More than 50 people turned out Sunday to hear stories from the rich history of Loose Creek at the “Voices from the Past” Cemetery Tour in support of the 2020 family history book, which will include 715 stories and more than 1,000 pictures. The book can be pre-ordered now for $55 ahead of the 175th anniversary of the parish, which will be observed Oct. 10, 2020.

Organizers said they were pleased with the turnout and the sunshine, as rain had threatened to move the event into the school cafeteria due to wet grounds. Eight of the nine presentations were made at the grave markers.

Rita Linhardt and Joanie Backes brought to the life the story of Theodore and Mary Kliethermes in a joint presentation by the headstone.

Both Theodore and Mary were early settlers at Loose Creek.

Theodore was born in 1838 in Crefeld, Germany, a son of Peter Jacob Kliethermes and Mariana Waldhausen, who raised four children while trying to make a living as silk-weavers and tailors.

Mary was born in 1849 in Dusseldorf, Germany, and was raised in poverty. By the time she was 11, Mary was an orphan, and her aunt and uncle took her in.

Germany in the mid-1800s was in midst of social and political upheaval and war was coming to all areas.

“There was nothing keeping us there, as many Germans were fleeing the country seeking religious freedom and greater economic opportunity,” Mary said.

Theodore at 17 was facing conscription into the German army, so he and his brother, Wilhelm, 18, decided to leave the country. They took passage on the ship Elizabeth Denison, sailing from Rotterdam, Netherland, to New York in November of 1855.

Mary boarded a ship to make the great crossing and arrived in New Orleans, La. The journey was rough, with one person dying aboard ship and being buried at sea. Once in New Orleans, Mary and her family traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. By the time they arrived, they were nearly out of food, and were so thirsty, they drank water that had settled in the hoof prints of horses.

They were walking from Bonnots Mill to Loose Creek and had to ask in German where someone lived. It was a difficult journey.

Theodore and his brother made their way to Loose Creek, settling on farmland outside of town in what is now known as Cadet Creek Road. The farm had much to offer, and Theodore wrote to his parents, telling them of the delicious fruit grown on trees. Two years later, his siblings and parents joined him and Wilhelm in America. Life wasn’t easy as they gave up being silk-weavers and tailors and learned how to farm.

Mary said the work was hard, but she didn’t mind doing chores, including tending to the animals and outside farm work, because the family had its freedom.

America was in the midst of its own political upheaval, and in 1861, the Civil War broke out, during which Missouri was claimed by both the Union and Confederacy, with two competing state governments.

Theodore noted that Germans were by and large opposed to slavery, so when the call came up for recruits to fight for the North, he volunteered.

“It still amazes me that you fled Germany to avoid the draft, but here in America, you volunteered to serve your country,” Mary told her husband.

“That’s because I supported the cause I was fighting for,” Theodore replied.

His regiment, the 33rd Missouri Infantry, was organized at Benton Barracks in St. Louis, and after training, soldiers were ordered to the field in September of 1862. From then until he was discharged due to appendicitis in 1863, Theodore’s unit traveled to southern Missouri, Kentucky and Arkansas. They walked a lot, and encountered numerous skirmishes along the way.

“War is hell as I saw numerous men killed in battle, but just as bad was watching the number of men in our unit die from diseases such as dysentery, malaria, typhoid and pneumonia,” Theodore said. “It was a sight I’ll never forget.”

Mary and her family were always on the lookout for Confederate troops scouting the area for food and other things. Should soldiers from the South be spotted, the family would throw food and valuables into the flax fields to prevent the troops from finding them.

When he returned home from the war, Theodore settled down to farming, and in 1864, because of his service during the Civil War, he was awarded U.S. citizenship.

Theodore soon found his thoughts turning toward marriage, and he found the woman he would marry walking horses along the road. He asked Mary if the horses were for sale, and while they were not, that did not stop him from pursuing her.

They were married in 1868, and went to live on the homestead. His parents were getting on in years by then and welcomed the additional help on the farm.

Theodore and Mary were the proud parents of 11 children, but three of them died as infants and are buried at the IC cemetery.

They worked the land and struggled as everyone else did just to make an honest living and raise a family. In 1901, at the age of 63, Theodore died of a heart attack, and left his family with an uncertain future, as the farm that had been in the family for more than 50 years was nearly taken away.

The couple’s son, Ben, took over the farm after Theodore died, and with the help of kind neighbors, the family was able to pay off debts and save the farm.

In 1903, their daughter, Maggie, died suddenly at the age of 21. Three years later, Ben married Elizabeth Altheuser, who grew up on a farm across the Maries River. They lost two little girls, Rose in 1915, and Caroline in 1920, and then Ben died in 1922 at the age of 42.

“These deaths took a toll on us,” Mary remembers. “But we couldn’t give up. Together, she and I worked many days from sunup to sundown tending the land we loved and providing a home for our family.”

The children helped with chores and did what they could. Times were hard, but the family thrived.

Mary died in 1937 at the age of 87, and is buried next to Theodore.

Their legacy lives on with a plaque honoring Theodore’s military service, and a farm that has survived for more than 150 years. This family life would not have been possible had they remained in Germany.

JOHN PETER AND EVA (PUETZ) KARIS THORA

JOHN PETER AND ANNA ELLA “HELEN” (RACKERS) THORA

One of the early families of Loose Creek was the Thora family, remembered by some of the “old-timers” of Loose Creek, but the name has long disappeared from records in the area, presenter Glenn Robertson told visitors.

John Peter Thora was born July 1, 1819, in Osterath, Germany, a son of Michael Thora and Maria Verden who immigrated to America, arriving on Nov. 7, 1840, in New Orleans via Le Havre aboard the Edmund Perkins, with three of their known children, Johan Isbrandius, Maria Catherine and Johann “John” Peter.

John Peter was married March 9, 1847, by Fr. Ferdinand Helias to Eva Puetz Karis as recorded in the Taos records. Eva was the widow of Jacob Karis. The Karis family had immigrated to America in 1842 after the birth of two of their known children in Evinghoven, Prussia: Maria Helena on Aug. 18, 1839, and Johann Hubert on Sept. 3, 1841. The fate of these children is unknown. Jacob and Eva had one other child, John Karis, born in 1847. Jacob purchased 80 acres of land laying north and east of the church at Loose Creek, which was given to Eva upon his death on Aug. 6, 1844. Early land records show that John Peter Thora purchased an additional 80 acres of land on Aug. 9, 1851, and eventually purchased land totaling 360 acres. John and Eva built a house on the property and began welcoming children, but all three died shortly after birth.

It was probably the deaths of the last three children which contributed to Eva death on Dec. 15, 1857, at the age of 46.

On Jan. 4, 1859, John Peter Thora started a new chapter in his life by marrying Anna Ella “Helen” Rackers of Hanover, Germany. Helen was born in 1826 a daughter of Herman Joseph and Josephine Rackers. John and Helen had three children.

One item of interest on John Peter Thora is that he served in the Osage County Battalion, Missouri Home Guard during the Civil War between 1861 and 1865.

Although extensive research has been done, no trace of John Karis/Caris, Hubert Thora or Maria Christina Ahrens has been found.

Henry and his sister, Mary, continued to live in the original structure until their deaths. Albert Haslag remembers walking past the house every day on his way to school with the Krautmann boys.

The boys would rush to sell vegetable seeds to Mary, and he remembers the dirt floor in the one side being packed so hard it would shine. They always had a big, nice garden. When Henry was rejected by his fiancée, he threw a pitchfork through the siding on the new house he was building for her and never entered it again.

Hubert Bescheinen remembers that old Henry was a very intelligent man who served as a Justice of the Peace. He wrote land deeds, performed marriages and other legal matters. Hubert remembers Mary Thora as a tall woman who came to Sunday Mass without fail.

“She dressed for Sunday church like you would see someone from back in the 1800s with a long black dress with a bustle skirt, a big old-fashioned black bonnet and, in cool weather, a cape over her shoulders,” Bescheinen said. “They had a “dug-out” hole in the ground with a cover where they kept canned goods and their water came from a spring that was in the creek running through their property. They were good people but lived a very old primitive way of life.”

Jacob died Jan. 9, 1945, of pneumonia and Mary died Feb. 4, 1945.

JOHANN AND CECELIA (NIX) KRAUTMANN

Chris Boeckmann told the story of Johann Krautmann, who left Germany June 27, 1842, with his wife and children, and at the time, he could not have imagined how that one decision would so profoundly affect the futures of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Johann was born in 1809, ini Osterath, Germany, a son of Adam Krautmann and Catharina Kapes.

“The Germany he grew up in faced unsettled times with the threat of one war after another as nations in Europe struggled for power and land,” said Boeckmann. “Johann wanted to make something of his l life, and learned the trade of shoemaking, which would ensure a better life in the future.”

When he felt he was able to support and provide a family, he married Cecelia Nix from the neighboring community of Dormagen. They would have three known children born in Germany, Adam, Catharina and Gertrude.

Family, neighbors and friends had been talking for several years of the opportunities offered in America, and John and Cecelia made the decision to leave Germany in the summer of 1842 with their two girls, as Adam had presumably died since he is not on the ship’s records. Traveling with them was Cecelia’s sister, Maria Gertrude Nix, who later married Heinrich Buckendorf, who had immigrated in 1836.

Johann and Cecelia were anxious to get settled as their youngest, Gertrude, was only a few months old. Johann purchased 80 acres of land from the federal government, which is currently owned by Wendell Haslag. It was a beautiful spot, a large valley with a stream running through it, so available water was not a problem.

On the 1850 census, the family is listed as Eva, Casper “Hubert” and a toddler, Gertrude. “We can assume the elder Gertrude, born in Germany, had died,” said Boeckmann. In 1852, their youngest child, Cecelia, joined the family and was christened. Sadly, as with so many children of that time, she became ill and died.

As time passed, Johann added to his holdings by purchasing an additional 120 acres of land from the federal government by the end of 1856, and acquiring approximately 200 acres from Alphonse Jaminet, who had originally purchased the land from the federal government in 1855.

In the 1870 census, the widow Cecelia is listed as living with Eva and Theodore in Loose Creek, in a house that sat behind the home of her daughter, Gerhard and Catharine Voss. She enjoyed time with her grandchildren until her death in 1879.

Hubert raised cattle and crops on his farm, and he and Gertrude made a good life together, though there were tragedies. Boeckmann explained they had seven children, but the first three died within three months of birth. When their seventh child was born, both baby Gertrude and Margaret died, leaving Hubert with three young children to raise. He remarried a year later to Margaretha Wilbers, and they had one child, Anna.

Hubert and Margaretha had five years together before she died, and he married a third time to Maria Bode Luebbert.

Hubert’s son from his first marriage, John, bought farm in 1904, a year after he married Anna Maria Backes. They had four daughters, and while they worked hard, they found time to play as well.

The hills around the farm offered wonderful slopes to slide down when it snowed, and that is what the family was doing on April 11, 1915, after a late-spring snowstorm. The children had talked their mom, Anna, into taking a ride. She agreed, having been cooped up since the birth of her youngest on March 25.

During a slide down the hill, she collided with a tree, dislodged a kidney and died four days later.

A year later, John married Anna Gertrude Schmitz on May 10, 1916, in St. Louis. They had six children, all of whom obtained a college education.

As none of the children wanted the farm, it was sold to Conrad Haslag, and John and Anna Gertrude moved into a small home across from the church in Loose Creek, where the spent their last days.

ANNA MARGARET PAULINE MUENKS HASLAG DUDENHOEFFER

Janice Muenks Backes spoke of her ancestor, whom everyone called Maggie. She was born June 29, 1893, the oldest of eight children born to Arnold Muenks and Anna Katherine Ehren. She grew up on a farm owned by her parents that lays a west and a little north of Loose Creek, land now part of the Sunset Hills and Tower Ridge subdivisions.

Maggie and her siblings attended school in Loose Creek, walking to school each day.

Being the oldest, Maggie had a lot of responsibilities, and learned at a young age to work hard, helping her mother with the housework, and her father with the farm work when needed.

When she turned 16, Maggie lived with and worked for the Paul Niekamp family as a domestic housekeeper and babysitter.

But life wasn’t all about work. Maggie and her family attended socials with neighbors, and looked forward to the parish picnic every year. During one of these annual picnics, Maggie realized she was falling in love with Ted Haslag, with whom she had much in common, as both were raised on a farm, and both spoke Plattdeutsch due to their family heritage.

Ted, born Dec. 22, 1894, was the second youngest of six boys born to John Haslag and Anna Bernskoetter, and grew up on a farm down Lock’s Mill Road, which today is owned by Dennis and Carol Haslag Hentges.

Ted and Maggie were married July 1, 1913, at Immaculate Conception in Loose Creek, and lived in the big house his parents owned on the farm. Their first child, Leo, was born Jan. 27, 1914. The following January, Ted stepped on a nail, and Maggie did her best to treat it. He finally went to the doctor Jan. 12, 1915, but it was too late, and he died a week later of acute tetanus.

Maggie was devastated, but she kept going, raising young Leo while expecting a second child.

Hilda Ann was born July 3, 1915, two days after what would have been Ted and Maggie’s second anniversary.

At a loss, since her youngest brother, Bill, had been born in June, Maggie moved back to her parents’ home to help out and get some moral support.

Knowing she could not keep relying on the help of her parents, Maggie accepted a marriage proposal from Henry Dudenhoeffer a year after Ted died. The couple was married Aug. 8, 1916, when Maggie was 23.

Described as a kind man, Henry was the oldest of 13 children born to Joseph Jacob “Jake” Dudenhoeffer and Anna Katherine Ebert. Originally, Maggie and Henry rented a house near Buck Holler on Lock’s Mill Road. Soon, the couple began to have children, Lincoln Arnold, named for Maggie’s father, was born in February of 1917, but died nine days later; Alice Katherine was born Sept. 9, 1918 , but died 15 days later; Louis was born June 12, 1921, and Harry Michael, both Dec. 5, 1923, but both died within two weeks of their birth; and Melva Elizabeth, who was born March 2, 1929, died four days later.

Also in 1929, Maggie’s son, Leo, who had contracted polio years earlier and was confined to a wheelchair, died of pneumonia complicated by his progressive muscular atrophy.

All of this stress took its toll, and Maggie died Aug. 6, 1929, at the age of 36.

Henry was a lost soul, with little to comfort him. Unable to care for Maggie’s daughter, Hilda, she went to live with Maggie’s parents. Grandpa Arnold died Oct. 13, 1939, and Hilda remained with her grandmother until Nov. 22, 1939, when she married Albert Jaegers and inherited her grandparents’ farm along Rt. A. She and Albert remained childless, and Henry died Oct. 25, 1951. He is buried in Bonnots Mill.

Editor’s Note: Due to the extensive histories shared at this event, the remaining stories from “Voices of the Past” will be presented next week.