George Roediger, pt. 3--A New Wife (and Her Previous Marriage)

Frankly, I am posting this with some fear and trepidation. I feel like I am crawling out on a weak limb to grab the cat stuck up a tree, or skating on thin ice.
"Why?" you ask. I'm glad you asked. I have two main reasons.
First, I'm dealing with a part of the family that others reading this blog are more closely connected to than I am and who have done more research than I have. Some also have had direct contact with George and his second family, so stories may have been told that I am not aware of.
Second, the research I have done has left me with more questions than answers, and has left me to speculate on the validity of certain information that I have found. I don't want to draw the wrong conclusions and misrepresent the facts.

As always, I appreciate your feedback. But in this case I am begging for it. Help me to separate fact from speculation so we can all get a clear picture of George and his second family.

With that disclaimer and begging out of the way, let's begin.

On 30 October 1902, George Rödiger married Anna Augusta (Grosse) Schmidt. Their marriage record was recorded in Franklin County, Ohio.

Facts:

George was a farmer, living in St. Marys, Ohio, widower, 44 years old--the rest is old news, but verifies his identity.

Anna Augusta was living in Columbus, Ohio. She was born 18 October 1864, in Germany to August Grosse and Wilhelmina Buttner. She was previously married to man with the last name Schmidt,

 who is now deceased.

Their marriage was solemnized by Rev. Richard Plüddermann.

Questions which arise:
1) How did a farmer from St. Marys meet his bride who lived 90 miles away in Columbus, Ohio?
2) Did their families know each other in Germany?
3) What church were they married in? Does the name of the minister provide a clue?
4) What was Anna Augusta's first husband's given name?
5) When did she immigrate, and did she come alone or with her parents?
6) Why were their ages given in terms of the year following their marriage? This is highly unusual, since they had already had birthdays in the current year of 1902. Was one or the other of these dates a mistake?

Of the above questions, I have only found answers to #4 and #6. I'll address #6 first.
Q #6) Upon further review of the other three marriage records on this page solemnized in October of 1902, two of them also gave ages in terms of a birthdate in 1903. So that does not appear to be unusual in Franklin Co. Still odd though. I know from George's birth record in Tann that his correct date of birth is 24 May 1854. So, the record is already two days off. So, by adding 44 years (which is given as his age) to 1854, I get 1898. Since according to the record he would have been 44 on his birthdate in 1903, there is a 5 year discrepancy. This makes the age info for both spouses suspect.

Q #4--What was Augusta's first husband's given name? Page 468 of the Franklin County, Ohio Marriage Record Index provides the answer (left and right sides of the record have been copied separately to make it almost legible to the naked eye):

Bride's portion first, last line:

Augusta Grosse, age 24, native German, not previously married, resides on S. 5th,
marriage solemnized by Carl Ackermann, St. Johns

Bridegroom's portion, last line:

Marriage: 14 August 1890, Albert Schmitt, age 26, native German, carpenter by trade,
not previously married, resides on Mohler

From this record I learned that the first husband of Anna Augusta Grosse was Albert Schmitt. I learned his age, ergo his approximate birth date (1864), where he was born, where he resided and what he did for a living. I learned when, where and by whom Albert and Augusta were married, as well as where she was living at the time.
It was from George's marriage to Augusta that I derived her birth date of 18 October 1864. Since I am now suspicious of that information, it does not surprise me to learn that Albert and Augusta's marriage record tells a different tale. According to her marriage to Albert, she was 24 years old when they married on 14 August 1890. Math wizards out there may want to check out my calculations, but I think this works out to mean that her birth date was between 15 August 1865 and 14 August 1866. And of course this isn't consistent with the 18 October 1864 from her marriage with George Rödiger.

Questions:
1) When was Anna Augusta Grosse really born?
2) When did Albert Schmitt/Schmidt die?
3) Did Albert and Augusta have any children?

Let me address Q #3, Did Albert and Augusta have children. The answer is, yes. Three that I'm aware of.
Their first child was Johannah. My source for this FamilySearch.org, Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001, Franklin, Death Records 1890-1899, pp. 98-99. I have the image for this but, in this case I think it would be simpler for me to just give you the data found in this record:
Name: Schmitt, Johannah
Color: W
Sex: F
Age: 6 months
Place of Birth: City
Marital Status: --
Duration of Illness: 3 days
Date of Death: 28 July 1891
Cause of Death: convulsions from acute gastro-enteritis
Physician: W. B. Schueller
Occupation: --
Residence: 439 E. Deshler
Tenement or Private Residence: Private
Time of Residence in Columbus: 6 months
Place of Previous Residence: --
Name of Father: Albert Schmitt
Name of Mother: Augusta Schmitt
Nativity of Father: German
Nativity of Mother: German
Place of Intended Interment: Green Lawn
Date of Intended Interment: 1 August 1891
Name of Undertaker: George G Schoedinger

In addition to this record, there is also a Memorial page for Johannah on FindAGrave.com, memorial # 62298404. If you take time to look it up, you will find a photo of the location of her grave. There is no stone, but someone has very thoughtfully made a sign and posted it at the grave site.
In addition to the photo, there is a burial card, which probably is from the Green Lawn Cemetery records. Don't confuse this cemetery with the one in Wapak. The Green Lawn referred to here is in Columbus, just south of I-70 and adjacent to German Village. I was hoping to post a digital image of that card here but am awaiting permission from the one who posted it. It is available on the FindAGrave.com website. I will tell you that the info on the card differs slightly (sigh) from the death record cited above. It gives her date of death as July 30, rather than July 28, and her cause of death as "Summer Complaint." I'm no doctor, so maybe Summer Complaint is another term for acute gastro-enteritis. However, the burial card does give a birth date of 24 January 1891 which is consistent with the age of 6 months given in the county death record.

Their second child was Gertrude. My sources for this child are Franklin County Record of Births vol. 5, p 172-173, Entry #238 and FindAGrave Memorial #62298515.
The former tells us that Gertude Schmith was born on 3 March 1892 in Columbus. Her parents are given as Albert Schmith and Anna Grosse, who lived at 439 E. Deshler.
The latter has another burial card, which gives Gertrude's birth as 15 March 1892, death from Scarlet Fever on 2 January 1900, and burial in Green Lawn Cemetery on 3 January 1900. Need I point out the birth date inconsistency? Anywho, the parents names are given as Albert and Anna Schmidt.

Their third child was Ervin Earnest. His birth record was recorded in vol 6, pp. 22-23 of the Franklin County Records, Entry #920 and tells us that Ervin Schmidt was born 25 November 1893, his parents were Albert Schmidt and Anna Grosse, who were now living at 395 Forrest. (I actually have visited both locations and have the photos to prove it--however, the one on Deshler has large trees and shrubbery obscuring the view. But here is a photo of their house on Forest St. It is quite small, and was a step down from the house on Deshler.

395 Forest St, Columbus, OH

After I had taken this picture in July, 2012, I visited Eileen (Luth) Bollenbacher in October, She had an old photo of Augusta (Grosse) Schmidt-Roediger. But she could not identify where it was taken. I had one of those spine-tingling moments and said, "I know exactly where that was taken," and showed her my photo. And now I will show you hers:

Anna Augusta Schmidt, with children, Gertrude and Ervin Schmidt (ca. 1896)

And a close up of Augusta and the kids:

After his mother and George Roediger married, Ervin moved with them to Hopewell Twp, Mercer County, OH. He married Martha Clara Etta Now in 1915, had four children that I have identified, died 22 February 1963 in Celina and is buried in Buck Cemetery, Mercer Co.

I have a pretty extensive collection of photos of headstones from Buck Cemetery, but not Ervin and Martha's. So, if anyone "happens" to go headstone hunting, would you snap a picture of theirs for me? :)

Now I will return to an earlier question that I posited: When did Augusta's first husband, Albert Schmidt die? Frankly, this has been stumping me for a long, long time. I may have I found some articles about his death, but there are a couple of things that bother me about this particular Albert Schmidt. Unfortunately, I can't find any other Albert Schmidt who died in Franklin Co who fits the profile. This Albert Schmidt does in part, although some of the dates are problems.

Is this Anna Grosse's husband, mentioned in the German Language Newspaper in Columbus?:

Westbote Zeitung, 8 July 1903
"Sought rest in death and found it too. By means of morphine he shook off the burden of life from himself
--Albert Schmidt, a German ..."

And an article in an English Language Newspaper:

Columbus Dispatch, 8 July 1903

I hope you can read this, because it is too late in the day to transcribe it. Note the similarities between the Albert we know, and that of the man in this article. Same name, German, middle-aged (about 40), was found in the German Village area (Central Ave and Mound St--there ain't no farms there anymore, I can tell ya) and "it is said he was a carpenter." All of that fits. What doesn't fit is that he died 8 months after George and Augusta were married. But their marriage record states that she was a widow. If this is the right guy, then, well, you can see why I was a little nervous about this subject. Not that I'm saying he is. I just don't have any other candidates at this point. And it is an interesting story to end this segment on. There was another short article in the Columbus Citizen on the same day about the mysterious Albert Schmidt and his suicide note.

Another thing that bothers me about this Albert Schmidt: There is nothing in these articles that indicates that he was currently married, or ever had been. That goes for his suicide note as well. There is some ranting about property, but nothing about a wife or children. So, help me out here. Has anyone found another Albert Schmidt that would fit the bill? If so, please step forward.

There are, of course, two more children in George and Augusta's future. So, stay tuned for "pt. 4, the George Roediger Line Endures"