Today’s story begins with twin daughters being born on June 2, 1848, but we have to backtrack a little to set the scene. Below is the marriage record of Juliane Kuehnert and Johann Christian Friedrich Saalfeld on August 5, 1845 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. As near as I can tell, this was the … More Twins…..Only One Survives
It was a Tuesday. May 23, 1848 was going to be a special day in Altenburg. Their pastor’s daughter was going to get married. Not only that, she was going to marry another child of a pastor who had become a Lutheran teacher. The groom was Theodore Ernst Buenger. The bride was Martha Loeber. ***If … More A Loeber-Buenger Wedding
Maria Jahn was one of the first children to be baptized after the immigrants arrived in Perry County. She was born on this day, May 18, 1840. It is possible that this baptism may have taken place in the upper room of the Loeber parsonage which was where the Altenburg congregation held their services for … More When Did Jahn Schuessler Die?
Not long ago, we did a few blog posts concerning J.G. Hemman who fathered so many children. J.G. came to America with the Gruber group in December of 1839. There was another fertile father in the Gruber group. His name was August Friedrich Wilhelm Engert. I ran across his name today because his first wife, … More Another Fertile Father
One of the tragic stories of the 1839 immigration was the recording of numerous deaths that took place in the Schlimpert family during and not long after the journey to America. There were two Schlimpert families that traveled aboard the Copernicus, and the fathers of these two families are believed to have been brothers. They … More Early Schlimpert Deaths
Theodore Heinrich Carl Buenger was born on April 29, 1860 in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, Theodore Ernst and Martha (Loeber) Buenger, were married twelve years earlier in Altenburg, with Martha’s father, Rev. Gotthold Loeber, officiating the wedding. Theodore Ernst was a teacher and principal at Immanuel First Lutheran School in Chicago. Young Theodore became a … More President Buenger (1893-1927)
This story starts with the death of Emilie (Schuppan) Mueller on April 27, 1891 and backtracks to her birth in Frohna, Missouri in 1853. Emilie was born on September 26, 1853 to Adolph and Emilie Schuppan. The Schuppan family had actually been in America prior to the Saxon immigration to Perry County, but they found … More Building a Church and a Baby
At the beginning of the book which contains the first of the church records of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, you will find the Bible passage shown above. It is written in Rev. Gotthold Loeber’s handwriting. The passage comes from Psalm 85 verses 2-5. Here is a King James Version translation of that passage: “2 … More A Guilty Conscience?
April 9, 1817 was the birthday of Johanna Rosine Poppitz. She was born in the town of Seelitz in Germany. She and her family sailed to America aboard the Copernicus in 1838, arriving in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve. Her husband-to-be, Gottfried Noennig, traveled on the same ship. Their towns in Germany were 36 … More A Seelitz Wedding
A third artifact located at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg which came on the boats during the immigration is its baptismal tray shown above. As you can see, the tray in inscribed with the date 1838. It can be surmised that this tray was crafted specifically for the trip to America since that is the … More New Life – Easter Joy
