Although the title of this post might sound like a basketball score with Frohna coming out as the winner, it is not what it seems. It actually describes the ages of two rather seasoned citizens of East Perry County when they were married in 1978. The 85 year old hailed from Frohna, and the 68 year old was from Altenburg. Around here, it is a standard joke to say that any marriage between someone from Frohna and someone from Altenburg was a mixed marriage.
The 68 year old from Altenburg is also today’s birthday girl. She was born on January 17, 1910. Her name was Agnes Schmidt, although by the time of this marriage, her legal name was Agnes Hart. Agnes was the daughter of Martin and Elizabeth (Roth) Schmidt. Her father was the brother of some other characters that have shown up in previous blog posts. One of Martin’s brothers was Judge Adolph Schmidt, whose story was told in the post, Here Comes the Judge. Martin also had twin brothers, Arthur and Emanuel, whose story was told in the post, Two of a Kind….Later a Full House. In that post, another Agnes Schmidt was mentioned. She was another Schmidt sibling in that large family who never was married and lived with the twins’ family for many years. It is possible that today’s Agnes Schmidt was named after her Aunt Agnes. Agnes is the baby in this photo of the Martin Schmidt family.
Martin Schmidt family
Unlike her Aunt Agnes, this Agnes did get married. In fact, she married three times. On April 19, 1936, Agnes married Bernhard Fischer. Bernhard was the son of Edward and Katharina (Kuennel) Fischer. Bernhard is the young boy standing right next to his father in the front.
Edward Fischer family
Edward was the proprietor of the Fischer Store located in Altenburg. A previous post was written about the tragedies that took place in this family over the years. It was titled, Fischer Heartbreak. One of the heartbreaks that occurred in that family happened when Bernhard died just three months after he was married in 1936. Here is Bernhard’s death certificate.
Bernhard Fischer death certificate
Bernhard was just 31 years old when he died. His brother, Dr. Theodore Fischer, had to sign this death certificate. After her husband’s death, Agnes went to once again live with her parents. We see this situation in the 1940 census.
1940 census – Altenburg, MO
Agnes is also described as a bookkeeper for the light company office. She remained a widow for 19 years. Although I could not find a document for this marriage, Agnes married William Hart, supposedly in 1955. William was from Perryville, and he was a widower. On his gravestone in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville, you can see that his first wife died in 1954.
William Hart gravestone – Immanuel, Perryville
You can also see that William died in 1975, once again making Agnes a widow. That leads us up to the wedding that was referred to at the beginning of this article.
When Agnes was 68 years old in 1978, she married another widower by the name of Charles Gustav Jacob Grebing. Let’s backtrack to talk about his life.
Charles was born on August 20, 1892 and baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. His parents were Carl Tobias and Emma (Rust) Grebing. Charles, who +was mostly called Charlie, married Anita Metz around 1920. This is another marriage where I was unsuccessful at finding any documentation, including in the church records. This couple started having children in 1921. Their first 4 children were baptized at Trinity, but when Vernon Grebing was born in 1929, he was baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. Apparently, the family had moved closer to the Frohna congregation.
The Grebings had 5 children. Then in 1974, Anita died, leaving Charlie a widower. On May 20, 1978, Charlie married Agnes at Trinity Lutheran Church. When Charlie was 99 years old, a local newspaper featured him in an article about his long life.
It is not often that you find a woman outliving her husband who died when he was 103 years old, but that is the case here. Charlie died October 20, 1995. He was buried with his first wife in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna. Here are their grave markers.
Agnes died in 2004 at the age of 94. She was buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg. Here is her gravestone.
Her grave could have been marked Agnes (Schmidt) (Fischer) (Hart) Grebing. She certainly had a life quite out of the ordinary.
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I had help with proofreading again today because our granddaughter, Kaitlyn, had a snow day, and was able to help me out. She was not alone. I guess you could say that their golden doodle, Macie, was also helping by listening. I guess you could say that it is no longer a “ruff” draft.
