The Loeber Family Collection

Gotthold Heinrich Loeber was born January 5, 1797 in Kahla, Germany, the son of Gottwert Heinrich Loeber and Johanna nee Stopffel. The Loeber’s were from a long line of Lutheran clergymen and theologians going back into the 16th century. Gotthold Heinrich Loeber studied at the Gymnasium in Altenburg and at the University in Jena, passing his exam in 1819. For five years he served as a private tutor before he was installed as pastor in Eichenberg in 1824. He became increasingly convinced of a confessional Lutheran position, and soon joined Martin Stephan’s group of Lutheran clergymen. When this group decided to immigrate to America, Loeber resigned his call and accompanied the immigrants aboard the Republik, leaving Germany on November 12, 1838. After arriving in St. Louis, land was purchased in Perry County, and Loeber served the congregation in Altenburg, Perry County, Missouri until his death. He was also a founder of Concordia College, Altenburg (now Concordia Seminary, St. Louis) in 1839, and served for a number of years as its sole instructor.

G.H. Loeber was the first pastor to hear reports of Stephan’s indiscretions, and led the Saxon colony through the hardships of the first decade in America. In addition to Altenburg, he served the congregations in Frohna, Seelitz, and Dresden during their vacancies. Loeber penned the response to J.A.A. Grabau’s Hirtenbrief in 1848 and published it along with the relevant correspondence. Loeber was a defender of Missouri Synod’s doctrine on the Church and the Office against both Grabau and Loehe and was very influential as a senior pastor in the Missouri Synod. He died from cholera on August 19, 1849 and is buried in Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, Altenburg, Missouri. Loeber married Sophia Henriette Wilhelmine Zahn in September 1825, in Weimar. They had four children in Eichenburg. One daughter, Anna, died when she was three years old. The other three children accompanied their parents on the Emigration. His two sons, Christoph Heinrich and Gotthilf Simeon both became pastors in the Missouri Synod, and his daughter, Martha Marie, married Teacher Theodore Buenger.

Christoph Heinrich Loeber was born October 11, 1828 in Eichenberg, Saxony, where his father served as pastor. He accompanied his parents in the Saxon Immigration to Perry County in 1838, arriving in St. Louis and later Perry County in 1839. He attended the log cabin seminary in Altenburg where his father was the instructor. When his father died during the last months of his study in August 1849, C.F.W. Walther encouraged Christoph Heinrich to finish his studies and pass the exam, which he died in December 1849. He was ordained on January 13, 1850 as pastor at Concordia Lutheran Church, Frohna, Missouri, where he replaced his father. In 1862 he took a call to Cooper’s Grove, Cook Co., Illinois, and in 1869 went to St. Stephan’s Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served this congregation and several others in the vicinity. When the Concordia Progymnasium (now Concordia University, Wisconsin) was founded in 1885, C.H. Loeber was called to be its first director. He served in this capacity until 1893. He then served a few years as a chaplain at the Lutheran Hospital in east New York City from 1893-1897. He died on March 18, 1897 and was buried in Milwaukee.

C.H. Loeber was very active in the Missouri Synod and served as the vice president of the Synod from 1884-1887, as vice president of the Wisconsin District from 1880-1886, and served on several boards and commissions. He married Marie Lochner, sister of Friedrich Lochner, on April 25, 1852 in Frohna, MO. The couple had eleven children: Gotthold Heinrich August (b. Oct. 28, 1853), Heinrich Carl Theodor (b. Dec. 31, 1855), Julie Wilhelmine (b. Oct. 1, 1857), Anna Emilie (b. Sept. 15, 1859), Theodor Wilhelm (b. Sept. 18, 1861), Willy Carl (b. Apr. 4, 1864), Marie Emma Louise (b. Dec. 30, 1865), Magdalena Johanna (b. May 23, 1869), Paul Gotthilf Carl (Dec. 16, 1871), Clara Johanna Margarethe (b. May 21, 1874), and Carl Friedrich Gotthilf (b. Nov. 25, 1877).

Gotthilf Simeon Loeber was born February 19, 1835 in Eichenberg near Altenburg, Saxony, where his father was the pastor. He immigrated to Perry County, Missouri, with his parents during the Saxon Immigration in 1838/1839 when he was three and a half years old. He began his studies at the log cabin Concordia Seminary in Altenburg, Perry County, Missouri, and followed the institution to St. Louis, graduating from there in 1856. He served as a vicar for a time in Frohna, Missouri, with his brother, and in New York, New York, with his uncle Theodore Brohm. He was ordained in 1858 at First St. Paul’s, Chicago, Illinois, where the Missouri Synod had been organized in 1847. He also served First Immanuel, Chicago, for about a year. He then took a call to the congregation in Niles, Cook Co., Illinois, and was installed there on March 11, 1859. Twenty-five years later he became an assistant to Pastors Wagner and Lochner in Chicago, IL. In 1890 he took a call to serve as pastor in Wayside, Wisconsin, serving less than a year before his death on March 31, 1891. He is buried in Wayside, Wisconsin. G.S. Loeber married Maria Rullman on November 6, 1864. The couple did not have any children of their own and adopted a daughter.

Gotthold Heinrich August Loeber was born 26 October 1853 at Frohna, Perry County, Missouri, the son of Pastor Christian Heinrich Loeber and his wife Marie nee Lochner. He attended Northwestern College, Watertown, Wisconsin, for four years, then Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, where he graduated in 1877. He was ordained and installed as pastor of Saint Stephen Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, on 8 July 1877. On 1 July 1884 he was installed as pastor of Saint Martini Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, where he served until his retirement on 2 July 1939. He died on 21 March 1944. G. H. A. Loeber prepared a family history account in a ledger, titled “Mittheilungen über die beiden Familien Loeber und Lochner” (Milwaukee, Wis., Decembere 1936), which is included in this collection.