Today’s birthday boy is John Charles Boxdorfer, who was born on April 29, 1871. I have seen him called John C., J.C., and John Charles in documents. His gravestone calls him J. Charles. I choose to call him Charles, partly because I have already written a post about a John Boxdorfer. I think in his … More Tombstone Trader
You are about to take a trip back in time, starting in St. Louis, and proceeding to New Wells, Frohna, and Seelitz in Missouri and Horse Prairie in Illinois. The Missouri and Illinois settings have the common thread of Rev. Martin Stephan. All of those places are connected to Diane Guelzow, whose husband’s family roots … More Acts of God – Part 3
Heinrich Carl Mehner was born on March 28, 1872, making today his 149th birthday. I will attempt to tell his story today. The Mehner family had arrived in this area in 1840, then not long after their arrival, Henry’s father was born in 1843. The Mehner family lived in a variety of townships in Perry … More Mehner Merchants
Adam Knoll was born on December 18, 1871, making today his 149th birthday. Adam was the son of John Nicholas and Katherine (Herman) Knoll. This Knoll family’s records are found in the Peace Lutheran Church, Friedenberg book. You may recall that this congregation’s original church records were destroyed in a fire, and a good reconstruction … More Perryville Butcher
Today would have been the 121st birthday of Paula Grebing who was born on August 19, 1896. She was the daughter of Martin and Emma (Richter) Grebing. Martin delivered mail in the Wittenberg area for a while. This is a photo of the Martin Grebing family when Paula was a child. Paula is the girl … More Joining the Herm Thurm Firm
Today, I’m going to talk about fashion. That’s right…..fashion. Those folks who know me well, will tell you that I generally do not give a hoot about fashion. Fashion is certainly not my bailiwick. However, I have discovered that whenever I write for this blog, I am in the business of learning something new. Each … More Buttoned at the Top (Updated)
Herman Benjamin Kuntze is today’s birthday boy. He was born on July 30, 1885. Herman’s parents were Wilhelm and Susanna (Grosse) Kuntze. His father was a shoemaker in Altenburg who had come to America around 1870 with his first wife, Wilhelmina, who died in April of 1877. Wilhelm remarried later that same year in October … More Shoemaker to Carpenter
Two marriages are recorded in the Trinity Lutheran Church records for July 26, 1891. I will focus most of this post’s attention on one of them, but the other one brings up some interesting questions. That marriage is the one between Herman Foelber and Ida Bischoff. The church record and the Missouri marriage license that … More Teacher Foelber
I will start today’s post by sharing images of two census records from 1850. Both of them are from the city of St. Louis, Missouri. First, we have this one: Then this one: Both of these records are, as the title suggests, not as they seem. The top record seems to be Frederick Schuricht’s family … More Not What They Seem
The Herman Weber family has reunions at the old family place outside Frohna on a fairly regular basis. At one of those gatherings, the family had a booklet printed which related the history of this Weber family. Yesterday I wrote about Teacher Brockmann at Grace Lutheran School in Uniontown who was from West Point, Nebraska. … More As For Me and My House….
