Lichte Family History
The Lichte family is related to our Landwehr family through the marriage of Christopher Lichte to Maria Landwehr, one of the five immigrant Landwehr children, in 1864. The Christopher Lichte who married Maria Landwehr was the son of another Christopher Lichte. Our German forefathers did not use the designations "Sr." and "Jr." to distinguish between father and son with the same name. But, to avoid confusion, we will append the titles "Sr." and "Jr." in this biographical sketch. The Christopher Lichte who married Maria Landwehr will be identified as "Christopher Jr.", and his father as "Christopher Sr.".
Johann Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher' Lichte (Christopher Sr.) was born in the vicinity of the Prussian village of Gohfeld, on July 1, 1797. Gohfeld is located only thirteen miles northeast of Joellenbeck (see #10 on :figref refid=minden. for the location of Gohfeld). Christopher Sr. was baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Gohfeld three days after his birth, on July 4. The witnesses to Christopher's baptism were Johann Heinrich Lichte, Christoph Sundmann, and Joh. Dan. Baumann.
It is interesting to note that Christopher's surname was not passed down to him from his father, but instead came from his mother's side of the family. His father was Samuel Heinrich Heldt, described in the German parish records as a "colonist", or farmer. His mother was Anne Marie Catharine Lichte (see :figref refid=clichte.). It was customary for the husband (and children) of a woman who inherited land to take the woman's name, rather than the wife taking the husband's name. Christopher Sr.'s mother, then, was apparently a landowner, by inheritance, when she married Samuel Heldt.
After posting marriage banns on December 5, 12, and 19, Christopher Lichte Sr. and Anne Marie Elisabeth 'Mary' Ellermann were married in the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Gohfeld, on December 26, 1817. According to her gravestone, Christopher's bride, Anne Marie Elisabeth 'Mary' Ellermann, was born in Prussia a year earlier than Christopher, on July 12, 1796. Mary's parents were Julian Adolph Ellermann and Anne Catharine Hasenjaeger.
As soon as Christopher Sr. and Mary were married, they set up housekeeping in Melbergen, a small village located just northwest of Gohfeld. Christopher was a farmer, and he and Mary probably lived in Melbergen until their emigration to America. We know that all eleven children born to Christopher and Mary during the period 1820-1841 (including Christopher Jr.) were born at #22 Melbergen, and that all of these children were baptized at the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Gohfeld, which served the village of Melbergen.
When Christopher Sr. and Mary Lichte emigrated to America, they brought their six surviving children with them. Their other five children had died in infancy. While we don't know the exact date on which Christopher and Mary emigrated to America with their family, we can narrow the date down to a relatively short time period. The last child born to Christopher and Mary in Melbergen was born on January 22, 1841. A notation made on the child's baptismal record indicates that the child died on July 7, 1842. Therefore, the Lichte family must have lived in Melbergen (or, at least, in the Gohfeld area) in July of 1842. Our earliest record of the Lichte family in America is the marriage of one of the Lichte children in Warren County, Missouri, in October of 1846. It would appear safe, then, to surmise that the Lichte family emigrated to America, and settled in southern Warren County, between July of 1842 and October of 1846. The Lichte family may have emigrated to Warren County in 1843. In the fall of 1843, the Friedrich W. Hasenjaeger family emigrated from Melbergen to Warren County. Christopher Lichte's mother-in-law was a Hasenjaeger, and the Lichte family also emigrated from Melbergen, so it is possible that the families were related, and that they emigrated together.
:fig id=clichte frame=box depth='4.4i'.
:figcap.Lichte family chart
:figdesc.The ancestry of Christopher Lichte, Jr.
:efig.
Henry Lichte, oldest surviving child of Christopher Sr. and Mary Lichte, was married to Mrs. Mahla (Schnell) Corder in Warren County, Missouri, in October of 1846. The Lichte family had apparently not yet allied themselves with the newly-formed Smith Creek Methodist Episcopal congregation, as Henry and Mahla were married by a Justice of the Peace.
Like many German immigrant fathers, Christopher Lichte Sr. must have sent at least one of his daughters to St. Louis to work soon after they settled in Warren County. It was while she was working in St. Louis that Charlotte Lichte, Christopher's eldest daughter, met Fritz Mueller. In November of 1847, a year after the marriage of her older brother, Charlotte Lichte and Fritz Mueller were married. They were married in Warren County by Rev. Charles (Karl) Koeneke, "German Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church". Their marriage was the very first recorded in the early records of the Methodist Episcopal church in southern Warren County.
In February of 1848, Christopher Lichte Sr. bought his first farm in America when he purchased a forty-acre parcel of land in southern Warren County from Christian and Charlotte Meyer for $110. The farm was located about one-half mile northwest of the Smith Creek Methodist Church. On the map provided by :figref refid=mlichte., the first Christopher Lichte farm can be described as the southwest corner of the 113-acre farm identified as the H. Schotte farm in the southwest corner of Section 34, northwest of the Smith Creek Methodist Church (identified as the "Dutch Ch." in Section 3 on the map).
The 1850 Federal census of Warren County, Missouri gives us a glimpse of the Lichte family in September of that year. The Christopher Lichte Sr. household consisted of Christopher Sr., who was listed as a farmer owning land valued at $200; his wife; their youngest daughter, 15-year-old Justina; and their youngest son, 13-year-old Christopher Jr. The families of Christopher's son Henry, and his daughter Charlotte, were enumerated on neighboring farms.
In August of 1851, Christopher Lichte Sr. and his wife sold the forty-acre farm that they bought in 1848 to Christopher Meyer for $245.
In January of 1852, another of Christopher Lichte's sons was married when Hermann Lichte married Caroline Sundermeier. They were married by Nikolaus Reitz, the minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in southern Warren County. Only two months later, in March of 1852, Christopher Lichte's youngest daughter, Justina Lichte, was married to Henry Wilkening. They, too, were married by Nikolaus Reitz. With Justina married, Christopher Lichte Jr. was the only Lichte child left at home with Christopher Sr. and his wife.
The Christopher Lichte Sr. family was not to be the only Lichte family in the Warren County area. About 1854, a Wilhelm Lichte brought his family over from Prussia to join him in America. They settled in the Smith Creek area in southern Warren County. Wilhelm Lichte was born in Prussia in 1821. Two children were born to Wilhelm in the Smith Creek area in 1856 and 1859. The Wilhelm Lichte family moved soon thereafter to the Big Spring area in Montgomery County, about fifteen miles to the northwest.
There was at least one other Lichte family in the Big Creek area. In 1858, a Heinrich Lichte brought his family to America, and settled in Montgomery County, Missouri. In 1860, this Heinrich Lichte was Wilhelm Lichte's next-door neighbor in the Big Spring area. Heinrich was born in 1817, lived in the Big Creek area for a number of years, and was buried in the same cemetery in Big Creek as some of the Wilhelm Lichte family.
While the relationship has not yet been determined, the Wilhelm Lichte family and Christopher Lichte Sr. family are undoubtedly related. They attended the same Methodist Episcopal Church in Warren County, and can be traced back to the same Lutheran Evangelical Church in Gohfeld, Prussia. There would later be a close relationship in the Big Spring area between descendants of Wilhelm Lichte and the family of Christopher Lichte's daughter, Justina.
On September 22, 1855, four years after he sold his first farm, Christopher Lichte Sr. bought fifty-one acres of land one and one-half miles west of the Smith Creek Methodist Church for $204. On the map provided by :figref refid=mlichte., the farm appears as the 51-acre C. Suidermeier farm in the northeast corner of Section 5. Christopher Sr. gave the prior owner of the land a two-year note for $204 to cover the purchase price of the land.
Christopher's new farm was located immediately southwest of a farm that Christopher's son, Hermann Lichte, had purchased in March of the previous year, and was adjacent to the Fritz Peitsmeier farm (which appears as the 100-acre H. Jaeger farm on the above-mentioned map).
:fig id=mlichte frame=box depth='7.5i'.
:figcap.Map of Smith Creek area
:figdesc.From Atlas Map of Warren County, Missouri,
published in 1877.
:efig.
The 1860 census of Warren County confirms that 23-year-old Christopher Lichte Jr. continued to live at home and help his 63-year-old father farm after his older brothers and sisters married. Christopher Lichte Sr. valued his farm at $500, and his personal property at $300.
In July of 1862, Christopher Sr. was probably introduced to a new neighbor. Mrs. Peitsmeier, who lived on the adjacent farm to the east of the Lichte farm with her four children, had been widowed seventeen months earlier. She was married to Henry Landwehr in July of 1862. This would be the first link in the relationship that would later be established between the Landwehr and the Lichte families.
When the Civil War erupted in the spring of 1861, Christopher Lichte Jr. was approaching his twenty-fourth birthday. As the youngest son, and the only son left at home, Christopher's parents may have persuaded Christopher not to enlist in the Union Army. Whatever the circumstances, Christopher Jr. apparently didn't serve in the military during the first sixteen months of the war. Then, on August 15, 1862, Christopher Jr. enrolled at the village of Holstein (about six miles from the Lichte farm) as a Private in Company G of the 59th Regiment of the newly-formed Enrolled Missouri Militia. He was ordered into active service at Warrenton, Missouri (about ten miles from the Lichte farm) by Colonel Morsey on October 9, 1862.
Service in the militia would not have required much of Christopher's time, leaving him free to continue helping his parents with their farm. Perhaps Maria Landwehr was visiting with her brother, Henry Landwehr, on the farm just east of the Lichte farm, when she and Christopher Jr. met. In any event, Christopher Lichte Jr. and Maria Landwehr were married in Warren County in January of 1864 by Gustav Hollmann, Minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in southern Warren County. For further information about Christopher Lichte Jr. and Maria Landwehr, see :hdref refid=maria..
On January 12, 1864, Christopher Lichte Sr. and his wife sold the 51-acre farm they had purchased in 1855. They sold the farm to Charles Sundermeyer for $1000. We have not been able to locate any further record of land ownership by Christopher Lichte Sr. Considering the fact that Christopher Sr. was sixty-six years old when he and his wife sold their farm in 1864, it would seem likely that they spent the balance of their lives with the family of one of their children. It is probably more than a coincidence that Christopher Sr. sold his farm just two weeks before his last child to leave home, Christopher Jr., was married.
Christopher Sr. and Mary Lichte apparently lived with their daughter, Charlotte Mueller, and her family, after they sold their farm in 1864. Mary Lichte died on March 25, 1870. She was buried in the Miller family cemetery, on the Fritz Mueller farm on Lost Creek. The cemetery is located about two miles north of the farm that Christopher Lichte Sr. sold in 1864. When the Federal census of southern Warren County was taken four months later, Christopher Lichte Sr. was living with the Fritz and Charlotte Mueller family. Hermann Lichte, one of Christopher's sons, was living only three farmsteads distant from the Fritz Mueller farm.
Christopher Lichte Sr. died in early January of 1874. He was buried beside his wife in the Miller family cemetery on Lost Creek. On January 19, the Judge of the Warren County Probate Court issued a citation summoning Hermann Lichte (son of Christopher Sr.) to file an inventory in the estate of Christopher Lichte Sr., deceased. The inventory of the Christopher Lichte Sr. estate, filed by Hermann Lichte, listed the following:
.in +5
:ul compact.
:li.a note on "Christopher Leichte" $100.00
:li.interest thereon $ 25.00
:li.a note on "Henry Schreder" $300.00
:li.interest thereon $ 21.00
:li.a note of "Fred Miller" $200.00
:li.interest thereon $ 12.00
:li.account against "Fred Miller" $ 45.00
:li.Herman Leichte account $ 55.00
:li.account against "Wm Life" $ 5.00
:eul.
.in -5
The "note on Christopher Leichte" for $100.00 probably represented a loan made by Christopher Lichte Sr. to Christopher Lichte Jr. The "note of Fred Miller" for $200 probably represented a loan made by Christopher Lichte Sr. to Fritz and Charlotte (Lichte) Mueller.
One of the estate papers is a receipt for $36.00 paid by Hermann Lichte on June 8, 1874 for a double gravestone "for Christ. Lichte & wife deceased". It is interesting to note that the largest payment made by Hermann Lichte in the settlement of the Christopher Lichte Sr. estate was $176.50 paid to Friedrich Mueller. The payment covered $4.50 paid by Friedrich Mueller to F. Paulsmeier on Christopher Lichte's behalf, $3.00 for funeral expenses, $72.00 for "boarding for 3 years at $24.00 a year", and $97.00 for "nursing in his last sickness". When the estate was settled, $444.00 remained to be distributed among the heirs.
The decade from 1870 to 1880 was a tragic period for the Lichte family. Christopher Lichte Sr. died in 1874, and his wife in 1870. Of the six children who emigrated to America with Christopher Sr. and Mary Lichte, at least four of them died during this decade. Henry Lichte probably died in Minnesota about 1870-73, Hermann Lichte and his wife both died in 1875, Charlotte (Lichte) Mueller died in 1877, Christopher Lichte Jr. died about 1874, and his wife died in 1879. The only Lichte who survived the 1870's was Justina (Lichte) Wilkening, who had been widowed by the Civil War in 1862. And Justina was the only one of the Lichte children who would live to celebrate their fifty-fifth birthday.
.br
.sk 2
:hp3.Children of Johann Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher' Lichte
Sr.:ehp3.
.br
.sk 1
:ol.
:li.Christoph Heinrich Lichte was born on January 30, 1820, and was baptized on February 6. He died on February 3, 1821.
:li.Christoph Heinrich 'Henry' Lichte was the second son of Christopher and Mary Lichte. They lost their first son at about one year of age. When their second son was born on September 13, 1821, they used the name of Christoph Heinrich a second time. Their second son was baptized on September 23.
Soon after emigrating to America with his parents, Henry Lichte was married to Amalia 'Mahla' (Schnell) Corder in Warren County, Missouri, on October 8, 1846. Mahla was born in the German state of Hesse Darmstadt, approximately 1806-11. Mahla and her previous husband apparently married and started their family before they emigrated to America between 1838 and 1842, and Mr. Corder apparently died in 1846. When Henry and Mahla married in 1846, Mahla had at least three children from her first marriage, and was probably expecting the birth of another child from her prior marriage.
The 1850 Federal census of Warren County indicates that Henry Lichte, his wife, his four step-children (Christina, Henry, Wilmina, and Caroline Corder), and his own infant son, were living only seven households distant from the farm of Christopher Lichte Sr.
On April 11, 1856, Henry Lichte and his wife signed a quit claim deed giving up any rights they had to a forty-acre parcel of land in northern Warren County. The land was located about twelve miles north of the farms owned by Henry's father, and Henry's brother, Hermann Lichte.
Some time between 1856 and 1870, Henry moved his family north to Red Wing, Minnesota. From the 1870 census of Red Wing, we learn that Henry was working in a saw mill. He must have also owned a farm, as he valued his real estate at $1800, and his personal property at $100. Living with Henry and Mahla were three children, all offspring of their marriage.
While we don't know the date of Henry's death, it occured during the 1870's. Henry's share of his father's estate was paid to Henry's two children on March 26, 1877, indicating that Henry died prior to that date. Henry probably died in Red Wing, Minnesota.
:li.Hermann Heinrich Lichte was born on October 30, 1823, and was baptized on November 9. After emigrating to America, Hermann was married to Caroline Friederike Sundermeier, daughter of Anton F. Sundermeier and Anne M. Christine Lubbing. They were married at the home of the bride's parents, in Warren County, on January 6, 1852. Caroline was born in the Prussian village of Rehme, only three miles northwest of Hermann's birthplace at Melbergen, on November 14, 1834. She was seventeen years old, and Hermann was almost twenty-nine years old.
On March 26, 1854, Hermann bought 77.5 acres of land just one mile west of the farm that his father had sold only three years earlier. On the map provided as :figref refid=mlichte., this farm appears as the J. Lohman farm in the southwest corner of Section 33. By 1860, Hermann valued his farm property at $500. He lived only three dwellings distant from the farmstead of Christopher Lichte Sr.
On April 11, 1864, Hermann sold his 77.5-acre farm to John Lohmann. On June 18 and September 8 of that same year, Hermann purchased 340 acres of land four miles north of the Smith Creek Methodist Church. On the map provided as :figref refid=mlichte., most of this 340 acres can be identified as the 160-acre W. Meier farm in Section 15, the eighty-acre H. Lichte farm in the southwest corner of Section 15, and the eighty-acre L. Lichte farm in the northeast corner of Section 21 and the northwest corner of Section 22.
When the Federal census of southern Warren County was taken in 1870, Christopher Lichte Sr. was living with the Fritz and Charlotte Mueller family. Hermann Lichte was living only three houses distant from the Fritz Mueller farm. Hermann had been quite successful. He valued his real estate at $3500, and his personal property at $1000.
In 1875, the Hochfeld Evangelical Church was built on Pinckney Ridge on land donated by Ernest Dothage and Fred Backs. The site had already been used as a burying ground, as a daughter of Hermann and Caroline Lichte was buried there in 1872. The church was located only about two miles east of the Hermann Lichte farm, and Hermann's family were among the first members of the church.
Later that same year, Hermann Lichte died at the age of fifty-two. His gravestone indicates that his death occured on December 13, 1875, but the date could be in error by one day. Doctor bills paid by the administrator of his estate indicate that a doctor called on Hermann on December 4, 6, 8, 11, and 14. Ernest Dothage billed Hermann's estate for $16.00 for a coffin made on December 15. Hermann was one of the first persons buried in the cemetery of the newly-constructed Hochfeld Evangelical Church.
Hermann's widow, Caroline, died on December 21, just eight days after Hermann's death. A doctor visited Caroline on December 19 and 20. Earnest Dothage billed Hermann's estate for $16.00 for a second coffin, made on December 22. Caroline was buried beside her husband in the Hochfeld Evangelical Church cemetery.
Hermann and Caroline Lichte were survived by seven children, ranging from one year to twenty years in age. In the final settlement of the Hermann Lichte estate, each of the children received $101.64.
:li.Anne Marie Caroline Friedrike 'Charlotte' Lichte was born on December 5, 1825, and was baptized on December 11. After emigrating to America, she married Fritz Mueller in Warren County on November 27, 1847.
Friedrich 'Fritz' Mueller (frequently referred to as Miller, even in the mid-1800's) was born in Prussia in May of 1816. The book Historic Sites of Warren County, published by The Warren County Historical Society, reports that
"he (Fritz) and a brother arrived in New York about 1836 with only fifty cents. They worked their way to St. Louis, where one brother found employment on a dairy farm. Frederick drove a coal wagon and shovelled and delivered coal. He met Charlotte Lichte, a Warren County girl employed at the old Planters' Hotel in St. Louis."
Fritz Mueller had apparently purchased a forty-acre farm about one and one-half miles northwest of the Smith Creek Methodist Church in 1844, three years before he was married. Fritz and Charlotte surely started married life with modest means. They probably initially lived on Fritz's forty-acre farm. In 1850, Fritz valued his real estate at only $300. Then, in December of 1854, after seven years of marriage, Fritz and Charlotte sold their forty-acre farm, and bought a nearby farm of 1002 acres. The new farm, on Lost Creek, was a part of one of the early Spanish land grants located along the banks of the lower Missouri River. The farm appears as the F. Mueller farm on the map provided as :figref refid=mlichte.. There, Fritz and Charlotte lived in a log house that they gradually added to as their family grew. By 1870, Fritz Mueller would value his real estate at $3000, and his personal property at $1400.
Fritz and Charlotte attended the Methodist Episcopal Church. Charlotte died on December 9, 1877, at the age of fifty-two. She had been ill with "lung fever" (pneumonia) for six days prior to her death. She was survived by her husband, four sons, and three daughters. Three children preceeded her in death.
:li.Caroline Louise Lichte was born on October 3, 1827, and baptized on October 14. We know very little about Caroline after her baptism. The final settlement of the estate of Christopher Lichte Sr. directed the administrator of the estate to distribute the proceeds of the estate to the listed heirs. The heirs were the six children of Christopher Sr. One of the six children was listed as "the heirs of Caroline Meier", indicating that Caroline Lichte had married a Mr. Meier, and that they had one or more children, but that Caroline died before her father.
:li.Friedrich Wilhelm Lichte was born on September 2, 1830, and was baptized on September 12. He died on October 19, 1831.
:li.Justine Friederike Lichte was born on October 19, 1833. She may have died at birth, as church records don't include the date of her baptism.
:li.Justine Wilhelmine Henriette 'Justina' Lichte was born on November 16, 1834, and was baptized on November 23. Justina emigrated to America with her parents as a young child. She was married to Heinrich L. 'Henry' Wilkening in Warren County on March 14, 1852. Henry, born in Prussia about 1829-30, was the son of Carl and Friederike Wilkening.
Justina and Henry moved to the Big Spring area, in Montgomery County, Missouri, in 1861. The Civil War broke out that same year, and Henry served as a Private in Company K of the 33rd Regiment of Missouri Infantry. Henry died in Houston, Missouri, on December 23, 1862, of a gunshot wound in the right arm, and pneumonia.
Henry and Justina were the parents of seven children. In July of 1870, Justina was living in Loutre Township of Montgomery County, Missouri. Living with her were four of her five surviving children. Census records suggest that Justina may have been receiving some assistance from a Fredrick Lichte family who lived in the same area.
In 1872, Justina bought a store in Big Spring, where she would live the remainder of her life. Justina was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout her life in America. She died on May 23, 1913, and was buried in the Big Spring Methodist Church Cemetery at Big Spring. She was survived by three of her children.
:li.Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher Jr.' Lichte was the third son of Christopher Sr. to be baptized Christoph Heinrich. He was born on April 23, 1837, and was baptized on April 30. The witnesses to his baptism were Johann Heinrich Lichte, Christoph Heinrich Koeste, and Daniel Heinrich Stucke. Christopher Jr. emigrated to America with his parents as a youngster. On January 29, 1864, he was married in southern Warren County to Anna Maria Friederike 'Maria' Landwehr, daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm Landwehr and Anna Maria Ilsabein Bonsen. Further information about Christopher's life after his marriage is provided by :hdref refid=maria..
:li.Johann Friedrich Christian Lichte was born on September 7, 1839, and was baptized on September 8. He died three days later, on September 11.
:li.Carl Christoph Heinrich Lichte was born on January 22, 1841, and was baptized on January 31. He died on July 7, 1842.
Johann Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher' Lichte (Christopher Sr.) was born in the vicinity of the Prussian village of Gohfeld, on July 1, 1797. Gohfeld is located only thirteen miles northeast of Joellenbeck (see #10 on :figref refid=minden. for the location of Gohfeld). Christopher Sr. was baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Gohfeld three days after his birth, on July 4. The witnesses to Christopher's baptism were Johann Heinrich Lichte, Christoph Sundmann, and Joh. Dan. Baumann.
It is interesting to note that Christopher's surname was not passed down to him from his father, but instead came from his mother's side of the family. His father was Samuel Heinrich Heldt, described in the German parish records as a "colonist", or farmer. His mother was Anne Marie Catharine Lichte (see :figref refid=clichte.). It was customary for the husband (and children) of a woman who inherited land to take the woman's name, rather than the wife taking the husband's name. Christopher Sr.'s mother, then, was apparently a landowner, by inheritance, when she married Samuel Heldt.
After posting marriage banns on December 5, 12, and 19, Christopher Lichte Sr. and Anne Marie Elisabeth 'Mary' Ellermann were married in the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Gohfeld, on December 26, 1817. According to her gravestone, Christopher's bride, Anne Marie Elisabeth 'Mary' Ellermann, was born in Prussia a year earlier than Christopher, on July 12, 1796. Mary's parents were Julian Adolph Ellermann and Anne Catharine Hasenjaeger.
As soon as Christopher Sr. and Mary were married, they set up housekeeping in Melbergen, a small village located just northwest of Gohfeld. Christopher was a farmer, and he and Mary probably lived in Melbergen until their emigration to America. We know that all eleven children born to Christopher and Mary during the period 1820-1841 (including Christopher Jr.) were born at #22 Melbergen, and that all of these children were baptized at the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Gohfeld, which served the village of Melbergen.
When Christopher Sr. and Mary Lichte emigrated to America, they brought their six surviving children with them. Their other five children had died in infancy. While we don't know the exact date on which Christopher and Mary emigrated to America with their family, we can narrow the date down to a relatively short time period. The last child born to Christopher and Mary in Melbergen was born on January 22, 1841. A notation made on the child's baptismal record indicates that the child died on July 7, 1842. Therefore, the Lichte family must have lived in Melbergen (or, at least, in the Gohfeld area) in July of 1842. Our earliest record of the Lichte family in America is the marriage of one of the Lichte children in Warren County, Missouri, in October of 1846. It would appear safe, then, to surmise that the Lichte family emigrated to America, and settled in southern Warren County, between July of 1842 and October of 1846. The Lichte family may have emigrated to Warren County in 1843. In the fall of 1843, the Friedrich W. Hasenjaeger family emigrated from Melbergen to Warren County. Christopher Lichte's mother-in-law was a Hasenjaeger, and the Lichte family also emigrated from Melbergen, so it is possible that the families were related, and that they emigrated together.
:fig id=clichte frame=box depth='4.4i'.
:figcap.Lichte family chart
:figdesc.The ancestry of Christopher Lichte, Jr.
:efig.
Henry Lichte, oldest surviving child of Christopher Sr. and Mary Lichte, was married to Mrs. Mahla (Schnell) Corder in Warren County, Missouri, in October of 1846. The Lichte family had apparently not yet allied themselves with the newly-formed Smith Creek Methodist Episcopal congregation, as Henry and Mahla were married by a Justice of the Peace.
Like many German immigrant fathers, Christopher Lichte Sr. must have sent at least one of his daughters to St. Louis to work soon after they settled in Warren County. It was while she was working in St. Louis that Charlotte Lichte, Christopher's eldest daughter, met Fritz Mueller. In November of 1847, a year after the marriage of her older brother, Charlotte Lichte and Fritz Mueller were married. They were married in Warren County by Rev. Charles (Karl) Koeneke, "German Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church". Their marriage was the very first recorded in the early records of the Methodist Episcopal church in southern Warren County.
In February of 1848, Christopher Lichte Sr. bought his first farm in America when he purchased a forty-acre parcel of land in southern Warren County from Christian and Charlotte Meyer for $110. The farm was located about one-half mile northwest of the Smith Creek Methodist Church. On the map provided by :figref refid=mlichte., the first Christopher Lichte farm can be described as the southwest corner of the 113-acre farm identified as the H. Schotte farm in the southwest corner of Section 34, northwest of the Smith Creek Methodist Church (identified as the "Dutch Ch." in Section 3 on the map).
The 1850 Federal census of Warren County, Missouri gives us a glimpse of the Lichte family in September of that year. The Christopher Lichte Sr. household consisted of Christopher Sr., who was listed as a farmer owning land valued at $200; his wife; their youngest daughter, 15-year-old Justina; and their youngest son, 13-year-old Christopher Jr. The families of Christopher's son Henry, and his daughter Charlotte, were enumerated on neighboring farms.
In August of 1851, Christopher Lichte Sr. and his wife sold the forty-acre farm that they bought in 1848 to Christopher Meyer for $245.
In January of 1852, another of Christopher Lichte's sons was married when Hermann Lichte married Caroline Sundermeier. They were married by Nikolaus Reitz, the minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in southern Warren County. Only two months later, in March of 1852, Christopher Lichte's youngest daughter, Justina Lichte, was married to Henry Wilkening. They, too, were married by Nikolaus Reitz. With Justina married, Christopher Lichte Jr. was the only Lichte child left at home with Christopher Sr. and his wife.
The Christopher Lichte Sr. family was not to be the only Lichte family in the Warren County area. About 1854, a Wilhelm Lichte brought his family over from Prussia to join him in America. They settled in the Smith Creek area in southern Warren County. Wilhelm Lichte was born in Prussia in 1821. Two children were born to Wilhelm in the Smith Creek area in 1856 and 1859. The Wilhelm Lichte family moved soon thereafter to the Big Spring area in Montgomery County, about fifteen miles to the northwest.
There was at least one other Lichte family in the Big Creek area. In 1858, a Heinrich Lichte brought his family to America, and settled in Montgomery County, Missouri. In 1860, this Heinrich Lichte was Wilhelm Lichte's next-door neighbor in the Big Spring area. Heinrich was born in 1817, lived in the Big Creek area for a number of years, and was buried in the same cemetery in Big Creek as some of the Wilhelm Lichte family.
While the relationship has not yet been determined, the Wilhelm Lichte family and Christopher Lichte Sr. family are undoubtedly related. They attended the same Methodist Episcopal Church in Warren County, and can be traced back to the same Lutheran Evangelical Church in Gohfeld, Prussia. There would later be a close relationship in the Big Spring area between descendants of Wilhelm Lichte and the family of Christopher Lichte's daughter, Justina.
On September 22, 1855, four years after he sold his first farm, Christopher Lichte Sr. bought fifty-one acres of land one and one-half miles west of the Smith Creek Methodist Church for $204. On the map provided by :figref refid=mlichte., the farm appears as the 51-acre C. Suidermeier farm in the northeast corner of Section 5. Christopher Sr. gave the prior owner of the land a two-year note for $204 to cover the purchase price of the land.
Christopher's new farm was located immediately southwest of a farm that Christopher's son, Hermann Lichte, had purchased in March of the previous year, and was adjacent to the Fritz Peitsmeier farm (which appears as the 100-acre H. Jaeger farm on the above-mentioned map).
:fig id=mlichte frame=box depth='7.5i'.
:figcap.Map of Smith Creek area
:figdesc.From Atlas Map of Warren County, Missouri,
published in 1877.
:efig.
The 1860 census of Warren County confirms that 23-year-old Christopher Lichte Jr. continued to live at home and help his 63-year-old father farm after his older brothers and sisters married. Christopher Lichte Sr. valued his farm at $500, and his personal property at $300.
In July of 1862, Christopher Sr. was probably introduced to a new neighbor. Mrs. Peitsmeier, who lived on the adjacent farm to the east of the Lichte farm with her four children, had been widowed seventeen months earlier. She was married to Henry Landwehr in July of 1862. This would be the first link in the relationship that would later be established between the Landwehr and the Lichte families.
When the Civil War erupted in the spring of 1861, Christopher Lichte Jr. was approaching his twenty-fourth birthday. As the youngest son, and the only son left at home, Christopher's parents may have persuaded Christopher not to enlist in the Union Army. Whatever the circumstances, Christopher Jr. apparently didn't serve in the military during the first sixteen months of the war. Then, on August 15, 1862, Christopher Jr. enrolled at the village of Holstein (about six miles from the Lichte farm) as a Private in Company G of the 59th Regiment of the newly-formed Enrolled Missouri Militia. He was ordered into active service at Warrenton, Missouri (about ten miles from the Lichte farm) by Colonel Morsey on October 9, 1862.
Service in the militia would not have required much of Christopher's time, leaving him free to continue helping his parents with their farm. Perhaps Maria Landwehr was visiting with her brother, Henry Landwehr, on the farm just east of the Lichte farm, when she and Christopher Jr. met. In any event, Christopher Lichte Jr. and Maria Landwehr were married in Warren County in January of 1864 by Gustav Hollmann, Minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in southern Warren County. For further information about Christopher Lichte Jr. and Maria Landwehr, see :hdref refid=maria..
On January 12, 1864, Christopher Lichte Sr. and his wife sold the 51-acre farm they had purchased in 1855. They sold the farm to Charles Sundermeyer for $1000. We have not been able to locate any further record of land ownership by Christopher Lichte Sr. Considering the fact that Christopher Sr. was sixty-six years old when he and his wife sold their farm in 1864, it would seem likely that they spent the balance of their lives with the family of one of their children. It is probably more than a coincidence that Christopher Sr. sold his farm just two weeks before his last child to leave home, Christopher Jr., was married.
Christopher Sr. and Mary Lichte apparently lived with their daughter, Charlotte Mueller, and her family, after they sold their farm in 1864. Mary Lichte died on March 25, 1870. She was buried in the Miller family cemetery, on the Fritz Mueller farm on Lost Creek. The cemetery is located about two miles north of the farm that Christopher Lichte Sr. sold in 1864. When the Federal census of southern Warren County was taken four months later, Christopher Lichte Sr. was living with the Fritz and Charlotte Mueller family. Hermann Lichte, one of Christopher's sons, was living only three farmsteads distant from the Fritz Mueller farm.
Christopher Lichte Sr. died in early January of 1874. He was buried beside his wife in the Miller family cemetery on Lost Creek. On January 19, the Judge of the Warren County Probate Court issued a citation summoning Hermann Lichte (son of Christopher Sr.) to file an inventory in the estate of Christopher Lichte Sr., deceased. The inventory of the Christopher Lichte Sr. estate, filed by Hermann Lichte, listed the following:
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:li.a note on "Christopher Leichte" $100.00
:li.interest thereon $ 25.00
:li.a note on "Henry Schreder" $300.00
:li.interest thereon $ 21.00
:li.a note of "Fred Miller" $200.00
:li.interest thereon $ 12.00
:li.account against "Fred Miller" $ 45.00
:li.Herman Leichte account $ 55.00
:li.account against "Wm Life" $ 5.00
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The "note on Christopher Leichte" for $100.00 probably represented a loan made by Christopher Lichte Sr. to Christopher Lichte Jr. The "note of Fred Miller" for $200 probably represented a loan made by Christopher Lichte Sr. to Fritz and Charlotte (Lichte) Mueller.
One of the estate papers is a receipt for $36.00 paid by Hermann Lichte on June 8, 1874 for a double gravestone "for Christ. Lichte & wife deceased". It is interesting to note that the largest payment made by Hermann Lichte in the settlement of the Christopher Lichte Sr. estate was $176.50 paid to Friedrich Mueller. The payment covered $4.50 paid by Friedrich Mueller to F. Paulsmeier on Christopher Lichte's behalf, $3.00 for funeral expenses, $72.00 for "boarding for 3 years at $24.00 a year", and $97.00 for "nursing in his last sickness". When the estate was settled, $444.00 remained to be distributed among the heirs.
The decade from 1870 to 1880 was a tragic period for the Lichte family. Christopher Lichte Sr. died in 1874, and his wife in 1870. Of the six children who emigrated to America with Christopher Sr. and Mary Lichte, at least four of them died during this decade. Henry Lichte probably died in Minnesota about 1870-73, Hermann Lichte and his wife both died in 1875, Charlotte (Lichte) Mueller died in 1877, Christopher Lichte Jr. died about 1874, and his wife died in 1879. The only Lichte who survived the 1870's was Justina (Lichte) Wilkening, who had been widowed by the Civil War in 1862. And Justina was the only one of the Lichte children who would live to celebrate their fifty-fifth birthday.
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:hp3.Children of Johann Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher' Lichte
Sr.:ehp3.
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:li.Christoph Heinrich Lichte was born on January 30, 1820, and was baptized on February 6. He died on February 3, 1821.
:li.Christoph Heinrich 'Henry' Lichte was the second son of Christopher and Mary Lichte. They lost their first son at about one year of age. When their second son was born on September 13, 1821, they used the name of Christoph Heinrich a second time. Their second son was baptized on September 23.
Soon after emigrating to America with his parents, Henry Lichte was married to Amalia 'Mahla' (Schnell) Corder in Warren County, Missouri, on October 8, 1846. Mahla was born in the German state of Hesse Darmstadt, approximately 1806-11. Mahla and her previous husband apparently married and started their family before they emigrated to America between 1838 and 1842, and Mr. Corder apparently died in 1846. When Henry and Mahla married in 1846, Mahla had at least three children from her first marriage, and was probably expecting the birth of another child from her prior marriage.
The 1850 Federal census of Warren County indicates that Henry Lichte, his wife, his four step-children (Christina, Henry, Wilmina, and Caroline Corder), and his own infant son, were living only seven households distant from the farm of Christopher Lichte Sr.
On April 11, 1856, Henry Lichte and his wife signed a quit claim deed giving up any rights they had to a forty-acre parcel of land in northern Warren County. The land was located about twelve miles north of the farms owned by Henry's father, and Henry's brother, Hermann Lichte.
Some time between 1856 and 1870, Henry moved his family north to Red Wing, Minnesota. From the 1870 census of Red Wing, we learn that Henry was working in a saw mill. He must have also owned a farm, as he valued his real estate at $1800, and his personal property at $100. Living with Henry and Mahla were three children, all offspring of their marriage.
While we don't know the date of Henry's death, it occured during the 1870's. Henry's share of his father's estate was paid to Henry's two children on March 26, 1877, indicating that Henry died prior to that date. Henry probably died in Red Wing, Minnesota.
:li.Hermann Heinrich Lichte was born on October 30, 1823, and was baptized on November 9. After emigrating to America, Hermann was married to Caroline Friederike Sundermeier, daughter of Anton F. Sundermeier and Anne M. Christine Lubbing. They were married at the home of the bride's parents, in Warren County, on January 6, 1852. Caroline was born in the Prussian village of Rehme, only three miles northwest of Hermann's birthplace at Melbergen, on November 14, 1834. She was seventeen years old, and Hermann was almost twenty-nine years old.
On March 26, 1854, Hermann bought 77.5 acres of land just one mile west of the farm that his father had sold only three years earlier. On the map provided as :figref refid=mlichte., this farm appears as the J. Lohman farm in the southwest corner of Section 33. By 1860, Hermann valued his farm property at $500. He lived only three dwellings distant from the farmstead of Christopher Lichte Sr.
On April 11, 1864, Hermann sold his 77.5-acre farm to John Lohmann. On June 18 and September 8 of that same year, Hermann purchased 340 acres of land four miles north of the Smith Creek Methodist Church. On the map provided as :figref refid=mlichte., most of this 340 acres can be identified as the 160-acre W. Meier farm in Section 15, the eighty-acre H. Lichte farm in the southwest corner of Section 15, and the eighty-acre L. Lichte farm in the northeast corner of Section 21 and the northwest corner of Section 22.
When the Federal census of southern Warren County was taken in 1870, Christopher Lichte Sr. was living with the Fritz and Charlotte Mueller family. Hermann Lichte was living only three houses distant from the Fritz Mueller farm. Hermann had been quite successful. He valued his real estate at $3500, and his personal property at $1000.
In 1875, the Hochfeld Evangelical Church was built on Pinckney Ridge on land donated by Ernest Dothage and Fred Backs. The site had already been used as a burying ground, as a daughter of Hermann and Caroline Lichte was buried there in 1872. The church was located only about two miles east of the Hermann Lichte farm, and Hermann's family were among the first members of the church.
Later that same year, Hermann Lichte died at the age of fifty-two. His gravestone indicates that his death occured on December 13, 1875, but the date could be in error by one day. Doctor bills paid by the administrator of his estate indicate that a doctor called on Hermann on December 4, 6, 8, 11, and 14. Ernest Dothage billed Hermann's estate for $16.00 for a coffin made on December 15. Hermann was one of the first persons buried in the cemetery of the newly-constructed Hochfeld Evangelical Church.
Hermann's widow, Caroline, died on December 21, just eight days after Hermann's death. A doctor visited Caroline on December 19 and 20. Earnest Dothage billed Hermann's estate for $16.00 for a second coffin, made on December 22. Caroline was buried beside her husband in the Hochfeld Evangelical Church cemetery.
Hermann and Caroline Lichte were survived by seven children, ranging from one year to twenty years in age. In the final settlement of the Hermann Lichte estate, each of the children received $101.64.
:li.Anne Marie Caroline Friedrike 'Charlotte' Lichte was born on December 5, 1825, and was baptized on December 11. After emigrating to America, she married Fritz Mueller in Warren County on November 27, 1847.
Friedrich 'Fritz' Mueller (frequently referred to as Miller, even in the mid-1800's) was born in Prussia in May of 1816. The book Historic Sites of Warren County, published by The Warren County Historical Society, reports that
"he (Fritz) and a brother arrived in New York about 1836 with only fifty cents. They worked their way to St. Louis, where one brother found employment on a dairy farm. Frederick drove a coal wagon and shovelled and delivered coal. He met Charlotte Lichte, a Warren County girl employed at the old Planters' Hotel in St. Louis."
Fritz Mueller had apparently purchased a forty-acre farm about one and one-half miles northwest of the Smith Creek Methodist Church in 1844, three years before he was married. Fritz and Charlotte surely started married life with modest means. They probably initially lived on Fritz's forty-acre farm. In 1850, Fritz valued his real estate at only $300. Then, in December of 1854, after seven years of marriage, Fritz and Charlotte sold their forty-acre farm, and bought a nearby farm of 1002 acres. The new farm, on Lost Creek, was a part of one of the early Spanish land grants located along the banks of the lower Missouri River. The farm appears as the F. Mueller farm on the map provided as :figref refid=mlichte.. There, Fritz and Charlotte lived in a log house that they gradually added to as their family grew. By 1870, Fritz Mueller would value his real estate at $3000, and his personal property at $1400.
Fritz and Charlotte attended the Methodist Episcopal Church. Charlotte died on December 9, 1877, at the age of fifty-two. She had been ill with "lung fever" (pneumonia) for six days prior to her death. She was survived by her husband, four sons, and three daughters. Three children preceeded her in death.
:li.Caroline Louise Lichte was born on October 3, 1827, and baptized on October 14. We know very little about Caroline after her baptism. The final settlement of the estate of Christopher Lichte Sr. directed the administrator of the estate to distribute the proceeds of the estate to the listed heirs. The heirs were the six children of Christopher Sr. One of the six children was listed as "the heirs of Caroline Meier", indicating that Caroline Lichte had married a Mr. Meier, and that they had one or more children, but that Caroline died before her father.
:li.Friedrich Wilhelm Lichte was born on September 2, 1830, and was baptized on September 12. He died on October 19, 1831.
:li.Justine Friederike Lichte was born on October 19, 1833. She may have died at birth, as church records don't include the date of her baptism.
:li.Justine Wilhelmine Henriette 'Justina' Lichte was born on November 16, 1834, and was baptized on November 23. Justina emigrated to America with her parents as a young child. She was married to Heinrich L. 'Henry' Wilkening in Warren County on March 14, 1852. Henry, born in Prussia about 1829-30, was the son of Carl and Friederike Wilkening.
Justina and Henry moved to the Big Spring area, in Montgomery County, Missouri, in 1861. The Civil War broke out that same year, and Henry served as a Private in Company K of the 33rd Regiment of Missouri Infantry. Henry died in Houston, Missouri, on December 23, 1862, of a gunshot wound in the right arm, and pneumonia.
Henry and Justina were the parents of seven children. In July of 1870, Justina was living in Loutre Township of Montgomery County, Missouri. Living with her were four of her five surviving children. Census records suggest that Justina may have been receiving some assistance from a Fredrick Lichte family who lived in the same area.
In 1872, Justina bought a store in Big Spring, where she would live the remainder of her life. Justina was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout her life in America. She died on May 23, 1913, and was buried in the Big Spring Methodist Church Cemetery at Big Spring. She was survived by three of her children.
:li.Christoph Heinrich 'Christopher Jr.' Lichte was the third son of Christopher Sr. to be baptized Christoph Heinrich. He was born on April 23, 1837, and was baptized on April 30. The witnesses to his baptism were Johann Heinrich Lichte, Christoph Heinrich Koeste, and Daniel Heinrich Stucke. Christopher Jr. emigrated to America with his parents as a youngster. On January 29, 1864, he was married in southern Warren County to Anna Maria Friederike 'Maria' Landwehr, daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm Landwehr and Anna Maria Ilsabein Bonsen. Further information about Christopher's life after his marriage is provided by :hdref refid=maria..
:li.Johann Friedrich Christian Lichte was born on September 7, 1839, and was baptized on September 8. He died three days later, on September 11.
:li.Carl Christoph Heinrich Lichte was born on January 22, 1841, and was baptized on January 31. He died on July 7, 1842.