Paul Carl Rother, 1867–1947, and Lina Marsh, 1871–1953

Born on 23 November 1867 in Wachtel, Kunzendorf, Silesia, Prussia (now Trezbina, Prudnik, Poland), Paul Carl Rother was the son of Joseph Robert Rother (1828–1873) and Francesca/Franzisca Birner (1829–1874).

At the age of seven, Paul and his older brothers became orphans and were placed in foster homes. Paul was unhappy, and as soon as he was old enough, he ran away and worked in a flour mill, sleeping on bags of grain in the basement. We do not have a passenger record, but the family story is that he found work on a freighter, sailing to New Orleans in 1884. Paul worked in the oyster beds and later went to Georgia to pick peaches. Eventually Paul made his way to Moberly, Randolph County, Missouri, where his brother, Joseph, lived and worked for the Kaufmann Bakery.

The bakery hired Paul where he learned the trade, and at one time, he worked for the Louie Kline Bakery. He met Lina Marsh from St. Louis where she worked for the Ellerbrock Bakery, at Ninth and Cass. Lina was born on 20 June 1871, the daughter of Heinrich and Maria Rocker Marsh of Melle, Hanover, Germany.

Lina immigrated to the U.S. in 1886 at the age of fifteen. In 1896, Paul Rother and Lina Marsh married in Moberly, Missouri. Lina gave birth to Pauline Elise (1897–1978), who married Frank Albert Paske (1886–1973); Henry Joseph (1899–1987), who married Flora Marie Luerding (1900–1993) of St. Charles; Frank E. (1901–1966), who married Alvina Wilhelms (1903–1969); and Carl Paul (1903–1944), who married Margaret “Marge” Kohler (1906–1990). (Marge was Mrs. Leo Buethe when she died)

The Rother brothers decided to move to the St. Louis area about 1906 where Joseph established a bakery in Maplewood. Paul went to Carondelet and established the Rother Bakery & Confectionery located at 770 Lemay Ferry Road. Paul baked breads and coffee cakes, while Lina handled the bakery’s retail shop. The children attended the Gethsemane Lutheran School across the street. Henry often told the story of how he or his brothers would be sent to the nearby tavern for their father’s pail of beer.

In the late 1920s, Paul and Lina retired. They sold the bakery and lived at 5200 Alabama, according to the 1930 federal census. The 1940 federal census indicates the couple lived at 5522 Louisiana. The family attended St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. In the afternoons, Paul would walk to Carondelet Park where a group of men would play pinochle. In bad weather the group met in someone’s basement.

Paul died on 19 May 1947. Lina moved in with the Paskes living at 5704 Murdoch in St. Louis Hills. Lina died on 23 February 1953. Burial for Paul Carl and Lina Rother occurred at Holy Trinity Cemetery in St. Louis County. They left their daughter and her husband, two living sons, three daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren.

[This work is based on first person memories, family papers and interviews, census records, death certificates, city directories, and research from the microfilms of Kunzendorf at the Family History Center of the LDS.]

Compiled and written by John and Ann Rother, son and daughter-in-law of Henry and Flora Rother

September 2016

© 2016, St. Louis Genealogical Society