cording to our German Family Tree, eleven children were born to Oswald and Augusta (Pfeiffer) Haertling, and the first 10 of them were boys. It is reminiscent of the 9 boys that were born into a Dietrich family in Altenburg that were called the Altenburg Giants in a previous post. You will be reading about … More One of the Haertling Boys
Herman Gottlieb Gustave Pfeiffer was born on November 26, 1890, making him today’s birthday boy. He would have had to blow out 131 candles on his cake if he was still alive today. Herman was the son of Herman and Louise (Klaus) Pfeiffer. I’m not exactly sure if he is a genuine Herman, Jr., but … More Herman and Hilda
I will begin with a discussion of German words today. The word, grosse, in German can be translated to the word large in English. I also found evidence that the German surname, Pfeiffer, can be translated as fifer, one who plays the fife. When I think of a fife, I think of a fife and … More Grosse Pfeiffer
I am going to tell the story of a man who may have been born on this day back in 1838. Or maybe he wasn’t. This is another one of those situations where there are different birthdays recorded for a person from different sources. In this case, there appears to be a dispute between the … More Governor’s Great Grandpa
Today’s birthday girl will marry a man who was shown as Alwin Koenig on several documents, but was buried as Alvin Koenig. I think the change was likely due to how Germans pronounce the name Alwin. The “w” in German is mostly pronounced like Americans pronounce a “v”. So, if someone asked Alwin for his … More Alwin (Or Is It Alvin) Koenig
The birthday of a girl in St. Louis is the starting point for today’s tale. Emilie Christiane Happel was born on July 30, 1858, the 8th child of William and Christiane (Kuehn) Happel. Her parents were both original members of the Gesellschaft in 1839. The marriage of Emilie’s parents took place on the day when … More Theodore and His Two St. Louis Wives
The story I tell today has very little connection to our German Family Tree, and today’s birthday boy did not even live till his 25th birthday. Yet, I’m anxious to tell this tale. It involves telling the story of some of the very first families to occupy areas of Perry and Ste. Genevieve Counties. When … More Death of a Doughboy
Today was the wedding day for Oswald and Gustav. That may seem quite unusual, but for some reason not known to me, Augusta Pfeiffer became known as Gustav, a name almost exclusively associated with men. A family history on Ancestry.com refers to Augusta as “Gustav”. Today would have been the 123rd anniversary for Augusta and … More Oswald and Gustav Haertling
Yesterday’s story about the Jolley Boys Band was a pretty uplifting type of post. Today’s is not. However, there is something similar about yesterday’s blog and today’s. In both cases, the story started with a photograph. Yesterday, a photograph showing a bunch of young men in a band clowning around just had to be used. … More Not Such a Jolly Band
As I usually do, I did start today by finding an event that occurred on this date, but in the process, I ran across the following photo. It shows the Jolley Boys Band of Pocahontas, Missouri. To me, this picture was just irresistible. I just had to do this story just so I could post … More The Jolley Boys
lutheranmuseum.com 