shoemaker. Gottlob Neumueller was also a passenger on the Olbers.

On an image showing Gottlob on the Olbers passenger list, we see that he was also from Dresden. Henry and Gottlob were also about the same age.

Henry Boettcher married Susanne Meyer (not a Gesellschaft passenger) on the same day as the Neumueller/Buenger wedding. Based on facts already displayed in this post, I have to think that Henry and Gottlob, the two grooms, were likely friends already before coming to America and may have decided to get married on the same day because of their friendship. Below, you can see the transcription of these two marriage records found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. The two records are found right next to each other. I have to display these records in 2 images.

I will point out a few things seen in these images. Both of the grooms were shoemakers, but the person listed right above these two men was another groom who was called a shoemaker, Johann Friedrich Scheel, who also came to America as part of the Gesellschaft. Quite a while ago, I wrote another post about the early immigrants titled, Too Many Shoemakers…..Not Enough Feet. Also, the above records say that these weddings took place in public in the church. In 1841, Trinity Lutheran Church had not yet built its first church, and they were holding services in Christ Episcopal Church in St. Louis. Now, I will display the civil St. Louis marriage records for this double wedding. They, too, are one right above the other on the page where they were recorded.

First of all, on the above records, you can see that the pastor who officiated at their weddings was Rev. C.F.W. Walther. Pastor Walther was a newlywed himself when he married these two couples. He has a marriage record in the Trinity, St. Louis books even though he got married in Perry County. The above records from that set of books were #39 and #40. Rev. Walther’s record was #36. And let’s not forget that Rev. Walther married Clementine Buenger’s sister, Emilie. That record in Trinity’s books says that they were married in Dresden, Missouri, which is where C.F.W. was living in Perry County before he moved up to St. Louis in April of 1841. The Log Cabin College was also located in Dresden, and since there was no church built in the Dresden community, it is possible that the wedding of C.F.W. Walther and Emilie Buenger took place at the Log Cabin College which would later be identified as Concordia Seminary.

Christiane “Mama” Buenger must have moved her family up to St. Louis at about this time also. She had a home built on Lombard Ave., and in 1842, the first church building for Trinity, St. Louis was built across the street from the Buenger house. The Buenger home basically became the parsonage for Trinity because C.F.W. Walther and his bride would live in that house for several years. Below is a drawing of Mama Buenger’s house along with the first church of Trinity, St. Louis that was drawn by another early Lutheran pastor, Rev. Friedrich Lochner. I used this drawing on the cover of my “Mama Buenger” book.

Let’s return to the Boettcher story again. Hardly anything can be found about Susanne Meyer except for the fact that her father was Peter Meyer, and after their marriage, Susanne died in 1843. Henry got married again in 1844 to a woman named Maria Alt. That wedding would have taken place in the Trinity church sanctuary shown in the above drawing. Then Henry Boettcher died in 1848 at a fairly young age. I am going to abandon his story at this point because I want to switch over to talk about the gentleman who was not a Lutheran.

I just want to interject one more thing before I make the switch. In 1849, Concordia Seminary was moved from Altenburg to St. Louis, and after having classes held in the Buenger house for a short while, they built school on South Jefferson Avenue that became the next location for Concordia Seminary. That 1850 building is shown here. C.F.W. and Emilie Walther also called this building their home for a while.

Now, I want you to look once again at the image of the double wedding civil records shown earlier. I highlighted the name of the man who recorded those documents. His name was Julius DeMun. At this point, let me say that when I lived in St. Louis as a child, I got used to people saying that Concordia Seminary was located at 801 DeMun Avenue. Not that long ago, in 2004, the address for Concordia Seminary was officially changed to 801 Seminary Place. However, I will probably always think of their location to be on DeMun Avenue. That’s why I was attracted to the name, Julius DeMun on the above marriage records. He was quite an amazing guy. I will just highlight a few things that took place in his life.

Julius DeMun was born in 1782 in Port au Prince, which is now the capital city of Haiti. After a series of events and living in different locations, Julius made his way to Ste. Genevieve and later to St. Louis. It was there that Julius became a partner with some other rather famous St. Louis characters named Auguste and Pierre Chouteau. I found this paragraph in a bio for Julius DeMun which tells of his adventures going on an expedition to Santa Fe and Chihuahua.

After returning to St. Louis, Julius bought a coffee estate in Cuba and lived there for about 10 years. He then returned to St. Louis as a rather rich and famous person who eventually became a recorder of deeds. Julius also purchased a rather large piece of land in what would become known as Clayton. Julius died in 1843, not long after he recorded the marriage records for today’s characters. Later, 21 acres of the DeMun property were sold to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the construction of a new campus for Concordia was begun. Concordia Seminary’s campus, which was dedicated in June of 1926, recently celebrated their 100th anniversay of existence in Clayton. As said before, the original address was on a street named after Julius DeMun.

Just this past Thursday, I attended a dinner on that campus of Concordia Seminary. The dinner was held in one of the original 1926 buildings, Koberg Hall. A photo of that hall, which was one of the original dining halls for Concordia Seminary, is displayed here.

On our way through Clayton, we crossed DeMun Avenue, which sparked my memory of the 801 DeMun Avenue address. Now that I have seen the DeMun name on the 1841 marriage records, I know a lot more about the man who recorded those documents.

Now, I have been able to tell the story of how the DeMun name really has a connection to all of the sites at which Concordia Seminary has been located throughout its history. From the Log Cabin College on the Buenger property (which is also the property that I now own), to the second site on South Jefferson, to its present location in what is even now known as the “DeMun Neighborhood”, we can see how the name DeMun has been interconnected with the history of Concordia Seminary.