Back in 2017, I wrote a post about a man named Martin Bellmann titled, Pound the Hammer, Ring the Bell, Bang the Drum. That post mentioned that Martin got married 4 times. His 4 wives were named, in chronological order, Emma Heitmann, Martha Lohmann, Concordia Boehme, and Martha Grebing. Today’s birthday girl is Martin’s 4th … More Martin Bellmann’s 4th Wife – and 2nd Martha
Gladys Engert was one of our museum’s beloved docents who served us for a lot of years. It is hard to believe that she died almost 5 years ago. Today, you will read this post about her parents. This story begins with our birthday girl, who Gladys would have called “Mom”. Here is a picture … More Gladys Engert’s Mom and Dad
Back in 2022, I wrote a story titled, The Trinity, Friedheim Sewing Circle, which highlighted a very large family with the name Sewing. The father in that family was a man named Henry Frederick Sewing. Our German Family Tree lists 12 children born into this Sewing family. Just one of those children died as an … More Henry J. Sewing – Son of Henry F. Sewing
Rev. Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther, the first president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, had his beginnings while in America in Perry County, Missouri. Then, he moved to St. Louis where he spent the rest of his life. We often use a shortened form of his name when we talk about him…C.F.W. Today, you will read … More Another C.F.W. in St. Louis
On this past February 12th, I wrote a post about one of the pair of twins that were born on that date back in 1886. That post was Schamburg Filling Station in Perryville. Today, because his wife is today’s birthday girl, you will read the story of the other Schamburg twin. The last February 12th … More The Other Schamburg Twin
I saw the surnames, Funke and Ochs, show up in a search for an event that took place on January 28th. My immediate thought was that I had already written a post about this pair. I figured it would be a good story for this blog, but I thought it was also a done deal. … More A Funke-Ochs Longtown Duo
I will be attempting to tell the story of Levi Myers today. He came to my attention because one of his wives is found in our German Family Tree, and she is today’s birthday girl. She will appear later in this story. Levi Melly Myers was born on September 3, 1881, the son of Frank … More The Levi Myers Story, Featuring Etta, Millie, Tillie, Daisy, and Maybe Louisa
Today’s birthday boy has a fairly common Perry County surname, Fischer, but I found no connection to others with his surname in this area. However, his mother was a Grebing from Perry County and his parents were married here. That is how he makes it into our German Family Tree. Jacob Henry Fischer was born … More Jacob Fischer – St. Louis House Builder
I will be telling a Farrar story today, but it will not be about the village of Farrar. It will be about the surname, Farrar. Actually, if you read about the history of the village of Farrar, you will discover that the village was named after someone with the surname, Farrar. However, this tale begins … More Faraway Florida Farrar’s
The birthday girl for today is a woman named Edna Aurelia Schoen. Edna was definitely born on November 17th, but it is debatable whether she was born in 1895 or 1896. Our German Family Tree gives her birth year as 1895, which would indicate that she would be celebrating her 130th birthday today, but after … More Eberhard and Edna – Pocahontas Ruehling’s
