The Rohlfings

The Rohlfings Come to St. Louis

Christian Frederich Rohlfing was born in the Minden-Luebbecke district of Westphalia, Germany on May 3, 1824. His wife, Amalie (nee Horstmann) was also born in Germany around 1825.

According to the 1910 United States census records, Christian emigrated to America in 1846. Soon afterwards, the Rohlfings settled in St. Louis. Whether he and Amelia were married in Germany or the United States cannot be determined from available records. But it would seem likely that they came to St. Louis already as a married couple. There is no record of their marriage at Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Louis, the congregation they were attending by January 1848 when their oldest child was baptized there.

The 1860 United States Census

According to United States census records, Christian worked as a sugar boiler at a St. Louis sugar refinery already by 1860. Besides his wife, Amelia, the "Roelphing" household was reported to include children Maria (age 12), Frederick (age 9), Ferdinand (age 3), and Amelia (age 1). The two boys were listed in inverted order; Ferdinand would have been around 9 years old and Fredrick 3 in 1860. A 59-year-old "Chris Roelfphing" is also listed as part of the household. This is most likely Christian's father for whom no other records have been found.

A nine-year-old child with the last name of "Cuffenbach" is also listed as living in the Rohlfing home. This is Heinrich Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Uffenbeck, whose mother was a Rohlfing, Christian's sister. Wilhelm was baptized in 1851 at Immanuel Lutheran Church, St. Louis, with Christian serving as one of his baptismal sponsors. In 1854, his parents died in a cholera outbreak, and by 1860 he had been taken in by the Rohlfing family. He was confirmed at Immanuel in 1864. He would later become a Missouri Synod pastor, dying in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1942.

A St. Louis Sugar Boiler

In all likelihood, Christian F. Rohlfing worked at St. Louis Steam Sugar Refinery owned and operated by Belcher & Brothers. Founded in 1840 and reorganized in 1855, the Belcher & Brothers refinery was said to be the nation's largest. The plant was conveniently located near downtown St. Louis for a large northside workforce, where the Rohlfings lived. It was also well-positioned to take advantage of new rail lines as they grew along the Mississippi River. By about 1871, over 300 employees produced products with an annual value of over four million dollars. A decade later, employment had doubled.

A company secretary later recalled that "the levee from Biddle to Walnut Streets, a distance of one mile, was literally covered with hogsheads and barrels of sugar from our refinery, while the barge loads of crude sugar from New Orleans, Cuba, and the Manilla Islands crowded the wharves to the exclusion of other freight."

In addition to refinery buildings, the eight-block complex included a cooperage, coal sheds, a bone black building, storage, and packing facilities. The company continued to expand through the early 1880s. Its final building, begun in 1881 and completed in 1883, was later called "the first tall building the city ever knew" at 132 feet high.

The Rohlfing Children

The St. Louis Rohlfings had at least six children that can be identified through the parish records of Immanuel Lutheran Church, St. Louis. Two of the children were stillborn on April 3, 1863, and December 5, 1865. The other four identified were:

• Maria Louisa Henriette Amalia Rohlfing was born on December 18, 1847, and baptized at Immanuel on January 23, 1848. She was confirmed at the same congregation in 1860, alongside Ernst August Sieving, and later married to Friedrich Theodor Miessler on November 16, 1866.

• Carl Heinrich Ferdinand Rohlfing was born on January 18, 1852, and baptized at Immanuel on February 1, 1852. He was confirmed in 1864 but apparently never married. He died on June 23, 1896, at the age of 44 and was buried in the Western Lutheran Cemetery in St. Louis.

• Frederick Theodore Rohlfing was born on June 20, 1857, and baptized at Immanuel on June 28, 1857. He was confirmed in 1870 and later married Sophia Maria Eleonora Brueggemann on July 17, 1881. Frederick graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis in 1879 and was assigned to serve Trinity Lutheran Church, Alma, Missouri. He spent his entire ministry there, retiring in 1921. He died on October 2, 1927, and was buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, Alma, Mo.

• Louise Ferdinandine Amalia Rohlfing was born on July 16, 1859, and baptized at Immanuel the next day. He was confirmed in 1873 and later married Pastor John Ph. Koehler at Immanuel on January 4, 1882. Her baptismal records are pictured below.

The 1880 U.S. Census Dilemma

An interesting dilemma arises when it comes to the Rohlfings and their being counted in the 1880 United States Census. Two separate canvasses of their neighborhood were apparently done, but the records are not altogether congruous.

It's clear that one canvass was made about two years earlier than the other so that in one record (Exhibit A) Christian Friedrich Rohlfing is listed as 56 years old and Amelia (or Amalie) is listed as 55, whereas in the second record (Exhibit B) they are listed as being 54 and 52, respectively, a difference downward of 2-3 years. More perplexing is that their daughter Amalia (or Mollie) is reported to be 20 years old in the first and 21 in the second, an upward change of one year.

What makes the second record particularly fascinating is that Carl Heinrich Ferdinand (C.H.F.) Rohlfing was the census enumerator (Exhibit C), which would lead one to assume that his information is accurate. But Amalia Rohlfing's age on his report does not square with her birth year, if he was recording his information in 1878. She should be listed as 19 years old.

Rohlfing Residences & Immanuel Lutheran Church

Another thing that we learn from the 1880 census is that the Rohlfings were then living at 1317 N. 15th Street, St. Louis, in the Ninth Ward. We know from the 1860 U.S. Census that the family lived in the Eighth Ward and that already then Christian was working as a sugar boiler. Not only do these residence locations square with his likely employment at the St. Louis Steam Sugar Refinery, which drew its workforce from the near north side, but also the family's membership at Immanuel Lutheran Church, which was located first on the corner of 11th and Franklin Streets (1844-1868) and later on the corner of 15th and Morgan Streets (1868-1919).