Benjamin Gotsch, 1837–1929

Benjamin was the youngest child born to Rev. Dr. Georg Moritz Gotsch and Johanna Emilia Friedrich. His mother died from a fatal fall on the day he was born—12 December 1837—in Mühlau, Saxony. She had tripped over a toy wagon on the floor. As his mother lay dying, she named him Benoni, meaning child of pain. His father baptized him six days later. On 5 October 1851, Benjamin was confirmed by his father at St. Marien Lutheran Church in Ziegelheim, Saxony.

A tutor educated Benjamin in his home in his early years. His education beyond that in Saxony is unknown. As a teenager, Benjamin accompanied his family on the bark Wieland for America in 1852. For a while, he lived in Kendallville, Indiana, where an older brother was a watchmaker and jeweler, and Benjamin learned from him. He also lived in Memphis, Tennessee, where his father was the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church. Benjamin served as the secretary of the congregation’s board. As happened to an older brother, someone persuaded Benjamin to become a servant of the church and teach in the Lutheran schools. He enrolled in the Fort Wayne Teachers’ Seminary and graduated in 1862.

Benjamin had teaching positions in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri. While in Cincinnati, Ohio, he met Elizabeth Margaret Nees, whom he married on 18 October 1861. She was born in Bavaria on 11 January 1836, to Christof August Nees, a professor at the University of Salzburg, and Eleonore Sophie Carolina Strobel. Her mother was a cousin to Benjamin’s stepmother. The couple became parents to eight children.

In Springfield, Illinois, along with his teaching duties he also served as the principal, assisted in the classroom by a younger sister, Johanna. He and another teacher looked after about 130 students. Before the end of the nineteenth century, Benjamin accepted a call to Black Jack, Missouri, where he held the distinction of being among the “Oldest Servants in Pulpit and School” in 1926 in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

Benjamin and Elizabeth remained in Black Jack for years as well as did half of their eight children. Benjamin died as the result of pneumonia and a heart attack in Black Jack on 18 January 1929, and Elizabeth died on 8 January 1911 with burial for both at Salem Lutheran Church Cemetery in Black Jack.

Written by Cheryl Gross
May 2018

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