Today’s story is packed full of names that had origins in Scheeβel, an area in Hanover in northern Germany. Many immigrants from Scheeβel arrived in Perry County, Missouri and Jackson County, Illinois in the mid-to-late 1800’s. The couple we will focus on today, for example, was made up of a Brunkhorst and a Mahnke. Other … More Several Scheeβel Surnames
I have been looking for an occasion to use the church records we now have in our research library from Zion Lutheran Church in Alva, Oklahoma. Thanks to Dale Kirmse, a good friend of our museum who has also been a guest blogger, we have these records now. Zion, Alva is one of those places … More Henry and His Little Angel
I put today’s mystery question in today’s title. Rosa Landgraf is today’s birthday girl….or is she? One birth date we have for Rosa was August 21, 1885. As we work our way through this story, we will find two other alternatives. Rosa was the daughter of Bernhard and Mary (Litzelfelner) Landgraf. She was baptized at … More When Was Rosa Born?
Whenever the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum receives a box with the return address of Alva, Oklahoma or Perryton, Texas my pulse quickens. Many of you know that I was raised in Kansas in the “Cherokee Neutral Lands” just two miles from the Oklahoma border in former “Indian Territory.” The incredible Rauh Sisters, of Alva, … More A Little Bit of Oklahoma
On November 12, 1889, Ernest Friedrich Karl Groh was born in Altenburg, Missouri. I have learned that you have to be careful when looking at the Groh family. There are plenty of men named Ernest and Friedrich and Karl (Carl) in that family. This one had all those names, but he would later mostly be … More Groh West, Young Man
Yesterday, one of the characters was Anna Lang. Not long after she arrived in America in 1840, her mother, Magdalena (Harz) Lang, died. Her father remarried. His second wife was Anna Marie Fassold, and she blessed John Lang, Sr. with 7 more children. The youngest of those children will be a major character in today’s … More Lang-Rauh Connections
Emma Hacker entered this world on July 18, 1880. Her parents, Johann and Anna (Hornberger) Hacker, took Emma to Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg to be baptized. When she was 21 years old, she married another young man who was a member of the Friedenberg church. His name was Martin Rauh. I don’t know if … More Martin Catches Emma – Later a Sooner
May 28th was the birthday of a tall Oklahoman by the name of Newton Amos Bodenschatz. He was not born in Oklahoma though. He was born into the family of a farmer from north Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. Newton was born in 1922 as the tenth child out of eleven to Herman and Rosa (Landgraf) … More Oklahoma Ground Sweethearts
Trinity’s Tischler told the story of Carl Groh, the Altenburg carpenter who was responsible for the construction of several items in Trinity Lutheran Church, such as their altar and baptismal font. These items are still very special to this church as they are used for the most important aspects of our Lutheran worship….Word and Sacraments. … More Groh-klahoma!
Today’s story begins with the birth of Laura Ottilie Mueller on December 3, 1883 in Altenburg. She was the daughter of Johann Ferdinand and Amalie (Theiss) Mueller. When she was 22 years old in 1906, she married Otto Schuessler at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. According to Trinity Lutheran Church records in Altenburg, MO, the … More A Perry County Suburb in Oklahoma
