I married Thomas Guenther while we were both gradate students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I had been divorced from Samuel Donnell for a year, so the prospects of marrying again was far from my mind. But, when someone comes along who "has always wanted a family" and was willing to take on you and your four kids, well, I wasn't going to let that one get away. And I didn't. Randy, at 16, wasn't too happy about it, but he did manage to show up for the wedding festivities in a nice suit and tennis shoes. He and his brothers were working for a farmer in Holmen at the time. His brothers were a little more receptive to the idea of a step-dad. Tom and I were married at the Little Brown Church in the Vale in Nashua, Iowa, where his parents, Mary Francis Glissendorf and Paul Ferdinand Emil Guenther were married. (Paul was baptized in a German Lutheran Church and therefore was given a second middle name.) I must add that in the years, the Donnell kids now look to Tom as their dad.
Frederick Glissendorf 1860
Hannah, Caleb, Noah, Gregory, and Grant are descended from Frederick Glissendorf, born August 2, 1838, in Germany, and Carl Gunther also born in Germany. Frederick Glissendorf married Anna Mannerman who was born January 24, 1846. They had seven children, one of whom was George Franklin Glissendorf, born August 28, 1889. I am going to assume that Anna as well as her children were also born in Germany. The gist of this is that The Guenthers and Glissendorfs were German as would be their descendants. (That is until I got into the mix with my added French and English ancestry)
Anna Mannerman and Frederick Glissensdorf 1867
Another interesting tidbit is that our name was spelled and pronounced as gun ther. Why it was changed is unknown, but it would become Guenther with William, Guenther, pronounced gen (rhyme with hen) ther. George Franklin married Alba Milligan who was born March 29, 1883. They had four children of whom Mary Francis Glissendorf, mother of Thomas Guenther, was one. She married Paul Ferdinand Emil Guenther. Mary Francis was always known as Fran, and was born August 24, 1908.
The first Guenther came to this country from G(r)ansedorf, West Prussia, Germany in 1873, and settled in the Hokah-Houston, Minnesota area.
Carl Gunther (with 2 dots above the u) was born Mar 21, 1844 and at the age of 29, migrated to this country in 1873. Carl was a blacksmith/wheelwright by trade and was affiliated with the Lutheran Church. He had three wives, the first of whom was Augustine (Justine) Fleischauer. They were married November 1869, most likely in Germany as he did migrate until 4 years later. She died in 1881. They had four children of whom Willliam Guenther was one. (William is Thomas Guenther's grandfather and Gregory and Grant's great-grandfather.) William was born in G(r)ansedorf, West Prussia, Germany on February 8, 1870, and was three years old when his parents brought him to America. William married Ida Panton in1894. They had six children of whom Paul Ferdninad Emil was one. Carl's second wife was Fredericka Helm married to 1886. They had two children. Augusta Schwadter, his third wife, married to 1904, but had no children. To end this part of the story ... Carl Gunther died in 1929.
Summary ... the Guenther line can be traced back to Carl Gunther who migrated from Germany in 1873.
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