A Christmas song asks the question, Mary, Did You Know? I have to ask the following similar questions of Mary Bretscher. Mary, did you know whether you were born on December 31st or January 1st? Mary, did you know whether you were born in 1844 or 1845? I have to ask these questions because we … More Mary, Did You Know….Your Birthday?
One hundred sixty-four years ago, a wedding took place in Frohna, Missouri with Ernst Eduard Burkhardt as the groom and Johanna Schuessler as the bride. The wedding took place on September 6, 1855. Both the bride and the groom had come to America aboard the same ship in 1839, but they were both young children … More Ernst Eduard’s Women
Today would have been the 162nd anniversary of Paul Martin and Anna (Lange) Estel. They were married at Old Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis on June 7, 1857. We have this marriage record, although it is just an entry in an Excel worksheet. I chose to write this story for a variety of reasons. … More Estel & Lange
Christian Gottlieb Augustin was one of the original immigrants who was part of the Gesellschaft in 1839. When he arrived in America, he was just 19 years old, and he came by himself. We see him on this passenger list from the ship, Olbers. Christian joined the immigrants who came to Perry County, and he … More An Original Cartwright
I have mentioned before that I do not often look at dates of death when locating stories to tell on this blog, but today is such a case. In fact, for the individual we will look at today, the death record is all we have. We do not know a birth date, a wedding record, … More The Oldest Immigrant
I do not have much time for writing today, but I am going to attempt to complete a quick post. I will tell the story of some of the first Fischers who arrived in Perry County in 1839. Normally, I focus on a more joyful event like a birth or a wedding, but today, it … More A Few of the First Fischers
Two hundred fifteen years ago, Ferdinand Boehlau was born in Leipzig, Germany. His birthday was September 16, 1803, just a few months after the official announcement of the Louisiana Purchase. Ferdinand would end up living in a portion of that land acquisition because he became part of the Gesellschaft that arrived in Missouri in 1839. … More Lutheran Hall of Fame Sponsors
May 30th and May 31st are infamous days in the history of the German immigration to Perry County which took place in 1838-1839. These are the days when the leader of the Gesellschaft, Rev. Martin Stephan, was found guilty of several charges and then sent into exile in Illinois. It is a story that is … More Exiled to the Devil’s Bake Oven
During the fall of 1839, not long after the original group of immigrants first arrived in Perry County, another group of German Lutherans were boarding a ship in Germany to join them. In fact, this new group was boarding one of the same ships that had brought a load of passengers to America in late … More Gruber Group Getaway
Today’s title is a mouthful in the German language. Auswanderungs-Gesellschaft is a German term that gets translated as “emigration society” in English. I have often used the scaled-down version of this term, Gesellschaft, in several posts when describing the basic group that consisted of the immigrants, their leadership, and the way they were governed and … More Auswanderungs-Gesellschaft
