I ran across a marriage that took place on this day back in 1901 that involved two characters that show up occasionally in my Wittenberg ’03 book, so I decided to tell the story of that couple in today’s post. The marriage was between Theodore Militzer and Theodora Lueders. I am still away from Altenburg … More Theodore and Theodora
Today would have been my Grandma Schmidt’s 142nd birthday. On June 7th three years ago, I wrote a post about my grandmother titled, The Loebs-Schmidt Connection. I will try to avoid repeating a lot of the information that was found in that story, but I have located a few more photos and documents relating to … More Happy Birthday, Grandma Schmidt
In my own personal family tree, you will find a set of my great-grandparents who were made up of a Mueller man and a Theiss woman. One of their daughters, Bertha Mueller, went on to marry a Schmidt, and the rest is my history. In that same generation, there was yet another combination of one … More One of Those Theiss-Mueller Pairs
The main characters in today’s story are not of the variety that are normally highlighted on this blog. Because the history of East Perry County, Missouri is almost exclusively the history of a German Lutheran settlement in this area, almost all of the stories on the blog are about people of German origin. Not so … More Welcoming Non-Germans
You will discover today that the life of Elizabeth Amalie Burroughs was a struggle from the beginning to the end. During her life, she could have been called an orphan (or an abandoned child), a foster child, a divorcee, a mother of two sets of twins, and a widow. There is also some indication that … More Lisette’s Labored Life
I am sure most people can point to some aspect of their own childhood that helped prepare them for their future livelihood. I think one of today’s main characters was such a person whose childhood prepared her for her future as a housekeeper. Here is why. Selma Nennert grew up in a hotel/boarding house. She … More Selma’s Own Boarding House
There was a time around here when the name, Adolf, was pretty common. Not anymore. World War II and Adolf Hitler put an end to that name in America. However, today’s main character was born before that time, and he is today’s birthday boy. His name was Adolf Meyr. Adolf Meyr was the son of … More Adolf the Blacksmith
Today’s post once again sent me off on some more tangential research (down some extra rabbit holes). This time, I was off on a journey to learn the history of refrigeration and tractor trailers. I had actually done some of this research a while back on refrigeration when I was writing my Wittenberg ’03 book. … More George Gerhardt – From Blacksmith to Selling Refrigerators
You might think that I would write the first post for 2020 about some sort of new beginning. To a certain extent, that is the case, because we will be looking at a man who was born on the first day of 1890, making him today’s birthday boy. However, when you look at his life, … More An Electrifying End
A Christmas song asks the question, Mary, Did You Know? I have to ask the following similar questions of Mary Bretscher. Mary, did you know whether you were born on December 31st or January 1st? Mary, did you know whether you were born in 1844 or 1845? I have to ask these questions because we … More Mary, Did You Know….Your Birthday?
