Today would have been the 131st birthday of Dr. Edward Lottes, who served the East Perry County area as a dentist for over 50 years. He was born on February 1, 1886. Because he was in the profession of dentistry in an era when there was not much available to deal with the pain involved … More The Dreaded Doc Lottes
In the winter of 1967, the Journal of the Illinois Historical Society published an article titled, The Artist Gustav Pfau. This article included several drawings which were made by Gustav Pfau, one of the original members of the Gesellschaft. You can find a way to access this article at this link: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40190168?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Today’s date, January … More Wow! It’s Pfau
Recently, Trinity Lutheran Church in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis installed their new pastor, Rev. Joshua Hatcher. I do not know how many pastors have served this congregation over the years, but today I would like to focus on the first two. Yesterday, our blog post discussed the arrival of the Olbers in New … More Soulard Spiritual Shepherds
Today, our story begins with the birth of Arthur Kuehnert on January 7, 1888, but we will take that story back farther. Arthur was the great grandson of the Johann Christlieb Kuehnert, who brought his family to America in the 1839 immigration. Johann’s son, Johann Christian Kuehnert, is shown in the middle of the front … More Church Builders
The year was 1899. Three years earlier, William Drumtra’s wife, Mary (Mueller) Drumtra had died, leaving him with with four children, ages 15, 13, 7, and 3. Now on January 4th, William was getting married again, this time to Sarah Beyer, the daughter of Teacher Beyer at Trinity Lutheran School. Sarah was 23 years old … More A Man of Many Talents
The history of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg states that it was during the time when Rev. P. Roesener was their pastor that permission was given to have a Christmas tree placed inside the church sanctuary. Pastor Roesener served the church here in Altenburg from 1889-1901, so it was sometime during that era that Christmas … More ‘Tis the Season
Back when the Schirmer twins were born on December 5th, their Uncle Joe may have been snapping his fingers, saying, “Oh, so close. If they would have waited one more day, they would have shared my birthday.” The story of the twins was told yesterday….The Roller Mills of Rudy, Reinhold, and Martin. Joseph Holt was … More Uncle Joe
Today would have been the 130th anniversary of two orphans from Altenburg. On November 21, 1886, Henry Voerster married Katherine Roenn at Trinity Lutheran. Henry was the son of Friedrich and Anna Maria (Kaufmann) Voerster. This couple had been married at Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Louis in 1848. The pastor who performed the ceremony … More Orphan Marries Orphan
Anna Grother was born on this day, November 14th, in 1844. Her future husband, Conrad Seibel was born seven months earlier on April 27th. According to the church records of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, Rev. Gotthold Loeber was a busy man that year, baptizing 18 infants during 1844. This was one year before the … More Married to a Mail Carrier
One of the ways you can tell the date of the above photo is by noting that the railroad tracks are there. The Frisco railroad began operating in July of 1904. The building of the rails began a year or two earlier. One of things I find intriguing is the fact that while the railroad … More A Church and a Railroad Come to Wittenberg
