The birthday girl for today is Josephine Caroline Oberndorfer, who was born on March 21, 1886. Josephine was the daughter of August and Wilhelmine (Ruehling) Oberndorfer. She was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. For some reason, family trees on Ancestry.com say that Josephine’s middle name was Pauline, and even her gravestone says she … More Josephine and Alfred – Kansas City Weaver’s
When I began doing research about early characters in Perry County Lutheran history after I retired, I discovered how often that Lutheran pastors who would find their wives in the families of other Lutheran pastors. So often, I found Lutheran pastors who married the daughter of another Lutheran pastor. Then, as Lutheran teachers became trained, … More Pastor’s Son Marries Pastor’s Daughter
In recent months, I seem to be running into quite a few life stories in which a main character had their baptism record in our German Family Tree, but that turned out to be the only church record to be found there. That boy or girl, at a very young age, moved elsewhere. Just yesterday, … More Minnie Finds a Schell in Deepwater
You are about to read another story of a few Perry County natives who would spend their early years here but left to live most of their lives elsewhere. In the case of today’s couple, they made their way all the way to the West Coast. Even though both the husband and wife in today’s … More Fred Goller – Goodyear Tin Man
There are so many stories about Perry County natives who went on to become pastors and teachers in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. I have written plenty such stories on this blog, but apparently I have not come to the end of the list of people who fit this category. I will share the story of … More Rev. W.T. Goehring – Midwest Minister from Frohna
Yesterday’s post about William Timmermann could be referred to as an “outsider” entering the realm of our German Family Tree. Some surnames in that document take up pages and pages. And there are other surnames that show up as pretty lonely entries. You will be reading the story of another one of those “outsiders”. For this post, I had … More Another “Outsider” Enters Perry County
The birthday of a girl born in St. Louis is the starting point for today’s post. That girl would go on to marry a Perry County man who became a Lutheran pastor who eventually made his way back to Perry County. Magdalene Julia Emm Spilker was born on June 17, 1898, so today would be … More Rev. “Kit” Weinhold – Youngest of the Miller Bros. Kids
Robert Bruno Constantine Nennert is today’s birthday boy. He was born on Groundhog Day, February 2, 1898, so that makes today his 125th birthday. By the way, the first Groundhog Day took place in 1887, before this birth. Early in his life, we see him called Bruno, but later, he took on the name, Robert. … More Bruno, the Baker and Milkman
I am going to tell the story of a man by the name of August Schirmer today because he is a birthday boy, but in the course of researching his story, I discovered that his mother had the same date of birth. Hermine Ida Petzoldt was born on January 20, 1839 in Germany. Then, after … More Schirmer’s Share Birthday
I have the privilege today to write the real story of a couple of individuals that are main characters in my two books, Wittenberg ’03: Coming of a Church and Wittenberg ’04: Coming of a Railroad. These two are Laura Gemeinhardt and Teacher Richard Kalbfleisch. The story of this couple is one that inspired me … More Wittenberg Characters
