TILIW – Bernard Marstall’s headstone in Dutzow

Written by paulO

Bob Marstall_St. Vincent de Paul Church_Dan Mudd_Tom Marstall_cholera_Washington Monument Co._Blumenhof Winery

Gentle readers, in 1966, a young art student at Webster College was assigned the task of rubbing gravestones. According to the student, Bob Marstall, “Maybe it’s still done. It was a thing, particularly for art students.”  https://www.marstallstudio.com/

Now, I have some curious hobbies, but rubbing tombstones, not so much.   I guess Bob, the artist, used charcoal or crayons…but I digress. More importantly, in his search for interesting markers, Bob Marstall found himself in a place he had never been to…Dutzow, MO. More specifically, he was at the hillside cemetery of St. Vincent de Paul Church. None of this is overly amazing yet…but the art student came upon a grave inscribed with his name: B. Marstall.

The marker of Bernard Marstall, an early ancestor of Bob Marstall, the artist.

Don’t be put off by that “s” on the grave marker that looks more like an “f”. It’f above my paygrade to explain it but if you’re really curiouf, check thif out: https://www.livescience.com/65560-long-s-old-texts.html )

Fast forward to Sunday, May 18, 2025, when there were about 60 descendants of Bernard Marstall gathered in the beautiful St. Vincent cemetery on a gorgeous day. They were assembled to celebrate and bless the new grave marker which the family commissioned by each donating money to replace the old broken stone. I think they were also there to have fun and enjoy each other’s company. This clan really seemed to click together, from young to old. After the ceremony they all migrated to Blumenhof Winery to visit. (BTW Blumenhof lies within the area of the Schmucker farm which Bernard was headed for.)

Father Dennis Doyle blessing the new monument as Angela Stephens videos the scene.

I attended this event because Angela Stephens, president of Friends of Historic Augusta, suggested I tag along. And Angela was there because a recent newcomer to the Augusta area, Dan Mudd (an organizer of the annual Augusta harvest festival), invited her to document this ceremony. And Dan, his wife Lisa, and Dan’s sister Kelly, were there because Dan and Kelly are nephew and niece to the gentleman who organized the reunion. That man’s name is Tom Marstall, and he is my latest interviewee. But first, let me distill the some of the material that Tom read to his relatives at St. Vincent cemetery.

Here goes: In 1929, on his 50th birthday, Tom’s grandfather recorded some family history. These are his very words:

“This journal is intended for the reference and the education of our children…to acquaint my children and grandchildren with events as they occurred in 1848 and 1849.”

Now, gentle readers, let me cut in. Tom’s grandfather (whose name was also Bernard) relates the history of his grandfather, Bernard, who was born in Hanover, Germany in 1817. He immigrated to the United States about 1835. So, Bernard and his wife Catherine are living in St. Louis, and they have a son named John Gerhard Marstall, who in 1849, is one year old as the cholera epidemic is breaking out. Bernard says let’s get out of STL and head for the country to avoid the epidemic. Good plan, I guess.

Next scene - Bernard and his friend Bernard Schmucker (who lost his wife to cholera) head out to the Dutzow area where Schmucker’s father, Heinrich, lives. Bernard M. is in a buggy with wife and child and sees a pretty bird which he decides to shoot, but when he reaches for his gun, it accidentally discharges, and the shot struck him under the arm. He lives for a day or two until he bled to death. Then he gets buried at St. Vincent Catholic Church which was a log cabin. (And boy, I wish it was still there, so I could see it.)

So, mother and child head back to STL. Eventually, Bernard’s wife, Catherine, marries Bernard Schmucker. But the child, John Gerhard Marstall, maintains the Marstall name, and who knew his descendants will gather someday in Dutzow to honor Bernard and give him a new tombstone. Whew!

Good grief! How many people even know the name of their great, great-grandparents? And for some of the young people in attendance at the St. Vincent event…this could be their great, great, great-grandfather or more! Who does that?

Never mind. Let me just relate my interview with Tom Marstall, as promised. We communicated through email, text, and a phone conversation on 5/21/25. (((REMEMBER: anything in parentheses is my addition.)))

paulO: It was a pleasure to meet you…and witness your family event at the church cemetery. Later…I reflected on what a pleasant, civilized clan you have.

Tom Marstall: Thank you for your interest in our family gathering, although that may be the first time anyone has called us civilized… It was a wonderful day, and we had, by my count, 60 cousins attending.

pO: I believe you said that you’re 71 years old? May I ask what your occupation was before you retired?

TM: 71, yes. I was a service manager for a Honda dealership.

pO: Do you drive a Honda?

TM: Uh, no. (laugh) I worked for Toyota for 15 years, and drove Hondas. Then I worked for Honda for 15 years and I drive Toyotas.

pO: I believe your wife’s name is…

TM: It’s Lynne…L-y-n-n-with an e on the end; she’s particular about that. Lynne is 72.

pO: And I think Lynne said that your vintage car is the very first car she rode in with you…a date or something.

TM: Yeah, that was in 1975. I bought that right out of high school in June of 1972. I’ve owned it for 53 years. It’s a 1965 Plymouth Satellite.

Marstall’s 1965 Plymouth Satellite which he drove to the family reunion in Dutzow on Sunday, May 18. Tom, Lynne, and Plymouth.

pO: The Bob Marstall that discovered the original stone, is he a cousin?

TM: He’s my big brother. I’m the youngest of seven; 5 boys and 2 girls. Bob was the 3rd youngest.

pO: In the material you read at the cemetery, you mentioned that there were 3 people…

TM: My mom, Ethel Marstall, my wife, Lynne, and I were the 3 that went up…we kind of had to wander around a little. I think Bob had taken my mom there once…but we had to look around and find the stone again. (This was October 1982.)

pO: Did you already know this area?

TM: We had been there before, just in the Augusta area…before it became real popular. We took drives out there. But it wasn’t until 1982 that I wanted to find that headstone.

pO: Do you still occasionally come out?

TM: Yeah. Usually at least once or twice a year. Whenever we’d go out there we’d stop and see (great, great) grandpa’s grave. I took pictures…all through the different stages…when we first saw it, it was up…and there’s a verse at the bottom…in German. And my wife took German in high school, and we have translated some of that. I’d have to send it to you later. She feels that’s important to the story. It’s very poignant to the story where it says when once the grave is revealed again to us he is among us again.

Here Rest in Peace. Died 27 July 1849 in his 30th Year

TM: In 1849 she (the widow, Catherine) paid to have that put on the stone, so she must have felt it was important. The bottom part of it was not readable so I (instead) made up the verse – In remembrance of his short life and in gratitude from the hundreds of his descendants. 2024 …because all of us were pitching in together to pay for the (new) stone.

Ruhel in Frieden, Herr Marstall. The new marker was made and installed by Washington Monument Co. which is next to Washington Lumber in WashMO.

pO: in this process did you get to know Mark Blumenberg, the owner of Blumenhof Winery?

TM: No, the winery came into it in the last couple years…this good friend of mine, Ken Hawkins, started doing a lot of research on ancestry.com, and he found a bunch of documents…he found a land purchase in 1850 by Heinrich Schmucker…he purchased that 68 acres of land that encompasses the now Blumenhof Winery and most of the city of Dutzow. (Seems like more than 68 acres to my untrained eyes.)

TM: He also found a census from 1840, and it showed Heinrich Schmucker was a resident of Warren County. So, with those 2 documents it made sense that that’s where they were going. And it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that my cousin found a document that was Bernard Marstall’s (buried at St. Vincent) last will and testament. He signed it with XXX, and that has Heinrich Schmucker’s signature as a witness, as well as Herman Dieckhaus and Heinrich Dieckhaus as witnesses. That kind of connected it all together.

pO: Does Mark Blumenberg know all this?

TM: I have never met him; I told the story to several of the people that work there.

pO: Who came the farthest distance to the reunion?

TM: My cousin’s children came from Sioux City, Iowa. Well, you know what? My brother Bob came from Northampton MA. He was the one who found the stone originally.

Gentle readers, again I have brought you another curious story told in my rambling style. It’s just the way I’m built. For those of you who eschew the written word, and comprehend more through audio and visual means, may I suggest you watch the video recording of the Marstall event which was recorded by our fearless FHA leader, Angela Stephens. Here’s a link:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBWZx1lBXL4

Tom’s speech at the St. Vincent de Paul cemetery:

May 18, 2025

Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for coming to share in the dedication of our great-great grandfathers' new headstone.

I thought I would read something from our Grandfather Bernard J. Marstall's journal dated March 15th 1929, on his 50th birthday. His journal was painstakingly transcribed by Jim Marstall Uncle John's son, in 1994 from Grandpa's own hand.

These are Grandpa Marstall's own words:

"This journal is intended for the reference and the education of our children; it is with profound modesty I relate as nearly as possible the events of my life. My objective is purely sentimental and at the same time to acquaint my children and grandchildren with events as they occurred in 1848 and 1849.

My grandfather Bernard Marstall was born in Hanover, Germany in 1817 and immigrated to the United States in about 1835. He married Catherine Determann, also born in Hanover in 1817 at St. Joseph's Church in St. Louis, MO on February 11, 1844. My Father, John Gerhard Marstall was born in St. Louis MO. March 17, 1848. To the best of my knowledge, they lived happily together for only a short time.

It was after my father, John Gerhard, (nicknamed August), had reached the age of one year in 1849 that a cholera epidemic broke out in St. Louis. To protect his wife and baby boy, Bernard Marstall with his friend Bernard Schmucker and his three-year-old daughter went to the country as a measure of safety. Mr. Schmucker had lost his wife Anna Maria to cholera on June 12, 1849. This is why they all were leaving St. Louis and heading to the farm of Bernard Schmucker's father, Heinrich in St. Charles County which is now Dutzow MO.

In those days of course, there were no street cars or trains, and the mode of transportation was horse and buggy. It so happened that while on this trip, in the vicinity of St. Charles, Missouri, my Grandfather Bernard saw a bird which he was anxious to capture for his young son. He reached for his gun, which in the excitement accidentally discharged. The shot struck him under the arm. He did survive, for a day or two but eventually bled to death on July 27 1849."

Thanks to many years of painstaking research in Washington D.C. by Kathy Korte Enste and her sister Mary Claire Korte Hastings, were able to obtain for our family history and ancestry documents proving he was able to have his Last Will and Testament written before he died.

He was able to sign with his three X mark "XXX" because he was too weak to sign his full name. This document was witnessed by Heinrich Schmucker, Herman Diekhaus and Heinrich Diekhaus. After his death he was buried in the graveyard of St. Vincent's Catholic Church, here in Dutzow MO. At that time, it was a log cabin church."

His Wife and son (my father) returned to St. Louis where on September 23, 1850, she married Bernard Schmucker their friend and traveling companion. This is where the Schmucker lineage enl:ers with the Marstall family.

Catherine, even though she remarried, never changed John Gerhard Marstall's name.

We are all descended from this one sixteen-month-old child and owe our proud name to this gesture.

Thank Goodness! ... Or we would all be Schmucker's!

This would be the end of the story except for a young art student going to Webster College doing an assignment to recover engravings from old headstones. Bob Marstall, Greg Marstall's son, discovered a grave in Dutzow, MO in 1966 with "his" name on it "B Marstall".

In October of 1982 My Mother, Ethel Marstall, my wife Lynne and I found the grave and put together from Grandpa Marstall's journal that this was the lost headstone of our great-great grandfather. In the following twenty years the headstone fell over and was damaged and would have been lost to our family again, but with contributions from all my cousins we have been able to replace the headstone and preserve this part of Marstall history for future generations.

As a final note, Heinrich Schmucker's farm that they were heading to was sixty-eight acres of land, that now encompasses the Blumenhof Winery and most of the city of Dutzow.

He officially purchased the land on November l5t, 1850.

Many of the documents you will see where found on Ancestry.com by my good friend Ken Hawkins.

I would also like to thank my brother Dave Marstall for his support in initiating this headstone.

Tom Marstall

Sincerely curious,

paulO

The Friends of Historic Augusta's S.A.G.E project (Stories of Augusta's German Evolution) is sponsoring this program (TILIW stories) in partnership with the Missouri Humanities and with support from the Missouri Humanities Trust Fund. If you wish to read more stories, or want to make a donation to Friends of Historic Augusta and Tell It Like It Was, please use this link: https://www.augustamomuseum.com/tell-it-like-it-was-stories