A baby was born on this day in the Seelitz community in 1860. This baby’s birth will enable me to tell the tale of several very interesting couples that managed to find each other during the early days of East Perry County history. First of all, some of the details of this story have already … More Seelitz Sweethearts
Walter “Junior” Doering is one of our museum’s faithful supporters. He lives in Kentucky, but he and his wife often stop by the museum when they are in the neighborhood. Once a year, he shows up in town for the annual Boehme reunion. Today’s post will give the reason that he comes for that event. … More Junior’s Mom and Dad
Today would have been the 85th anniversary of Oscar and Lorna (Schmidt) Schlimpert. I called them Uncle Ossie and Aunt Lorna. Here is the marriage license for this couple. Several posts have been written about people in this Schlimpert family. Oscar was the son of Jacob and Caroline (Boeger) Schlimpert. In fact, Oscar was the … More Uncle Ossie – Aunt Lorna
Today would have been the 133rd birthday of Paul Theodore Mueller. His story drew my attention for a variety of reasons. One of the facts about his life was that he and his wife had six children…all girls. I helped raise three girls myself. There were times when they drove me nuts. Poor Theodore had … More Six Pack of Mueller
The story today begins aboard the Copernicus on its voyage to America and ends in a popcorn stand in Collinsville, Illinois. It involves several people and places in between. We find three Lorenz siblings listed on a passenger list of the ship, Copernicus. There was an older brother, Johann Gottlieb, and his two younger sisters, Johanne … More Gottfried’s Popcorn Stand
In the German language, the word kühn means “bold” or “daring”. There were two surnames in the Gesellschaft that contained kühn, Kühn and Kühnert. As time went by, many German names containing an umlaut had that umlaut eliminated and replaced by putting an “e” after the vowel with the umlaut. So these two surnames became … More The Bold Immigrants
I do not usually look for stories that are associated with a death, but I was attracted to today’s situation anyway. A girl who was originally named Hannah Bollefer happened to die on this day in 1974. The tale of that girl entering the Perry County community is the starting point to tell several other … More It Started with an Apple
Two brothers, both shoemakers, were part of the Gesellschaft that came to America in 1838-1839. They were the Richter brothers from Kolkau, Germany. They came to America aboard the Copernicus. Here we see these two brothers shown on the passenger list of that ship. You can find Kolkau on the map below. It is one of the … More A Capital Wedding
One hundred twenty-nine years ago today, Sarah Mathilda Poppitz, known as Tillie, was born. She was baptized eleven days later on Reformation Day in 1888. Tillie’s parents were Carl Ferdinand and Ernstine (Oehlert) Poppitz. She was the fourth child born into this family. Unfortunately, two of those children died at very young ages. Amazingly, one … More Gust and Tillie – A Father’s Day Edition
One of our museum’s most faithful out-of-town visitors is affectionately called “Junior” by his friends and family. His given name is Walter Doering, and since his father also carried the same name, that makes him “Junior”. Note: Around here this name is pronounced “Daring”. Today’s story is about Junior’s grandpa, whose name was Wilhelm Gustave … More Junior’s Grandpa
