The Bergt Family Comes Home! Welcome one and All!
This year is the 170th anniversary of the immigration of the Saxon Lutherans to Perry County, MO. Among the 660 people from Saxony, Germany were three brothers; Carl, Wilhelm and Christian Bergt. Carl returned to Germany shortly after arriving here, but Christian and Wilhelm continued on and made Frohna, MO their new home. They bought a piece of property from a frontiersman named, Thomas Twyman. It was complete with a single-room log cabin home, a log barn and a couple of very small log cabins occupied by the slave family that assisted Mr. Tyman's family. The year was 1839 and for the next 117 years until 1956, this was the Bergt family's humble homestead and farm. It is this picturesque property that they called home. And now they are all "coming home" for a family reunion on Saturday & Sunday, October 10 & 11th, 2009.
"The Bergt Farm is the only surviving pioneer farmstead dating from the Saxon immigration. It also holds special significance for members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod; for a time, Christian Bergt and his wife Caroline hosted Christian Loeber, pastor and instructor for the Concordia Log Cabin College." This is a quote from an article titled, "Picture This: The National Register of Historic Places," by Erin Schorn, Visual Materials Archivist in the Spring 2009 newsletter for the Friends of Missouri Historic Preservation.
This is the log cabin built by Christian and Carolina Bergt in 1840-41. This is home.
Over the last several months, I have been privileged to meet some of the Bergt family members. On this page I would like to introduce them to you so you can have the same pleasure as I have had to get to know them. They are a warm, sweet, loving and genuine family who are excited about the opportunity to reconnect with family they haven't seen in a long time and be introduced to family members they don't even know. It is truly an exciting adventure and a joy to see their excitement about "coming home" to Frohna where their ancestors made their mark in America, in Lutheran church history and in all the hearts of their family members.
The first Bergts that I met came to visit the Saxon Memorial in March. When Bethany Limpach, a student at Wesleyan University in IN, made her first call to me, little did she realize that she had just stumbled upon her g.g.g grandparent's old home. She was working on a paper for college about small German towns and their reaction to WWII. She called because she knew this area was a German settlement and that she had relatives who had lived here. When she said her mom was a Bergt, in an instant it all began to connect and she was overwhelmed by the fact that we lived in her ancestor's home. We invited her to stay with us to do her research and her mom, Cheryl, couldn't pass up the opportunity to join her for part of the trip. We were so pleased that she did. Interestingly enough, they were our very first visitor's for the 2009 season, since their stay happened to be on March 1st, our opening day. It truly was a blessing to have both of them here with us and to start the year off with such distinquished guests.
Cheryl (Bergt) Limpach and her daughter, Bethany, from High Point, North Carolina.
Cheryl and Bethany had a chance to travel down memory lane with her cousin, Donnie Bergt of Altenburg, MO.
Shortly after Cheryl and Bethany's visit, I made a trip to St. Louis to visit with Herbert and Lois Bergt. Herbert is the twin brother of Cheryl's father, Erwin Bergt; decendents of Christian Bergt. They were very helpful in showing me a complete family tree and many pictures of the family that they have traced back. Herbert remembers when he was asked to come to the homestead to help clean out the chicken coops. The Saxons did not believe in slavery, and they also did not believe in wasting anything, so the small slave cabins were relocated from the woods closer to their home and made into chicken coops. Herbert and Erwin's parents lived in town about a mile away from the homestead, but he came down every week to help his Aunt Lina with the chores. Lina had never married, so this was a huge relief and help for her.
Herbert and Lois Bergt, decendants of Christian Bergt, in their St. Louis, MO home.
I was then encouraged to meet with Rev. Robert Bergt, also of St. Louis. My first invitation was to attend a concert rehearsal for a piece that Rev. Robert Bergt was conducting for the Bach at the Sem program. The piece was written by a Bergt uncle dating back to the 1700's, who also was a famous muscian of his time. The genetics for music has not been lost in all these many, many years. Rev. Robert Bergt is a gifted and blessed musician on many accounts. He and his wife, Joan, have an extensive personal archive of Bergt family history. His mind is an encyclopedia of family stories and travels and experiences that will hold your attention for hours. They both have traveled to Japan where Rev. Bergt worked as a music instructor.
Here is a picture of the cover of the music written by August Bergt and to the right, Rev. Robert Bergt conducting the orchestra and choir to perform this piece for a concert.
This coming week I will once again be visiting with Rev. Bergt and Joan to gather even more wonderful information to help make their reunion day a memorable event. Written invitations will be sent out to family members across the country. It is all so very gratifying to feel their excitement and see the enthusiasm build as it comes together by sheer momentum.