Martha Margaretha Cordes was the fourth child and second daughter of Heinrich and Margaretha (Meier) Cordes. When Martha  was born on March 20, 1879, near Farrar, Missouri, her father, Heinrich, was 29, and her mother, Margaretha, was 31.

• WHAT: Portrait of Martha Margaretha Cordes
• WHO: Martha Margaretha Cordes, daughter of Heinrich and Margaretha (Meier) Cordes
• WHEN: Circa 1899 – assuming that Martha was about 20 years old
• WHERE: Farrar, Missouri
• SOURCE: Shared by Ella (Kirmse) Krueger December 30, 2003

There is no entry for Martha’s birth and baptism in the Salem Lutheran Church records at Farrar, Missouri.  However, the Salem Lutheran Church confirmation record for Martha also includes her birth date and indicates that she was baptized at Salem Lutheran.

1893 Confirmant: Martha Margaretha Cordes; Father: Heinrich Cordes; Born: 20 Mar 1879; Baptized: at Farrar; Confirmed: 26 Mar 1893; Scripture: ; Pastor:

Martha’s Parents: Heinrich and Margaretha (Meier) Cordes

• WHAT: A composite photograph of Margaretha (Meier) and Heinrich Cordes.
• LEFT TO RIGHT: Margaretha “Marie” (Meier) Cordes;  Heinrich “Henry” Cordes
• WHEN: Before 1899 – Heinrich Cordes died 28 Mar 1899.
• WHERE: Farrar, Missouri
• SOURCE: Shared by Ella (Kirmse) Krueger December 30, 2003

Heinrich Cordes was born on May 1, 1849, in Scheeßel, Kingdom of Hanover and immigrated to Perry County, Missouri in 1867. Margaretha Meÿer was born September 21, 1847 in the village Winkeloh of the Scheeßel Parish, Kingdom of Hanover and immigrated to Perry County, Missouri with her parents in 1869.

Heinrich and Margaretha married on February 16, 1871, in the Salem Lutheran Church at Farrar, Missouri and had five children during their marriage: John Peter August Cordes (1873–1874), Anna Marie Cordes (1876–1907), Heinrich Cordes (1878–1878), Martha Margaretha Cordes (1879–1967), and Marie Christina Cordes (1881–1915).

Heinrich died on March 28, 1899, near Farrar, Missouri, at the age of 49, and was buried in the Salem Lutheran Church Cemetery at Farrar, Missouri. Margaretha died on August 30, 1929, near Alva, Oklahoma, at the age of 81, and was buried in the Lutheran Cemetery at Alva, Oklahoma.

Pedigree Charts for Martha’s Parents

Below are pedigree charts of Heinrich “Henry” Cordes and Margaretha Meier which summarize their first 4 generations of ancestors.

Heinrich Cordes Pedigree Chart

Several branches in Heinrich’s pedigree chart extend out to 9 generations.

Margaretha Meier Pedigree Chart

Multiple branches in Margaretha’s pedigree chart extend out to 10 generations.

The Henry Cordes Farm

After Martha’s parents, Henry Cordes and Margaretha Meier, were married, they made their home on a farm near Farrar, Missouri.

• WHAT: Former Henry Cordes farm
• WHEN: 1948
• WHERE: Near Farrar, Missouri
• SOURCE: The photograph was taken when Julius Henry Kirmse and his parents, Martha and William Kirmse, visited relatives and did a memory tour of familiar sites in Perry County.
• NOTES:
  • On the  farm was a hill that was given the name “Swienbach” (hog back).
  • Fred Eggers had a vague recollection of the Fritsche’s having a barn fire and he remembered that the barn to the left of the house was the “new” barn when he was young. Fred looked at aerial photos and found that the valleys in front and in back of the house are consistent with the hogback shown in the photo. Fred then checked with Charlie Fritsche who confirmed that this was Charlie’s parent’s place.

• WHAT:  Henry Cordes farm on plat map of Perry County, Missouri
• WHEN: 1898
• WHERE: Near Farrar, Missouri
• SOURCE: Shared by Fred Eggers August 3, 2018
• NOTES: By the 1915 Plat Map, the farm was owned by the Fritsche family. Charlie Fritsche now owns that property.

Stories About Growing Up

My grandmother, Martha (Cordes) Kirmse, told me stories about the history of Perry County and her experiences of growing up in a German Lutheran community.

The area had been owned by France then Spain and again by France. French colonists had established farms and plantations on the fertile bottom lands along the Mississippi River. After the United States acquired the area through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, there was further settlement of the area.

Among the first German settlers were Saxon Lutherans, who left for America in November 1838 to freely practice their religion. They noticed that the area in southern Missouri was very similar to their native land of Saxony, so a group of them founded a series of settlements that bore the names of their hometowns.

These settlers were followed by others such as my great-grandfather, Julius Kirmse, who first emigrated from Altenburg, Germany to Buffalo, New York in 1853 and learning of the Lutheran German settlement in Perry County, made his way there by about 1858. In 1866, a group of settlers from Scheeßel, including Grandmother’s aunt, Maria Meÿer, immigrated to Missouri (See My Scheeßel Relatives – Vol 1. Chapter: Maria Meÿer Arrived in New Orleans). Soon followed other settlers from Scheeßel including Grandmother’s father, Henry Cordes, who arrived in 1867 (See My Scheeßel Relatives – Vol 1. Chapter: Henry Cordes Arrived in New Orleans). And, Grandmother’s Meÿer grandparents, Peter and Anna (Gerken) Meÿer, and family who arrived in 1889 (Scheeßel Relatives – Vol 1. Chapter: Peter Meÿer Family Arrived in New Orleans).

My grandmother noted that even though she was born more than 10 years after the cessation of the Civil War, there were many stories about continuing conflicts in Missouri.  Missouri remained deeply divided at the end of the Civil War. This conflict split the population into bitterly opposed factions: anti-slavery Unionists and pro-slavery ex-Confederate secessionists – especially in the southern part of the state. The German settlers generally sided with the Unionists.

Children were told to be very careful and keep a lookout for “bushwhackers” who were roving criminals to be feared – often ex-Confederate secessionist guerrillas. Stories were told about the outlaw bank and train robber Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang which operated in Missouri and Kansas during the Civil War. And, after the Civil war, as members of various gangs of outlaws they robbed banks, stagecoaches, and trains across the Midwest, gaining notoriety from the brutality of their crimes. Jesse James was shot and killed in 1882. However, other members of the gangs continued their banditry such as the last Jesse James gang member who participated in the St. Louis – San Francisco train robbery two miles north of Wittenberg, Missouri which is less than 15 miles from Farrar, Missouri.

Martha’s Father Became Paralyzed

When Martha was about ten years old, her father, Henry Cordes, became very ill and his illness left him paralyzed to the extent he could no longer work.  He was bedfast and/or confined to a wheelchair. The three girls and their mother worked hard to keep up the farm and make a living. Henry Cordes died 28 Mar 1899 and was buried in the Salem Lutheran Church Cemetery at Farrar, Missouri.

The older two girls, when old enough to leave home, went to St. Louis and elsewhere to help out with the cares of homes.  Martha Cordes was a housekeeper for her aunt, Anna (Meier) Schroeder, in St. Louis until she returned to Perry County to work for the Kirmse family.

According to Helen (Kirmse) Hacker, the people in the community along with the Kirmse boys helped the Cordes family after the father, Henry Cordes, became sick. – The presence of three beautiful sisters did not distract.

• • WHAT: Daughters of Heinrich and Margaretha (Meier) Cordes;
  • LEFT TO RIGHT: Anna Marie Cordes; Martha Margaretha Cordes; Marie Christina Cordes, daughters of Heinrich and Margaretha (Meier) Cordes.
  • WHEN: Circa 1895 – assuming that Martha was about 15 years old.
  • WHERE: Farrar, Missouri.
  • SOURCE: Ella (Kirmse) Krueger shared this portrait from Grandmother Kirmse’s photo album December 30, 2003.

How Martha Caught William

William Kirmse, on his return in 1903 from the Oklahoma Territory as a sick man, put such an extra burden on the Julius Kirmse family that they brought in a local young woman to help. This young woman was Martha Margaretha Cordes, who had been working as a housekeeper during the past year in the home of her aunt in St. Louis.

It was at this point, as Grandmother Kirmse told the story, that Grandmother gave me a wink and said “And, that is when I caught him. He was too weak to run.”