Gerard Fiehler likes to call me the “Mayor of Dresden” (there is no such position), and I like to call him the “Mayor of Altenburg” even though he isn’t. Today, I plan to tell the story of a man who I will call the “Mayor of Birmingham”. This Birmingham is not the one in England … More Mayor of Birmingham
Today would have been the 169th birthday of the first person with the surname, Lichtenegger, to settle in the Cape Girardeau/Perry County area. Joseph Lichtenegger was born on March 2, 1850 in Goisern, Austria. At the age of 16, he boarded a ship all by himself to come to America in 1866. He may have … More The Pioneer Lichtenegger
When I got in our car this morning and turned on the radio, the lyrics of the old Beatles song came on that said, “They say it’s your birthday. It’s my birthday too, yeah.” Those lyrics fit today’s story pretty well. You will discover the reason as you read on. Richard Schade was born on … More Schade’s Short-lived Schöne
In the process of researching a birthday boy today, I managed to solve a previous mystery that has been bugging me. The birthday boy was Friedrich Ludwig Gerler who was born on April 14, 1873. Since this is a Gerler, I must give a shout-out to Diane Anderson, one of the research rock stars from … More The Birner-Lehner-Landgraf-Gerler Web
Today’s story was inspired by a post that was placed on Facebook recently. That post was made by our friends at the Perry County Historical Society in Perryville. They posted a letter that was printed in the Perry County Republican on May 8, 1919 that was from Otto Gerler to his father in Altenburg. Before … More Life in a Hard Hat
In 1859, just a few years before the Civil War began, there was a marriage in Altenburg on October 2nd. Before that war came to an end, the groom went off to fight in that war. In fact, several members of the families of both the bride and the groom became involved in that conflict. … More German Civil War Soldiers
Wilson Gerler was born on July 13, 1909. His story is another one, like yesterday’s post, that includes dogs. For those of you that follow this blog and read it regularly, you may remember that in the history of East Perry County, there are two basic groups of Gerlers…..the Lake Gerlers and the Ridge Gerlers. … More The Dogs of War
July 9th was not only the birthday of Mathilde Gerler, it was her anniversary. She was born on July 9, 1882. Her birth record in the Immanuel Lutheran, Altenburg church records say that she was born in Friedland, which is another term for The Ridge. She was the daughter of Louis and Emma (Thurm) Gerler. … More Art and Tillie
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
The birthday girl today is a Boehme. I would describe her as a Farrar Boehme, as opposed to a Wittenberg Boehme. Her name was Ottelea Helene Boehme and she was born on April 21, 1880 and was baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar, Missouri. In 1902, at the age of 22, Ottelea married Herman … More More Ridge Gerlers
