Project Pioneer Wehner Family Display

On 12 Aug 2023, the Wehners were one of two families honored by Ste. Genevieve Project Pioneer as part of Jour de Fete (Day of Celebration, see Wehner Family). The other family was the LeClere. Each of the two families had a display at the Ste. Genevieve Museum. Below are copies of three of the posters in the Wehner display. Since these posters are designed for 36-inch by 48-inch trifold poster boards, they are difficult to read here.

The Wehner display was unbelievably successful. Even more so were the meetings between distant family members. Jour de Fete tuned out to be Jour de Wehners.

  

Lorenz and Flora

Unlike the case for Lorenz's brother Nicholas, we lack pictures of Lorenz and his wife, Flora. But I just ran across photos I took in 2007 of their plot in the Catholic Cemetery, Pilot Knob, Missouri. Perhaps this is the best we can do. But I am still hoping for photos of the couple. Do you know of any?

Wehner plot, Catholic Cemetery, Pilot Knob, Missouri. Left to right, daughter Louisa, who died at age eleven; military marker for “Lorenzo”; dual marker for Flora and Lorenzo.

Lorenz                                                                  Flora

Was ist in einem Namen?

 "What's in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell just as sweet.” 

Lorenz Wehner, founder of the Pilot Knob Wehners, arrived in the USA from Hesse in 1848, but the ship, exact date, and port of arrival are unknown. And so has been the family name of his wife, Flora, who likely accompanied Lorenz while yet-to-be married. But we may have solved the last mystery.

On 14 Sep 1848 at Old St. Vincent's Catholic Church, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Flora and Lorenz were wed. The original marriage record, written in Latin, shows Lorenz’s bride as “Flora Grisner,” daughter of “Joannis” (Latin form of German “Johannes”) Grisner and Marguerita (Latin form of German “Margarete”) Müller. Remember, however, that the Latin record was prepared from information provided by newly arrived Germans, who almost certainly had a strong German accent. And it is not at all unlikely that Flora and Lorenz spoke very limited English. In fact, in the U.S. Flora often signed documents with a mark and she was recorded as being illiterate in the 1870 census. Perhaps she was limited in both English and German.

Copy of original marriage record for Lorenz and Flora.

Other records give varying names for Lorenz’s bride. She is “Flora Glisner” in the baptismal record for her last-born child, Louisa; “Florence Clysner” in the marriage record for her daughter Amelia; “F. Glimmer” and “Flora Glisener” in the death certificates for two of her daughters, Anna (Wehner) Siebert (son Clarence Siebert, informant) and Amelia (Wehner) Becker (son Elmer B. Becker informant). Her name appears as “Flora Glistner” and “Flora Chrissener” in Lorenz Wehner’s consolidated Civil War pension file.

Flora’s most unusual appellation may appear in the Saint John Nepomuk Church (St. Louis, Missouri) record for the 1867 marriage of Clara Christina Wehner, Flora's daughter, to Robert Schilling. The German-language record states that Christine's mother was “Floritha geborne Steinhauser von Hesse” (Floritha nee Steinhauser of Hesse). The church, established in 1854 by Czech settlers, often used the German language, spoken by many Czech people, for records and sermons. This puzzling name may result from inaccuracy in the record, the interpretation, or the translation. A village named “Steinhaus” is located just eight miles northeast of Fulda and just three miles east of Dietershan, home of the Wehners. A person born in Steinhaus would be a “Steinhauser.” And, as we will see, persons with the German last name concluded for Flora, were living in Steinhaus in the late 1700s.

And to further confuse the issue, Flora is given the middle name “Laura” in many internet trees, probably because this is the name recorded for her in the 1850 census. Of course, at the time, the census enumerator was entering data for a person who had been in the U.S. just two years and was unlikely to be articulate.

Overall, it appears that Flora’s family name, at least in U.S. records, was meant to be “Glisner” or “Grisner,” though both are almost nonexistent names in Germany. Since most of the recorded variations in the U.S. have an “L” as the second letter and since the name “Glisner” is found in Hessian records (admittedly few), while “Grisner” is not, Lorenz's wife's name was probably “Flora Glisner,” at least in the U.S. In Germany, the name was likely “Gleisner” (pronounced “Glīsner,” long “I”) before being Anglicized in the U.S. “Gleisner,” though uncommon, is a known German name, found primarily in the states of Hesse and adjacent Nordrhein Westfalen. In fact records from Fulda churches (see below) are found for for three Johannes Gleisners, though there is no proof that any of these was related to Flora. The German name “Gleisner” is known to have been changed to “Glisner” in English-language records.

Distribution of the name “Gleisner” in Germany today. Each red dot show the location of 1 to 5 people with the name. Though rather rare, the name is most abundant in the states of Nordrhein Westfalen and Hesse. The names “Glisner” and “Grisner” are so rare they cannot be mapped. (Karte zum Namen,)

Record of the 22 Jul 1755 baptism at St. Margareta Catholic Church, Margretenhaun, District of Fulda, Hesse, of a Johannes Domas Gleisner, born in the town of Steinhaus, District of Fulda. This Latin record actually gives his father’s name as Johannes “Klisner.” Margretenhaun is located six miles southeast of Dietershan. (Source, Johannes Keusekotten).

Record in Latin for the 4 Sep 1787 baptism at St. Georg Catholic Church, Großenlüder, District of Fulda, Hesse, of Johannes Sebastian Gleisner, son of Johannes Domas Gleisner. (Source, Johannes Keusekotten).

Given all the evidence shown here, we can conclude that Flora’s name in Germany was almost certainly “Flora Gleisner,” which became “Flora Glisner” in the U.S. And it is not unlikely that Flora was born, or lived in Steinhaus, Hesse.

The German Wehners

 The Ste. Genevieve and Pilot Knob, Missouri, Wehners originated in Hesse Germany, near and in the town of Fulda. Ed Wehner, son of Peter (operators of the Ste. Genevieve Lumber Co), use to say that the Southeastern Missouri Wehners could join the SAR or DAR, because their Hessian ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War­―on the British side. He could have been right, though there is no evidence of this.

The earliest known German ancestors of the Southeastern Missouri Wehners were Kaspar and Margaretha (Zimmer) Wehner, who around 1789 had a son Johann Georg Wehner, born in Dietershan, a village (really, a neighborhood) in the northern part of Fulda.

Half-timbered buildings near the Catholic Church in Dietershan, Fulda, Hesse, Germany, 2016 (Wikimedia Commons).

Johann had six children from his first marriage, the two youngest immigrating to Missouri, USA, Nicholas in 1847 and Lorenz in 1848. There, the year of his arrival, Nicholas married Clara Schneider and went on to establish the Ste. Genevieve Wehners. A year later, Lorenz married Flora Glisner, and the couple launched the Pilot Knob Wehners.

 

Wehner Family Crest

Our last blog noted that the Wehner families of Ste. Genevieve and of Pilot Knob, Missouri, were being honored by Project Pioneer at this year's Jour de Fete. For those who have not read my book Bier und Brot, The Wehners of Southeast Missouri, Nicholas Wehner founded the Ste. Genevieve line and his brother, Lorenz, founded the Pilot Knob line.

I found that the Project Pioneer folk were searching for a family crest to put on the cover of their Wehner publication and for other uses. I had to tell them that extensive research has found no family crest, at least an authentic one. Wehner "Family Crests” can be found on the internet. But these are 20^th-century creations made to sell plaques, mugs, stationary, T-shirts. Since others, with only a commercial interest, have invented Wehner crests, I felt that my Wehner connection (my lovely wife is Nicholas’s great, great granddaughter) allowed me to do the same.

There are two things that should be part of the Wehner crest. First, the Ste. Gen Wehner family was known for its involvement in baking and in beer. Nicholas ran a saloon and a great many of his descendants were bakers. Indeed the connection with baking and beer gave rise to the title Bier und Brot (“Beer and Bread” in German) for my Wehner family history book. Second, Nicholas and his wife to be, Clara, came to Missouri from Fulda, State of Hesse, Germany, in 1847. And his brother Lorenz and future wife, Flora, came from there the following year.

I first proposed two Wehner family crests, which are much more authentic that those on the internet with their armor, shields, and battle flags, none of which the Fulda Wehners possessed. The German Wehners were farmers, not knights! And in Ste Genevieve they were millers and merchants. Nary an armorial bearing among them.

So here are my first proposed crests. What they lack in mythical regalia is made up for by honesty. I would like to have included a crest with images of Lorenz and his wife, Flora, but we have no photos of this Pilot Knob couple.

The proposed crests have caught on, even without heraldry or armorial trappings, neither of which are needed by the already respected Wehner family. But modifications have been requested, particularly for use in a T-shirt design. And here is the T-shirt crest, with additions to show the role of Wehners in electrical utilities, the lime works, and the Ste. Genevieve lumber yard. 

And here is the final T-shirt, made by Deb Says Sew, a Ste. Genevieve retail establishment. An outstanding job, Debbie.

An attempt to include the millers, the Pilot Knob iron workers, and Nicholas's lumbering ventures makes the crest a little busy to be practical but it is striking: