Tombstone Tuesday–Clara May Schumm

Clara May Schumm, Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Van Wert Co., Ohio. (2011 photo by Karen)

This is the tombstone of Clara May Schumm, located in row 1 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Schumm, Van Wert County, Ohio. Her marker is too weathered to read the inscription now, but the Van Wert County Chapter OGS read the cemetery in 1992 and their reading corresponds to the information about her in Zion Schumm’s records. Her tombstone should read something like this:

Clara May
Tohter von
Fr. & Margaret
Schumm
Gest. 1 Sep 1883
Alter 4 m.

Clara May, daughter of Fr. & Margaret Schumm, died 1 Sep 1883, age 4 months.

According to Zion Schumm’s records Clara May Schumm was born on 1 May 1883, the daughter of Friedrich and Margaret (Ehrenmann) Schumm.

Clara was baptized at home on 14 May 1883, with Henry Schumm III and Clara Schinnerer serving as her sponsors.

Clara died on 1 September 1883, at the age of just 4 months. She was buried on the 2nd.

Neither a close-up or a negative image helped to read this tombstone:

Clara May Schumm, Zion Lutheran Cemetery. (2011 photo by Karen)

Clara May Schumm, Zion Lutheran Cemetery. (2011 photo by Karen)

This family was saddened by death several times. Friedrich and Margaret lost their first-born son Theodor Wilhelm in January 1876, at the age of 3 years, and they lost their daughter Mina Juliana, one of their twins, in September 1876, at the age of 4 months. Their eighth child, Clara May, died in 1883 and the mother Margaret died in June 1885.

Children born to Fred and Margaret (Ehrenmann) Schumm:
Theodor Wilhelm (1872-1876)
Katherine Magdalena (1874-1958), married William Adam Buechner
Anton “Hugo” (1876-1932), married Ada Alpha Wilson
Mina Juliana (1876-1876)
Leona Barbara (1877-1958), married Philip Fredrick Martin Schumm
Henrietta Amalia (1879-1947), married Andreas “Friedrich” George Roehm
Maria Elizabeth (1881-1966), married Heinrich “Henry” Dietrich
Clara May (1883-1883)
“William” Lorenz (1884-1961), married Minnie Katherine Gunsett

Margaret (Ehrenmann) Schumm died 27 June 1885 and Friedrich Schumm Jr married Maria Catharina Buechner (1861-1930) on 6 September 1888.

Friedrich Jr and Maria Catharina (Buechner) Schumm had the following children:
Justine Louise (1889-1889)
Amos Clemens (1891-1974), married Esther Emilie Schumm
Erna Theresa (1894-1971), married Walter Emanuel Schumm
Naomi Margaretha (1897-1982), married Arnold Ludwig Schumm.

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