• WHAT: Portrait of Barbara (Kraus) and Julius Kirmse
• WHEN: Circa 1900 –  just a guess from their apparent ages
• WHERE: Frohna, Missouri as per the photographer identity on the picture frame ” P.J. Lreders FROHNA, MO”

Marriage Record

On November 20, 1866 (Perry County Marriage Records #2656), Julius Kirmse married Barbara Kraus. Reverend John Bisel, pastor of Friendenburg Lutheran Church, performed the ceremony. The marriage record for Julius Kirmse and Barbara Kraus gives Julius’s surname with a phonetic spelling “Kermson”.

2565 p.35 Julius Kermson To Mar Bet. Barbara Kraus
I subscriber, do hereby certify that I have this day Julius Kermson & Barbara Kraus in the holy bonds of Matrimony.  Perryville 20th Nov 1866. In Peace Luth Pastor  Recorded July 15th 1867.  Attest James C Noell Recorder By Wm A Castam Depty

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Missouri, Marriage Records, 1805-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives. Microfilm.

Notes

1. The marriage record for Julius Kirmse and Barbara Kraus gives Julius’s surname with a phonetic spelling “Kermson”. And, Barbara’s maiden name is correctly listed as Kraus.
2. Perryville is the county seat of Perry County, Missouri where the marriage was recorded.  Rev. Friedrich C. Bessel was pastor (1863-1872) of the Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church which is in Friedenberg, Missouri.  Rev. Bessel also served as pastor (1864-1866) of Salem Lutheran Church, Farrar, Missouri of which Julius was a founding member (1859-1915).
3. There is no record of Julius and Barbara’s marriage in the Salem Lutheran Church records. And, the records of Peace Lutheran Church were destroyed when the parsonage burned in 1942. In an attempt to recreate the history of Peace Lutheran and Friedenberg, the Friedenberg Lutheran Historical Society prepared a book, “Friedenberg Remembrances: A Story of Peace, Faith and Life” from a variety of sources. Neither Julius nor Barbara are mentioned in this book.
4. Since, their marriage is not listed in the Salem Lutheran Church records and the recreated history and  list of members in the Peace Lutheran history is from incomplete sources,, and Rev. Bessel officiated the marriage of Julius and Barbara, it is assumed that the wedding did occur in the church or parsonage of Peace Lutheran Church.

Julius Kirmse Farm

After Julius and Barbara (Kraus) Kirmse were married they made their home on a farm near Farrar, Missouri.

• WHAT: Former Julius Kirmse Farm
• WHEN: ca 2000
• WHERE: near Farrar, Missouri
• SOURCE: Helen (Kirmse) Hacker shared October, 2003

MAP

The following map shows the location of the 40 acre property that Julius Kirmse purchased in 1859  (Now owned by Julius and Barbara (Kraus) Kirmse’s granddaughter, Helen (Kirmse) Hacker).

• WHAT: Township 1993-1994 landowners map showing the location of former Julius Kirmse farm
• WHEN: 1993-1994
• WHERE: Salem Township, Perry County, Missouri

Notes

1. Julius Kirmse was a farmer for more than a half-century in Perry County, Missouri.
2. The original house on the Kirmse farm was a log cabin.  Kirmse later built a three-room house, the walls of which are a solid gravel material.
3. The log cabin was later torn down and a new frame six-room house was added to the three-rooms.
4. The farm is now owned and lived on by Julius and Barbara Kirmse’s granddaughter Helen (Kirmse) Hacker and her family.
5. The farm was designated a Missouri Century Farm through the University of Missouri Extension Center in 1986.

Family

Julius Kirmse and his wife, Barbara, had seven children, all reaching adulthood except one: Marie, who was born February 7, 1868; John, born October 3, 1869, but died less than twenty-six days later; Karl (Charles) August, born September 2, 1870; Joseph, born January 18, 1873; William Kirmse, who was born on May 21, 1875; Louis, born October 9, 1877, and Johanne Katarina Kirmse, who was born June 13, 1880. See Chapter xxxx for more details.

Death

Julius Kirmse died of acute bronchitis on December 12, 1915 (Missouri Vital Records Perry Deaths 1915:#2781). He was nearly eighty-one years old, survived by his wife, Barbara, and six grown, married children and numerous grandchildren (Perry County Probate, Estates #2352). His remains were interned in the cemetery of Salem Lutheran Church, at Farrar.

Barbara Kirmse survived her husband by almost five years. She died of influenza on February 20, 1920 (Missouri Vital Records Perry Deaths 1920:#8314). She was over seventy-seven years old. She, too, was buried in the cemetery of Salem Lutheran, at Farrar.