I will begin today with a family photo that has shown up on this blog in several earlier posts. It shows the Traugott Kaempfe family. Let me quickly summarize the history of this Kaempfe family and its connection to the Gesellschaft. Johann Samuel Gottfried Kaempfe came to America aboard the Johann Georg in 1839. Below … More Carl from Millstadt
Lina Koenig was born on January 15, 1887 in New Wells, Missouri. She is today’s birthday girl. Her parents were Edward Wilhelm and Juliana (Reuschel) Koenig. We have these photos of Lina’s parents. Lina was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells. Below is her baptism record. When Lina was 19 years old, she … More Kaempfe-Koenig and the Farm near Frohna
December 11, 1836 was the birthday of Carl Gemeinhardt. As near as I can tell, he was the first of the Gemeinhardts to show up in the church books of East Perry County, Missouri. A buddy of mine from Memphis, Tennessee is Charlie Gemeinhardt, and he would call Carl his great grandfather. There is some … More Those Gemeinhardt-Fiehler Connections
Today’s story starts with a boy being born, but I find a few later events in the life of this boy’s family more fascinating. The place of birth for this baby was also not a typical one for a Perry County resident. He was born in Millstadt, Illinois. If you are a loyal reader of … More All I Got for Christmas Was 5 Stepsons
Normally you do not think that getting mangled as a good thing, but when William Kaempfe got “Mangeled”, I’m sure that he thought it was a wonderful thing. William was “Mangeled” when he married Anna Mangels in 1891. More on that later. William Kaempfe was born on November 7, 1868. Although William’s father was born … More A Mangeled Kaempfe
This record very early in the Trinity, Altenburg church books tells of one of the earliest births and baptisms to take place in Perry County after the original immigrants arrived. The baby being baptized was Traugott Gotthilf Kaempfe who was born on this day, August 10, in 1840. It is the name in the red … More Prof. Godfather
Otto Oswald was born on June 26, 1865 in Chester, Illinois. Anna Kaempfe was also born in Illinois. When she was born in 1875, her family was living in Millstadt, Illinois. However, when these two were married in 1893, their marriage took place in Frohna, Missouri because both of these families had moved to Perry … More An O-K Couple
When I write stories for this blog, it is usually about people who lived and died a long time ago. When I do research for these stories, it is actually easier to do so because there are privacy laws which protect the public from getting at more recent records. For example, the last Federal census … More Shorty and Leona
***Today’s blog post was written by Fred Eggers, one of the valuable members of our museum’s research crew. Fred is our local expert on the Farrar area, and he shares some of that knowledge in this post. Thanks, Fred. March 18, 1925 will always be remembered as the date of the Tri-State Tornado. A search … More A Tornado Tale of Two Towns
Here is our birthday girl for today. Her name was Louise Wilhelmina Kaempfe, and she was born on February 8, 1866. She is just a starting point for a story that involves several other members of the Kaempfe family. In 1885, she married Claus Stueve, Jr. We will get back to her. Louise’s younger brother, … More Kaempfe Tragedy….and a Tornado Too
