Maria Landwehr Biography
Maria Landwehr's new life in America initially may not have been as happy as she hoped it would be. The Landwehrs undoubtedly arrived in Missouri with very limited means. While Maria's widowed mother remarried soon after their arrival, Maria's new step-father also had limited means, and the Landwehr children who were able to support themselves were required to do so. Henry and Philip may have had little trouble finding farm work among the many German farmers in northwest Franklin County, but opportunities for a young girl would have been more limited.
It was not unusual for young German girls, once they were old enough to be separated from their parents, to be sent to St. Louis, where jobs were available. We should not be surprised, then, to learn that Maria Landwehr went to St. Louis soon after her arrival in America, where we assume that she found work as a domestic servant. Maria was just a young girl when she was separated from her family, celebrating her fifteenth birthday in February of that first winter in America.
We have no specific information regarding Maria's life as a teenage Prussian immigrant girl in St. Louis. It is interesting to note that the only photograph we have of Maria was probably taken during this period (see :figref refid=pmaria.). The photograph appears to have been taken when Maria was young, and it was taken at Tonndorff Portraits, which had a St. Louis business address.
Our next record of Maria appears about four years later, when Maria was married in Warren County, Missouri, in January of 1864. It is not difficult to imagine what might have brought Maria to Warren County. Maria probably went to St. Louis in 1860 because her family had no way to support her. Her mother and step-father were poor, her two older brothers probably lived wherever they were able to find work as farm laborers, and her two younger brothers had apparently been taken in by other established Prussian farm families because they were simply too young to support themselves. When Maria's oldest brother, Henry, was married in 1862, he settled down with his new wife and four young step-children on his wife's farm in southern Warren County. Henry was the first of the Landwehr family to establish a home on his own farm. If Maria was still in St. Louis when Henry was married, it would have been logical for Henry to provide her with work and a place to live, if his circumstances permitted him to do so.
In the "Kirchen Buch des Marthesville's Bezirks der Bischoeffichen Methodisten Kirche" (the church book of the Marthasville Charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church), we find a record of the marriage on January 29, 1864, of "Anna Maria Landwehr, of Franklin County, Missouri" and "Christoph Lichte, of Warren County, Missouri". The couple was married by Gustav Hollmann, Minister of the Methodist Churches in southern Warren County, which included the Smith Creek Church, near Henry Landwehr's farm.
Whether Maria ever lived with her older brother's family in Warren County or not, she was surely introduced to her husband by Henry Landwehr and his wife. Henry was married to Louise (Wegener) Peitsmeier, and settled down in southern Warren County, eighteen months before Maria and Christopher Lichte were married (see :hdref refid=henry.). The west edge of Henry Landwehr's Warren County farm (identified as the 100-acre H. Jaeger farm in Section 4 on the map provided by :figref refid=smith.) abutted the east edge of the Christopher Lichte farm (identified as the 51-acre C. Suidermeier farm on the same map). The Christopher Lichte who Maria Landwehr married was the youngest son of the elder Christopher Lichte who owned the farm adjacent to Henry Landwehr's farm.
:fig id=pmaria frame=box depth=5i.
:figcap.Maria Landwehr
:figdesc.Courtesy of Mary (Bangerter) Fengel.
:efig.
Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher' Lichte, Maria Landwehr's husband, was born in the village of Melbergen, Westphalia, Prussia on April 23, 1837. Melbergen is located less than fifteen miles northeast of Joellenbeck, where Maria Landwehr was born. Christopher was the ninth of eleven children born to Johann Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher' and Anne Marie Elisabeth (Ellermann) Lichte (see :hdref refid=lichte.). The younger Christopher Lichte came to southern Warren County with his family when he was a child, and grew up in the neighborhood where he was living when he and Maria Landwehr were married. When Christopher Lichte and Maria Landwehr were married, Christopher was twenty-six years old, and Maria was almost nineteen.
Maria and Christopher met, and were married, during the turbulent Civil War years (1861-1865). To our knowledge, Christopher never served in a Federal military unit during the war. He did, however, serve in the militia. On August 15, 1862, nineteen months before their marriage, Christopher had enrolled in the newly-formed Enrolled Missouri Militia, or E.M.M. He enrolled at Holstein (about five miles from his parents' farm) as a Private in Company G of the 59th Regiment. Less than two months after he enrolled, his unit was ordered into active service at Warrenton (about eleven miles from his parents' farm) on October 9, 1862 by Colonel Morsey.
We can be confident that Christopher and Maria began their married life together in Warren County, and not in Franklin County. On October 8, 1864, eight months after their marriage, Christopher enrolled at Warrenton as a Private in Company E of the 59th Regiment of the E.M.M. The Company was ordered into active service that same day by Colonel Morsey, and served eighty-five days. The activation of the militia in October of 1864 was undoubtedly associated with Confederate General Sterling Price's last raid into Missouri. His intention was to capture St. Louis, and other important points. Price's army of 15,000 men entered Franklin County on September 30, and remained in the county until October 4.
Christopher was still on active duty when his first child was born. Johann Heinrich 'Henry' Lichte, the first child of Christopher and Maria (Landwehr) Lichte, was born on December 2, 1864. He was baptized by Rev. Georg Enzeroth, the Minister of the Methodist Churches in southern Warren County, on February 26, 1865.
We don't know how long Christopher and Maria made their home in Warren County. They both had family ties there--Christopher's parents, and brothers and sisters; and Maria's oldest brother and his family. We know that they didn't purchase any land in Warren County. Instead, during the early years of their marriage, they may have lived with relatives, or rented land, or perhaps lived as squatters on land still owned by the Government.
A second son, Frederick William 'Fred' Lichte, was born to Christopher and Maria on September 27, 1866. We suspect that he was born in Warren County, but he could have been born following the family's move to Franklin County. Was it Maria's desire to be closer to her family that brought her and Christopher to Franklin County? Or perhaps availability of land? We can only speculate. In any event, we know that on October 1, 1868, Christopher purchased a 240-acre Franklin County farm from Fredrick and Anna Mary Grube.
The farm that Christopher bought was located about five miles north and two miles east of the site where Gerald is now located. It was only one mile northeast of the Cedar Fork Post Office. On the map provided by :figref refid=mphil., the farm is identified as two adjacent 120-acre tracts owned by "F. Grube's Est." in Sections 8 and 17. The price of the 240-acre farm was $1900. Christopher apparently paid Fredrick Grube $600 in cash, and Christopher and Maria gave him a note for the $1300 balance, at an interest rate of 10%. Christopher and Maria mortgaged the farm to cover the note. The mortgage agreement stipulated that they were to pay interest and taxes on December 1, 1869; $300 of the principle, and interest on the whole balance, on or before October 1, 1870; and the balance on or before October 1, 1871.
Christopher and Maria had a special reason for buying a farm in this particular neighborhood. Just one year earlier, Maria's brother Philip bought his first farm. Philip's farm is identified on the map provided as :figref refid=mphil. as the F. Vogt farm in Section 18, just one-quarter mile west of the farm that Christopher and Maria Lichte purchased. With the purchase of their new farm, Christopher and Maria became neighbors of the Philip Landwehr family. As we will note later, there seems to have been a particularly close relationship between Philip and Maria.
It was during their first year on this farm (the only farm that Christopher and Maria would ever own) that their first daughter was born. Augusta Johanna Elisa 'Gussie' Lichte was born on September 4, 1869, and was baptized by Rev. Peter Hehner of the Hermann Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church on Sunday, April 3, 1870. That Sunday was a particularly special day for the Landwehr family. At the same service where Maria's daughter was baptized, the minister also baptized a daughter of Philip and Elisa Landwehr. Philip's daughter had been born only two days after Maria's daughter. And Maria's oldest child, a son, was seven days older than Philip's oldest child, also a son.
The Federal census, taken four months later, confirms that the Christopher Lichte family and the Philip Landwehr family continued to live as neighbors near Cedar Fork. Economically, Christopher and Maria appeared to be relatively comfortable, valuing their farm at $1800, and their personal property at $340. Counting both what they sold and what they consumed, they estimated the value of their 1869 farm production at $740. This estimate would rank the Lichte farm in the top twenty-five percent of the farms in their neighborhood. A description of their farm in 1870 is provided by :figref refid=fmaria..
:fig id=fmaria.
.ce
CHRISTOPHER LICHTE FARM
.br
.sk 1
DESCRIPTION OF FARM
.br
.in +5
:ul compact.
:li.Improved Land: 40 acres
:li.Woodland: 200 acres
:eul.
.in -5
LIVE STOCK
.br
.in +5
:ul compact.
:li.Horses: 2
:li.Milk Cows: 2
:li.Other Cattle: 2
:li.Swine: 13
:eul.
.in -5
1869 PRODUCTION
.br
.in +5
:ul compact.
:li.Winter Wheat: 206 bushels
:li.Corn: 300 bushels
:li.Oats: 165 bushels
:li.Irish Potatoes: 15 bushels
:li.Orchard Production: $5
:li.Hay 5 tons
:eul.
.in -5
VALUES
.br
.in +5
:ul compact.
:li.Farm: $1500
:li.Farming implements and machinery: $25
:li.Live stock: $320
:li.Animals slaughtered or sold for slaughter: $42
:li.All farm production consumed or sold in 1869: $740
:eul.
.in -5
:figcap.Christopher Lichte farm in 1870
:efig.
On July 4, 1871, Christopher and Maria became parents for the fourth time. Their fourth child was another daughter, who they named Anna Alsvine Lichte. Christopher and Maria did not have their daughter baptized by the minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Instead, Anna was baptized on September 24, 1871 by the minister of the Ebenezer Evangelical Church, conveniently located only three miles northwest of the Lichte farm. Philip Landwehr's wife, Elisa Landwehr, was her godparent.
Then, on October 14, 1872, four years after they had purchased their farm, Christopher and Maria sold the farm back to Fredrick Grube (the previous owner) for $1000. We can only guess whether the substantial difference between the purchase price and the sale price represented a major financial loss to Christopher and Maria.
If Christopher and Maria made the October 1, 1870 payment on their farm of $300 plus interest, their final payment of $1000 would have been due on October 1, 1871, one year before they returned the farm to Mr. Grube. The $1000 Christopher and Maria received for their farm may have represented the balance they owed on their note to Mr. Grube, in which case they lost the $900 plus interest they had already invested in the farm. Or, it is possible that Mr. Grube tore up the note for the $1000 that Christopher and Maria may have still owed on the farm, and the sale price of $1000 may have represented a return of the $900 plus interest that Christopher and Maria had invested in the farm.
Of these two possibilities, the first appears more likely. Christopher Lichte died within a few years after the sale of their farm. We have no evidence that Christopher and Maria ever purchased another property, and the lack of any probate records when Christopher died suggests that the value of his estate was minimal. We suspect that Christopher and Maria lost their farm because they were unable to pay off their note, lost the money that they had invested in the farm, and were left with little money to make a new start.
After they sold their farm, Christopher and Maria apparently continued to live in northwest Franklin County. However, we suspect that they soon moved further north, toward the Missouri River. Their fifth and last child, Pauline Louise Lichte, was born on May 1, 1873. When she was baptized by Rev. William Schreck on November 17 of that year, she was baptized at one of the Methodist Episcopal Churches of the Hermann Circuit, rather than at the Evangelical Church near the former Lichte farm. The churches of the Hermann Circuit were all located in the northwest corner of Franklin County.
No further record of Pauline Louise Lichte has been found. Mary Fengel, a granddaughter of Christopher and Maria, remembers her mother (Anna Lichte) telling her that she had a sister, named Pauline, who died as a baby.
Within a few years after Christopher and Maria sold their farm in 1872 (perhaps immediately after the sale), they settled in the small village of Etlah. Etlah, located about four miles southeast of Berger, and three miles northwest of New Haven, was a station on the Missouri Pacific Railroad (see :figref refid=warren.). The Missouri Pacific Railroad first reached the area in 1854, and the origins of Etlah are said to go back to a railroad switch known as McMullen's Switch, named for a man who owned much land in the neighborhood. When a post office was established at the site on March 17, 1864, a name change was thought desirable to avoid confusion. It is assumed that some German family whimsically suggested Etlah, which is halte spelled backward. Halte is the German noun for halt, rest, or stop in a march; it is also the imperative of the German verb halten, to stop or halt. Perhaps they felt that they had at last reached a halting or resting place in their long march that began with the great 1840 exodus of liberty-loving Germans fleeing from the tyranny and oppression of their homeland.
The first postmaster of Etlah was Morris D. Reese. At the time of his appointment as the first postmaster in 1864 (during the Civil War), Mr. Reese was also serving as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 54th Regiment of Enrolled Missouri Militia. Morris Reese, a farmer from Pennsylvania, was a prominent landowner in the Etlah area. At one time he owned over 2,000 acres, including all of the land immediately surrounding Etlah.
On April 13, 1874, the town of Etlah was officially laid out. The plat consisted of two blocks, of fourteen and twelve lots, respectively. Plans were being made for Etlah to become something more than a community, with a collection of houses and a post office--Etlah was to be a real town! Only two days earlier, Morris D. Reese and his wife made a contribution to the future growth of the young village. On April 11, Morris D. and Caroline B. Reese deeded 1.4 acres of land to the school directors of District No. 2. The deed specified how the land was to be used: "70 hundredths of an acre for a school house and 70 hundredths of an acre for a grave yard for the white people of this School district".
The land that Morris Reese deeded to the school district for use as a graveyard had already served as a community cemetery for several years. The land deeded for the school house was adjacent to the cemetery. According to Mildred Meyer, a long-time Etlah resident, a log building located nearby was being used at that time as a school. When Morris Reese deeded land to be used for a school house, local residents contributed funds, and a new school house was built. The building still stands on that site, next to the cemetery, where it now serves as a private home.
Completion of the new school building, about 1874, was surely a cause for celebration among the residents of the Etlah community. Mildred recalls her uncle telling her that the students carried their books to the new school, singing and dancing along the way. The children who sang as they carried their books to their new school may have included John and Fred Lichte, as the Lichte family probably moved to the Etlah community about the time that the new school was built.
W. H. Lichte, a grandson of Christopher and Maria, understood from his father (John Lichte) that the family lived near the railroad water tank at Etlah. On a visit to the community many years later, W. H. Lichte was informed by old-timers that most of the original inhabitants of Etlah were "tie hackers", who hacked out ties for the railroad. Mr. Lichte believes that the Christopher Lichte family may have lived in a house owned by the railroad.
Christopher Lichte apparently died during the period 1873-1877. He would have been about 36-40 years old. W. H. Lichte recalls his father telling him that Christopher died in 1874. On the other hand, Mary Fengel recalls her mother telling her she could remember Christopher being ill after he came home from the war, and could remember his death. Since Anna was born in July of 1871, this might suggest that Christopher died a little later than 1874. The cause of Christopher's death at such a young age has long since been forgotten, but Mary Fengel's recollection suggests that Christopher's death may have been related to his Civil War service in the E.M.M. during General Price's campaign of 1864.
No marker has been found for Christopher Lichte's grave. Earlier searches for a gravestone by Christopher's children and grandchildren were also unsuccessful. Several grandchildren feel certain that Christopher was buried in the Etlah cemetery (on the land deeded by Morris Reese), and we accept that family tradition as fact. We assume that Christopher died at Etlah shortly after he moved his family to that community.
Christopher's death left Maria a widow with four or five young children to raise. We assume that Maria and her children were still living in Etlah when she and Ernst 'Ernest' Hoelscher were married. The date and place of their marriage is still unknown, but it probably occurred in the Etlah area about 1876-77.
Born in Prussia on November 13, 1848, Ernst Hoelscher emigrated to the United States with his family about 1870, and settled near New Haven, Missouri. Ernst, who would have been about twenty-eight years old when he and Maria married, may have been previously married. In 1873, a Caroline Hoelscher filed suit in Franklin County for divorce from her husband, Ernst Hoelscher. The suit charged Ernst with "cruel and barbarous treatment"--standard divorce suit terminology for the period. The divorce records indicate that this Ernst Hoelscher had married Caroline on or about February 1, 1870 (Franklin County marriage records show that an Ernst Friederick Hoelscher was married to a Maria Helena Sauerhage by W. F. Bek, a minister in northwest Franklin County, on February 3, 1871). The divorce was granted on December 2, 1873, perhaps three or four years before Maria married the same--or possibly a different--Ernst Hoelscher.
After Maria (Landwehr) Lichte and Ernst Hoelscher were married, they apparently continued to live in the Etlah-Berger area, because they were affilated with the German Evangelical St. John's Church at Berger after their marriage. The village of Berger, four miles northwest of Etlah, probably dates back to about 1856, when a Post Office was first established at the site. The Pacific Railroad, now the Missouri Pacific, reached the area in 1855. Berger was known for many years thereafter as Berger Station. The town probably took its name from Berger Creek, said to have been named for Joseph Berger, a French trapper and hunter.
Maria Landwehr came from a German Protestant family, and Ernst Hoelscher undoubtedly came from a similar religious background. Etlah apparently never had a church of its own. Mildred Meyer relates that Morris Reese was a Catholic, and when he deeded land for the Etlah school, he stipulated that the school building could also be used as a church, but only for non-denominational services. Religious services were held in the school/church building over the years, but they apparently remained non-denominational.
The only two German Protestant churches in the Etlah area in the 1870's were the German Evangelical Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church. Until 1875, the closest Methodist Church was the Zion Methodist Church, located two miles south of Berger, and the closest Evangelical Church was the Bethany Evangelical Church, located over three miles southwest of Berger. By the mid-1870's, Berger was growing into a town--a trading center--a place where residents of the area came to get their mail and supplies. But, like Etlah, it had no church. As the number of Bethany Evangelical Church members living in Berger grew, they began to question the long distances they had to travel either on foot, or by horse or farm wagon, in order to attend church services.
The St. John's Evangelical congregation first began meeting in Berger in 1875, completed construction of their own church building a few months later, and employed their first resident minister, Rev. Fr. Werning, in 1877. While Ernst Hoelscher was not among the charter members of the St. John's Evangelical congregation at Berger in 1875, he and Maria were affiliated with the church by 1878, when they apparently lost an infant. The burial records of the Evangelical St. John's Church include a brief note, apparently written between March 20 and September 14 of 1878, which simply reads "Hoelscher Ernst, ein Kind".
Their father's early death was not the last family tragedy that the four Lichte children were destined to face. Maria (Landwehr) Hoelscher, their mother, died on January 26, 1879, and was buried the next day. Maria was the first of the immigrant Landwehr family to die after their arrival in America. When someone died in those early years, it was common practice for a minister to go to the home of the deceased and give a short sermon on the day of the funeral, then go to the cemetery for the committal, and then to the church for the final services. In this instance, the minister was probably Reverend Fr. Werning, the first minister of the St. John's Evangelical Church, as Maria's death was recorded in the early records of that church.
Mary Fengel recalls her mother telling her that Maria passed away in child birth. W. H. Lichte is also inclined to believe that Maria's death was related to childbirth complications. Maria was thirty-three years old, and was survived by her four children, ages fourteen, twelve, nine, and six. W. H. Lichte recalls the family story that his father, John Lichte, who was fourteen years old when his mother died, had to be restrained from jumping into the grave at his mother's burial. As is the case with her first husband, Christopher, no marker has ever been found for Maria's grave. Her grandchildren feel sure that she was also buried in the cemetery at Etlah.
Ernst Hoelscher tried to care for his four Lichte step-children as best he could after their mother's death. He apparently stayed in the Etlah-Berger area for a short time, as Maria's oldest son, Johann Heinrich, was confirmed in the St. John's Evangelical Church at Berger on Palm Sunday, April 6, 1879, about ten weeks after his mother's death.
The records of St. John's Evangelical Church at Berger also substantiate that Maria and her brother Philip continued to make their homes in close vicinity to each other after they sold their farms near Cedar Fork and moved to the Etlah area. The baptismal records indicate that one of Philip's daughters was baptized at the Evangelical Church in Berger in November following Maria's death.
Ernst Hoelscher did not remain a widower very long. A man with a family to care for needed a wife. On October 9, 1879, eight months after Maria's death, Ernst was married to Mrs. Lena (Keisker) Karlmeyer, widow of Friedrich Karlmeyer. Lena Keisker was born in the German state of Hanover on August 19, 1847, and emigrated to the U. S. in 1870. Lena was first married to a Mr. Mueller. Following his death, she had married Friedrich Karlmeyer. Ernst Hoelscher was thirty years old, and was probably taking his third wife--Lena was thirty-two years old, and was taking her third husband.
Ernst and Lena were married by the Pastor of the Evangelical Luthern Church at Boeuf Creek. This church is located about six miles south and two miles east of Etlah. This was apparently Lena's family church, as she had been married to Friedrich Karlmeyer by that same minister in November of 1877.
Ernst Hoelscher's third wife, Lena, had a 180-acre farm one mile west of the Boeuf Creek Evangelical Luthern Church. Ernst would later buy this farm from the guardian of the Karlmeyer children, in January of 1882. It appears that Ernst and his Lichte step-children moved to this farm shortly after Ernst and Lena were married in 1879. Federal census records indicate that Ernst and Lena were living on Lena's farm by June of 1880, eight months after their marriage.
Ernst Hoelscher's new family included the four Lichte children, and the children Lena brought from her two prior marriages. But Ernst and Lena were apparently not able to care for all of the children in their home. The census taken in June of 1880 listed the following family members in their home:
.in +5
:ul compact.
:LI.Ernst Hoelscher age 31
:LI.Lena Hoelscher age 32
:LI.Lizzie Karlmeyer age 14
:LI.Louis Karlmeyer age 6
:LI.Ida Karlmeyer age 1
:LI.John Lichte age 16
:LI.Fritz Lichte age 12
:LI.Fritz Mueller age 10
:LI.Henry Mueller age 6
:LI.Fritz Kank age 21
:EuL.
.in -5
Fritz and Henry Mueller were the two children of Lena and her first husband. Lizzie and Louis Karlmeyer were Lena's step-children from her marriage to her second husband. Ida Karlmeyer was Lena's daughter from her second marriage. John and Fritz Lichte were, of course, Ernst's step-children from his prior marriage. Fritz Kank was a farm laborer living with the family. Ernst's two step-daughters, Augusta and Anna Lichte, were not living with Ernst and Lena when the census was taken. Also missing from the household were two other Karlmeyer step-children: eleven-year-old Wilhelmine and nine-year-old August. Ernst and Lena started their marriage with eleven children, and eight of them were children of neither Ernst or Lena!
The absence of Augusta and Anna Lichte from the Ernst Hoelscher household in 1880 is not difficult to explain. W. H. Lichte believes that his two aunts, Augusta and Anna, were farmed out in the early years following their mother's death. Mary Fengel confirms that her mother, Anna Lichte, lived with another family after Ernst and Lena were married. Referring to Anna, Mary writes:
"for a time she had to live with a brother of Ernest Hoelscher, and his wife. They treated her so mean, and made her work like a hired hand, milking and feeding the cows. Sometimes she had to wear old hand-me-down boys shoes, as she had none, and sometimes she even wrapped her feet in rags to go out to do the chores."
Anna's oldest brother, John Lichte, came to her rescue. Mary Fengel relates that:
"when Uncle John heard about this abuse, he went to the school house where Mother was, and when school was over, he told her she was to go with him. She said she was afraid of old man Hoelscher, and he would beat her to death if she did not come home to do the chores. Uncle John told her she did not have to be afraid, as she would not have to go back there to live again. Uncle John had a mule to ride, so he put her on the mule and they went home."
Thus, Anna apparently rejoined her brothers in the Ernst Hoelscher household.
John Lichte apparently did not remain in the Ernst Hoelscher household very long. W. H. Lichte reports that after his father (John Lichte) was sixteen years of age, he got around the country quite a lot. He traveled over Missouri and eastern Oklahoma, and then to Arkansas.
Mary Fengel writes that her mother, Anna Lichte, was only able to complete the fourth grade before she had to go to work. When Anna Lichte was thirteen years old (about 1884), it was necessary for her to go to St. Louis and work for a Jewish family. Thus, Anna Lichte's experience parallels exactly her mother's experiences when she, too, was sent to St. Louis to work shortly after the Landwehr family arrived in Franklin County. Mary Fengel indicates that Anna lived in St. Louis for several years. After her two brothers married and were living near Wichita, Kansas, Anna also went to Wichita, to be near her brothers and their families. Anna married Ernest Bangerter in Wichita in 1897.
After their marriage in 1879, Ernst and Lena Hoelscher apparently remained in Franklin County until 1890. During this eleven-year period, they had three children of their own. Gustave Hoelscher was born in September of 1880, Herman F. Hoelscher was born on May 24, 1883, and Emilie L. S. Hoelscher was born on April 6, 1887.
In 1890, following the loss of their home in a fire, Ernst moved his family from Franklin County to Loulyma (now called Lafe), in northeastern Arkansas. It is interesting to note the background of their move. Four years earlier, in 1886, Mr. Herman Toelkin, a German immigrant, moved from New Haven, in Franklin County, Missouri, to the Loulyma area. He was the first permanent white settler in the area. After he acquired land, he brought his family from New Haven. Once he became established, he began advertising in a Minneapolis newspaper, the Germania , for other German Lutherans to come and settle in the community. Ernst Hoelscher selected the Loulyma, Arkansas area as his family's new home after reading an advertisment placed in the Germania by Herman Toelkin.
Soon after Ernst and Lena moved to Loulyma, they were joined by John Lichte, the oldest of the Lichte children. There, John Lichte was married to Louise Bangerter in October of 1891. We also believe that John's sister, Augusta, was married at Loulyma. John later followed his wife's family to Wichita, Kansas. During his early years in Wichita, he brought his brother and two sisters to the same vicinity, where Fritz and Anna Lichte married a sister and a brother of John Lichte's wife.
Ernst and Lena Hoelscher apparently remained in Greene County, Arkansas the balance of their lives. Ernst died on June 24, 1924, at age seventy-five. Lena died on May 24, 1938, at age ninety. Both are buried in the St. John's Lutheran Cemetery at Lafe, Arkansas.
It was not unusual for young German girls, once they were old enough to be separated from their parents, to be sent to St. Louis, where jobs were available. We should not be surprised, then, to learn that Maria Landwehr went to St. Louis soon after her arrival in America, where we assume that she found work as a domestic servant. Maria was just a young girl when she was separated from her family, celebrating her fifteenth birthday in February of that first winter in America.
We have no specific information regarding Maria's life as a teenage Prussian immigrant girl in St. Louis. It is interesting to note that the only photograph we have of Maria was probably taken during this period (see :figref refid=pmaria.). The photograph appears to have been taken when Maria was young, and it was taken at Tonndorff Portraits, which had a St. Louis business address.
Our next record of Maria appears about four years later, when Maria was married in Warren County, Missouri, in January of 1864. It is not difficult to imagine what might have brought Maria to Warren County. Maria probably went to St. Louis in 1860 because her family had no way to support her. Her mother and step-father were poor, her two older brothers probably lived wherever they were able to find work as farm laborers, and her two younger brothers had apparently been taken in by other established Prussian farm families because they were simply too young to support themselves. When Maria's oldest brother, Henry, was married in 1862, he settled down with his new wife and four young step-children on his wife's farm in southern Warren County. Henry was the first of the Landwehr family to establish a home on his own farm. If Maria was still in St. Louis when Henry was married, it would have been logical for Henry to provide her with work and a place to live, if his circumstances permitted him to do so.
In the "Kirchen Buch des Marthesville's Bezirks der Bischoeffichen Methodisten Kirche" (the church book of the Marthasville Charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church), we find a record of the marriage on January 29, 1864, of "Anna Maria Landwehr, of Franklin County, Missouri" and "Christoph Lichte, of Warren County, Missouri". The couple was married by Gustav Hollmann, Minister of the Methodist Churches in southern Warren County, which included the Smith Creek Church, near Henry Landwehr's farm.
Whether Maria ever lived with her older brother's family in Warren County or not, she was surely introduced to her husband by Henry Landwehr and his wife. Henry was married to Louise (Wegener) Peitsmeier, and settled down in southern Warren County, eighteen months before Maria and Christopher Lichte were married (see :hdref refid=henry.). The west edge of Henry Landwehr's Warren County farm (identified as the 100-acre H. Jaeger farm in Section 4 on the map provided by :figref refid=smith.) abutted the east edge of the Christopher Lichte farm (identified as the 51-acre C. Suidermeier farm on the same map). The Christopher Lichte who Maria Landwehr married was the youngest son of the elder Christopher Lichte who owned the farm adjacent to Henry Landwehr's farm.
:fig id=pmaria frame=box depth=5i.
:figcap.Maria Landwehr
:figdesc.Courtesy of Mary (Bangerter) Fengel.
:efig.
Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher' Lichte, Maria Landwehr's husband, was born in the village of Melbergen, Westphalia, Prussia on April 23, 1837. Melbergen is located less than fifteen miles northeast of Joellenbeck, where Maria Landwehr was born. Christopher was the ninth of eleven children born to Johann Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher' and Anne Marie Elisabeth (Ellermann) Lichte (see :hdref refid=lichte.). The younger Christopher Lichte came to southern Warren County with his family when he was a child, and grew up in the neighborhood where he was living when he and Maria Landwehr were married. When Christopher Lichte and Maria Landwehr were married, Christopher was twenty-six years old, and Maria was almost nineteen.
Maria and Christopher met, and were married, during the turbulent Civil War years (1861-1865). To our knowledge, Christopher never served in a Federal military unit during the war. He did, however, serve in the militia. On August 15, 1862, nineteen months before their marriage, Christopher had enrolled in the newly-formed Enrolled Missouri Militia, or E.M.M. He enrolled at Holstein (about five miles from his parents' farm) as a Private in Company G of the 59th Regiment. Less than two months after he enrolled, his unit was ordered into active service at Warrenton (about eleven miles from his parents' farm) on October 9, 1862 by Colonel Morsey.
We can be confident that Christopher and Maria began their married life together in Warren County, and not in Franklin County. On October 8, 1864, eight months after their marriage, Christopher enrolled at Warrenton as a Private in Company E of the 59th Regiment of the E.M.M. The Company was ordered into active service that same day by Colonel Morsey, and served eighty-five days. The activation of the militia in October of 1864 was undoubtedly associated with Confederate General Sterling Price's last raid into Missouri. His intention was to capture St. Louis, and other important points. Price's army of 15,000 men entered Franklin County on September 30, and remained in the county until October 4.
Christopher was still on active duty when his first child was born. Johann Heinrich 'Henry' Lichte, the first child of Christopher and Maria (Landwehr) Lichte, was born on December 2, 1864. He was baptized by Rev. Georg Enzeroth, the Minister of the Methodist Churches in southern Warren County, on February 26, 1865.
We don't know how long Christopher and Maria made their home in Warren County. They both had family ties there--Christopher's parents, and brothers and sisters; and Maria's oldest brother and his family. We know that they didn't purchase any land in Warren County. Instead, during the early years of their marriage, they may have lived with relatives, or rented land, or perhaps lived as squatters on land still owned by the Government.
A second son, Frederick William 'Fred' Lichte, was born to Christopher and Maria on September 27, 1866. We suspect that he was born in Warren County, but he could have been born following the family's move to Franklin County. Was it Maria's desire to be closer to her family that brought her and Christopher to Franklin County? Or perhaps availability of land? We can only speculate. In any event, we know that on October 1, 1868, Christopher purchased a 240-acre Franklin County farm from Fredrick and Anna Mary Grube.
The farm that Christopher bought was located about five miles north and two miles east of the site where Gerald is now located. It was only one mile northeast of the Cedar Fork Post Office. On the map provided by :figref refid=mphil., the farm is identified as two adjacent 120-acre tracts owned by "F. Grube's Est." in Sections 8 and 17. The price of the 240-acre farm was $1900. Christopher apparently paid Fredrick Grube $600 in cash, and Christopher and Maria gave him a note for the $1300 balance, at an interest rate of 10%. Christopher and Maria mortgaged the farm to cover the note. The mortgage agreement stipulated that they were to pay interest and taxes on December 1, 1869; $300 of the principle, and interest on the whole balance, on or before October 1, 1870; and the balance on or before October 1, 1871.
Christopher and Maria had a special reason for buying a farm in this particular neighborhood. Just one year earlier, Maria's brother Philip bought his first farm. Philip's farm is identified on the map provided as :figref refid=mphil. as the F. Vogt farm in Section 18, just one-quarter mile west of the farm that Christopher and Maria Lichte purchased. With the purchase of their new farm, Christopher and Maria became neighbors of the Philip Landwehr family. As we will note later, there seems to have been a particularly close relationship between Philip and Maria.
It was during their first year on this farm (the only farm that Christopher and Maria would ever own) that their first daughter was born. Augusta Johanna Elisa 'Gussie' Lichte was born on September 4, 1869, and was baptized by Rev. Peter Hehner of the Hermann Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church on Sunday, April 3, 1870. That Sunday was a particularly special day for the Landwehr family. At the same service where Maria's daughter was baptized, the minister also baptized a daughter of Philip and Elisa Landwehr. Philip's daughter had been born only two days after Maria's daughter. And Maria's oldest child, a son, was seven days older than Philip's oldest child, also a son.
The Federal census, taken four months later, confirms that the Christopher Lichte family and the Philip Landwehr family continued to live as neighbors near Cedar Fork. Economically, Christopher and Maria appeared to be relatively comfortable, valuing their farm at $1800, and their personal property at $340. Counting both what they sold and what they consumed, they estimated the value of their 1869 farm production at $740. This estimate would rank the Lichte farm in the top twenty-five percent of the farms in their neighborhood. A description of their farm in 1870 is provided by :figref refid=fmaria..
:fig id=fmaria.
.ce
CHRISTOPHER LICHTE FARM
.br
.sk 1
DESCRIPTION OF FARM
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.in +5
:ul compact.
:li.Improved Land: 40 acres
:li.Woodland: 200 acres
:eul.
.in -5
LIVE STOCK
.br
.in +5
:ul compact.
:li.Horses: 2
:li.Milk Cows: 2
:li.Other Cattle: 2
:li.Swine: 13
:eul.
.in -5
1869 PRODUCTION
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.in +5
:ul compact.
:li.Winter Wheat: 206 bushels
:li.Corn: 300 bushels
:li.Oats: 165 bushels
:li.Irish Potatoes: 15 bushels
:li.Orchard Production: $5
:li.Hay 5 tons
:eul.
.in -5
VALUES
.br
.in +5
:ul compact.
:li.Farm: $1500
:li.Farming implements and machinery: $25
:li.Live stock: $320
:li.Animals slaughtered or sold for slaughter: $42
:li.All farm production consumed or sold in 1869: $740
:eul.
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:figcap.Christopher Lichte farm in 1870
:efig.
On July 4, 1871, Christopher and Maria became parents for the fourth time. Their fourth child was another daughter, who they named Anna Alsvine Lichte. Christopher and Maria did not have their daughter baptized by the minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Instead, Anna was baptized on September 24, 1871 by the minister of the Ebenezer Evangelical Church, conveniently located only three miles northwest of the Lichte farm. Philip Landwehr's wife, Elisa Landwehr, was her godparent.
Then, on October 14, 1872, four years after they had purchased their farm, Christopher and Maria sold the farm back to Fredrick Grube (the previous owner) for $1000. We can only guess whether the substantial difference between the purchase price and the sale price represented a major financial loss to Christopher and Maria.
If Christopher and Maria made the October 1, 1870 payment on their farm of $300 plus interest, their final payment of $1000 would have been due on October 1, 1871, one year before they returned the farm to Mr. Grube. The $1000 Christopher and Maria received for their farm may have represented the balance they owed on their note to Mr. Grube, in which case they lost the $900 plus interest they had already invested in the farm. Or, it is possible that Mr. Grube tore up the note for the $1000 that Christopher and Maria may have still owed on the farm, and the sale price of $1000 may have represented a return of the $900 plus interest that Christopher and Maria had invested in the farm.
Of these two possibilities, the first appears more likely. Christopher Lichte died within a few years after the sale of their farm. We have no evidence that Christopher and Maria ever purchased another property, and the lack of any probate records when Christopher died suggests that the value of his estate was minimal. We suspect that Christopher and Maria lost their farm because they were unable to pay off their note, lost the money that they had invested in the farm, and were left with little money to make a new start.
After they sold their farm, Christopher and Maria apparently continued to live in northwest Franklin County. However, we suspect that they soon moved further north, toward the Missouri River. Their fifth and last child, Pauline Louise Lichte, was born on May 1, 1873. When she was baptized by Rev. William Schreck on November 17 of that year, she was baptized at one of the Methodist Episcopal Churches of the Hermann Circuit, rather than at the Evangelical Church near the former Lichte farm. The churches of the Hermann Circuit were all located in the northwest corner of Franklin County.
No further record of Pauline Louise Lichte has been found. Mary Fengel, a granddaughter of Christopher and Maria, remembers her mother (Anna Lichte) telling her that she had a sister, named Pauline, who died as a baby.
Within a few years after Christopher and Maria sold their farm in 1872 (perhaps immediately after the sale), they settled in the small village of Etlah. Etlah, located about four miles southeast of Berger, and three miles northwest of New Haven, was a station on the Missouri Pacific Railroad (see :figref refid=warren.). The Missouri Pacific Railroad first reached the area in 1854, and the origins of Etlah are said to go back to a railroad switch known as McMullen's Switch, named for a man who owned much land in the neighborhood. When a post office was established at the site on March 17, 1864, a name change was thought desirable to avoid confusion. It is assumed that some German family whimsically suggested Etlah, which is halte spelled backward. Halte is the German noun for halt, rest, or stop in a march; it is also the imperative of the German verb halten, to stop or halt. Perhaps they felt that they had at last reached a halting or resting place in their long march that began with the great 1840 exodus of liberty-loving Germans fleeing from the tyranny and oppression of their homeland.
The first postmaster of Etlah was Morris D. Reese. At the time of his appointment as the first postmaster in 1864 (during the Civil War), Mr. Reese was also serving as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 54th Regiment of Enrolled Missouri Militia. Morris Reese, a farmer from Pennsylvania, was a prominent landowner in the Etlah area. At one time he owned over 2,000 acres, including all of the land immediately surrounding Etlah.
On April 13, 1874, the town of Etlah was officially laid out. The plat consisted of two blocks, of fourteen and twelve lots, respectively. Plans were being made for Etlah to become something more than a community, with a collection of houses and a post office--Etlah was to be a real town! Only two days earlier, Morris D. Reese and his wife made a contribution to the future growth of the young village. On April 11, Morris D. and Caroline B. Reese deeded 1.4 acres of land to the school directors of District No. 2. The deed specified how the land was to be used: "70 hundredths of an acre for a school house and 70 hundredths of an acre for a grave yard for the white people of this School district".
The land that Morris Reese deeded to the school district for use as a graveyard had already served as a community cemetery for several years. The land deeded for the school house was adjacent to the cemetery. According to Mildred Meyer, a long-time Etlah resident, a log building located nearby was being used at that time as a school. When Morris Reese deeded land to be used for a school house, local residents contributed funds, and a new school house was built. The building still stands on that site, next to the cemetery, where it now serves as a private home.
Completion of the new school building, about 1874, was surely a cause for celebration among the residents of the Etlah community. Mildred recalls her uncle telling her that the students carried their books to the new school, singing and dancing along the way. The children who sang as they carried their books to their new school may have included John and Fred Lichte, as the Lichte family probably moved to the Etlah community about the time that the new school was built.
W. H. Lichte, a grandson of Christopher and Maria, understood from his father (John Lichte) that the family lived near the railroad water tank at Etlah. On a visit to the community many years later, W. H. Lichte was informed by old-timers that most of the original inhabitants of Etlah were "tie hackers", who hacked out ties for the railroad. Mr. Lichte believes that the Christopher Lichte family may have lived in a house owned by the railroad.
Christopher Lichte apparently died during the period 1873-1877. He would have been about 36-40 years old. W. H. Lichte recalls his father telling him that Christopher died in 1874. On the other hand, Mary Fengel recalls her mother telling her she could remember Christopher being ill after he came home from the war, and could remember his death. Since Anna was born in July of 1871, this might suggest that Christopher died a little later than 1874. The cause of Christopher's death at such a young age has long since been forgotten, but Mary Fengel's recollection suggests that Christopher's death may have been related to his Civil War service in the E.M.M. during General Price's campaign of 1864.
No marker has been found for Christopher Lichte's grave. Earlier searches for a gravestone by Christopher's children and grandchildren were also unsuccessful. Several grandchildren feel certain that Christopher was buried in the Etlah cemetery (on the land deeded by Morris Reese), and we accept that family tradition as fact. We assume that Christopher died at Etlah shortly after he moved his family to that community.
Christopher's death left Maria a widow with four or five young children to raise. We assume that Maria and her children were still living in Etlah when she and Ernst 'Ernest' Hoelscher were married. The date and place of their marriage is still unknown, but it probably occurred in the Etlah area about 1876-77.
Born in Prussia on November 13, 1848, Ernst Hoelscher emigrated to the United States with his family about 1870, and settled near New Haven, Missouri. Ernst, who would have been about twenty-eight years old when he and Maria married, may have been previously married. In 1873, a Caroline Hoelscher filed suit in Franklin County for divorce from her husband, Ernst Hoelscher. The suit charged Ernst with "cruel and barbarous treatment"--standard divorce suit terminology for the period. The divorce records indicate that this Ernst Hoelscher had married Caroline on or about February 1, 1870 (Franklin County marriage records show that an Ernst Friederick Hoelscher was married to a Maria Helena Sauerhage by W. F. Bek, a minister in northwest Franklin County, on February 3, 1871). The divorce was granted on December 2, 1873, perhaps three or four years before Maria married the same--or possibly a different--Ernst Hoelscher.
After Maria (Landwehr) Lichte and Ernst Hoelscher were married, they apparently continued to live in the Etlah-Berger area, because they were affilated with the German Evangelical St. John's Church at Berger after their marriage. The village of Berger, four miles northwest of Etlah, probably dates back to about 1856, when a Post Office was first established at the site. The Pacific Railroad, now the Missouri Pacific, reached the area in 1855. Berger was known for many years thereafter as Berger Station. The town probably took its name from Berger Creek, said to have been named for Joseph Berger, a French trapper and hunter.
Maria Landwehr came from a German Protestant family, and Ernst Hoelscher undoubtedly came from a similar religious background. Etlah apparently never had a church of its own. Mildred Meyer relates that Morris Reese was a Catholic, and when he deeded land for the Etlah school, he stipulated that the school building could also be used as a church, but only for non-denominational services. Religious services were held in the school/church building over the years, but they apparently remained non-denominational.
The only two German Protestant churches in the Etlah area in the 1870's were the German Evangelical Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church. Until 1875, the closest Methodist Church was the Zion Methodist Church, located two miles south of Berger, and the closest Evangelical Church was the Bethany Evangelical Church, located over three miles southwest of Berger. By the mid-1870's, Berger was growing into a town--a trading center--a place where residents of the area came to get their mail and supplies. But, like Etlah, it had no church. As the number of Bethany Evangelical Church members living in Berger grew, they began to question the long distances they had to travel either on foot, or by horse or farm wagon, in order to attend church services.
The St. John's Evangelical congregation first began meeting in Berger in 1875, completed construction of their own church building a few months later, and employed their first resident minister, Rev. Fr. Werning, in 1877. While Ernst Hoelscher was not among the charter members of the St. John's Evangelical congregation at Berger in 1875, he and Maria were affiliated with the church by 1878, when they apparently lost an infant. The burial records of the Evangelical St. John's Church include a brief note, apparently written between March 20 and September 14 of 1878, which simply reads "Hoelscher Ernst, ein Kind".
Their father's early death was not the last family tragedy that the four Lichte children were destined to face. Maria (Landwehr) Hoelscher, their mother, died on January 26, 1879, and was buried the next day. Maria was the first of the immigrant Landwehr family to die after their arrival in America. When someone died in those early years, it was common practice for a minister to go to the home of the deceased and give a short sermon on the day of the funeral, then go to the cemetery for the committal, and then to the church for the final services. In this instance, the minister was probably Reverend Fr. Werning, the first minister of the St. John's Evangelical Church, as Maria's death was recorded in the early records of that church.
Mary Fengel recalls her mother telling her that Maria passed away in child birth. W. H. Lichte is also inclined to believe that Maria's death was related to childbirth complications. Maria was thirty-three years old, and was survived by her four children, ages fourteen, twelve, nine, and six. W. H. Lichte recalls the family story that his father, John Lichte, who was fourteen years old when his mother died, had to be restrained from jumping into the grave at his mother's burial. As is the case with her first husband, Christopher, no marker has ever been found for Maria's grave. Her grandchildren feel sure that she was also buried in the cemetery at Etlah.
Ernst Hoelscher tried to care for his four Lichte step-children as best he could after their mother's death. He apparently stayed in the Etlah-Berger area for a short time, as Maria's oldest son, Johann Heinrich, was confirmed in the St. John's Evangelical Church at Berger on Palm Sunday, April 6, 1879, about ten weeks after his mother's death.
The records of St. John's Evangelical Church at Berger also substantiate that Maria and her brother Philip continued to make their homes in close vicinity to each other after they sold their farms near Cedar Fork and moved to the Etlah area. The baptismal records indicate that one of Philip's daughters was baptized at the Evangelical Church in Berger in November following Maria's death.
Ernst Hoelscher did not remain a widower very long. A man with a family to care for needed a wife. On October 9, 1879, eight months after Maria's death, Ernst was married to Mrs. Lena (Keisker) Karlmeyer, widow of Friedrich Karlmeyer. Lena Keisker was born in the German state of Hanover on August 19, 1847, and emigrated to the U. S. in 1870. Lena was first married to a Mr. Mueller. Following his death, she had married Friedrich Karlmeyer. Ernst Hoelscher was thirty years old, and was probably taking his third wife--Lena was thirty-two years old, and was taking her third husband.
Ernst and Lena were married by the Pastor of the Evangelical Luthern Church at Boeuf Creek. This church is located about six miles south and two miles east of Etlah. This was apparently Lena's family church, as she had been married to Friedrich Karlmeyer by that same minister in November of 1877.
Ernst Hoelscher's third wife, Lena, had a 180-acre farm one mile west of the Boeuf Creek Evangelical Luthern Church. Ernst would later buy this farm from the guardian of the Karlmeyer children, in January of 1882. It appears that Ernst and his Lichte step-children moved to this farm shortly after Ernst and Lena were married in 1879. Federal census records indicate that Ernst and Lena were living on Lena's farm by June of 1880, eight months after their marriage.
Ernst Hoelscher's new family included the four Lichte children, and the children Lena brought from her two prior marriages. But Ernst and Lena were apparently not able to care for all of the children in their home. The census taken in June of 1880 listed the following family members in their home:
.in +5
:ul compact.
:LI.Ernst Hoelscher age 31
:LI.Lena Hoelscher age 32
:LI.Lizzie Karlmeyer age 14
:LI.Louis Karlmeyer age 6
:LI.Ida Karlmeyer age 1
:LI.John Lichte age 16
:LI.Fritz Lichte age 12
:LI.Fritz Mueller age 10
:LI.Henry Mueller age 6
:LI.Fritz Kank age 21
:EuL.
.in -5
Fritz and Henry Mueller were the two children of Lena and her first husband. Lizzie and Louis Karlmeyer were Lena's step-children from her marriage to her second husband. Ida Karlmeyer was Lena's daughter from her second marriage. John and Fritz Lichte were, of course, Ernst's step-children from his prior marriage. Fritz Kank was a farm laborer living with the family. Ernst's two step-daughters, Augusta and Anna Lichte, were not living with Ernst and Lena when the census was taken. Also missing from the household were two other Karlmeyer step-children: eleven-year-old Wilhelmine and nine-year-old August. Ernst and Lena started their marriage with eleven children, and eight of them were children of neither Ernst or Lena!
The absence of Augusta and Anna Lichte from the Ernst Hoelscher household in 1880 is not difficult to explain. W. H. Lichte believes that his two aunts, Augusta and Anna, were farmed out in the early years following their mother's death. Mary Fengel confirms that her mother, Anna Lichte, lived with another family after Ernst and Lena were married. Referring to Anna, Mary writes:
"for a time she had to live with a brother of Ernest Hoelscher, and his wife. They treated her so mean, and made her work like a hired hand, milking and feeding the cows. Sometimes she had to wear old hand-me-down boys shoes, as she had none, and sometimes she even wrapped her feet in rags to go out to do the chores."
Anna's oldest brother, John Lichte, came to her rescue. Mary Fengel relates that:
"when Uncle John heard about this abuse, he went to the school house where Mother was, and when school was over, he told her she was to go with him. She said she was afraid of old man Hoelscher, and he would beat her to death if she did not come home to do the chores. Uncle John told her she did not have to be afraid, as she would not have to go back there to live again. Uncle John had a mule to ride, so he put her on the mule and they went home."
Thus, Anna apparently rejoined her brothers in the Ernst Hoelscher household.
John Lichte apparently did not remain in the Ernst Hoelscher household very long. W. H. Lichte reports that after his father (John Lichte) was sixteen years of age, he got around the country quite a lot. He traveled over Missouri and eastern Oklahoma, and then to Arkansas.
Mary Fengel writes that her mother, Anna Lichte, was only able to complete the fourth grade before she had to go to work. When Anna Lichte was thirteen years old (about 1884), it was necessary for her to go to St. Louis and work for a Jewish family. Thus, Anna Lichte's experience parallels exactly her mother's experiences when she, too, was sent to St. Louis to work shortly after the Landwehr family arrived in Franklin County. Mary Fengel indicates that Anna lived in St. Louis for several years. After her two brothers married and were living near Wichita, Kansas, Anna also went to Wichita, to be near her brothers and their families. Anna married Ernest Bangerter in Wichita in 1897.
After their marriage in 1879, Ernst and Lena Hoelscher apparently remained in Franklin County until 1890. During this eleven-year period, they had three children of their own. Gustave Hoelscher was born in September of 1880, Herman F. Hoelscher was born on May 24, 1883, and Emilie L. S. Hoelscher was born on April 6, 1887.
In 1890, following the loss of their home in a fire, Ernst moved his family from Franklin County to Loulyma (now called Lafe), in northeastern Arkansas. It is interesting to note the background of their move. Four years earlier, in 1886, Mr. Herman Toelkin, a German immigrant, moved from New Haven, in Franklin County, Missouri, to the Loulyma area. He was the first permanent white settler in the area. After he acquired land, he brought his family from New Haven. Once he became established, he began advertising in a Minneapolis newspaper, the Germania , for other German Lutherans to come and settle in the community. Ernst Hoelscher selected the Loulyma, Arkansas area as his family's new home after reading an advertisment placed in the Germania by Herman Toelkin.
Soon after Ernst and Lena moved to Loulyma, they were joined by John Lichte, the oldest of the Lichte children. There, John Lichte was married to Louise Bangerter in October of 1891. We also believe that John's sister, Augusta, was married at Loulyma. John later followed his wife's family to Wichita, Kansas. During his early years in Wichita, he brought his brother and two sisters to the same vicinity, where Fritz and Anna Lichte married a sister and a brother of John Lichte's wife.
Ernst and Lena Hoelscher apparently remained in Greene County, Arkansas the balance of their lives. Ernst died on June 24, 1924, at age seventy-five. Lena died on May 24, 1938, at age ninety. Both are buried in the St. John's Lutheran Cemetery at Lafe, Arkansas.