Lifetime Rooted in Zion - Teenage Union soldier William Koestner became one of Cole County’s substantial farmers

William Koestner in his Civil War uniform. Koestner entered the Cole County Home Guard in 1863 at age 16 and later served with the 48th and 50th Missouri infantry regiments. He remained proud of his Union service throughout his life and reportedly wore his uniform during Missouri gubernatorial inaugural parades. Courtesy of Don Buchta.

William Koestner, the son of a German immigrant, was only 16 years old when he entered service with the Union forces during the Civil War. It was the beginning of a military experience that he carried with pride for the remainder of his life.

However, Koestner's story became more than just wartime service. Born into one of the German families who helped establish the Zion community southwest of Jefferson City, he spent most of his 84 years in the same area. In addition to his wartime service, he became a successful farmer and maintained ties to the community established by his parents and grandparents.

William Koestner was born April 18, 1847, near Jefferson City, the son of Friedrich Wilhelm Martin Koestner and Anna Maria Wolf. His father had been born in Bavaria in 1810 and was among the thousands of German immigrants who came to Missouri during the 19th century. Frederich applied for citizenship in 1843 and was listed as a stonemason and bricklayer.

William's connection to the area's German settlement was equally strong through his mother. Anna Maria Wolf was the daughter of Christoph Wolf and Anna Vogel Wolf. Christoph Wolf was among the charter members of Zion Lutheran Church when the congregation was formally organized on July 19, 1843.

Four days after its organization in a community of German-American immigrants living south of Jefferson City, members decided to purchase land for a church and cemetery. The congregation's first church was a hand-hewn log structure measuring 28 by 36 feet, eventually dedicated July 22, 1845.

William was born less than two years later and tragedy entered his life almost immediately. His father died in 1848, when William was only about a year old.

A notice published in the March 31, 1849, edition of the Weekly Jefferson Inquirer shows William's widowed mother serving as administratrix of Frederick Koestner's estate. She was responsible for collecting money owed to the estate and settling claims against it.

Later accounts indicate Friedrich Koestner may have met a violent end, reportedly killed by men described as “bushwhackers.” Circumstances of his death remain uncertain since the term used to describe his murderers became synonymous in Missouri with Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War. Though in use before the war, the term would not necessarily have carried the same meaning in 1848.

Anna eventually remarried, marrying John Friedrich Schoch in 1850. William nevertheless remained closely connected to the Koestner and Wolf families and to the rural Zion community in which he had been born.

By the time William reached his teenage years, Missouri had descended into another and far greater period of violence. The Civil War began in 1861, and Missouri quickly became a bitterly divided state. Conventional military operations were accompanied by guerrilla warfare, raids and violence that brought the conflict directly into rural communities.

According to the Cole County Historical Society, Koestner entered the Cole County Home Guard in 1863 when only 16.

Home Guard organizations were particularly important in a state such as Missouri, where Union forces had to protect communities, transportation routes and other strategic points while contending with Confederate guerrillas and irregular forces.

Koestner's federal military records indicate additional Union service associated with the 48th and 50th Missouri infantry regiments during the closing stages of the war. 

The 48th Missouri Infantry was organized in 1864 at St. Louis, Jefferson City and Rolla. The regiment initially performed duty in the District of Rolla before leaving Missouri in December 1864 for Tennessee. There, members of the regiment performed post and railroad-guard duty, protecting portions of the Tennessee & Alabama Railroad. The regiment later went to Camp Douglas in Chicago, where soldiers guarded Confederate prisoners and assisted with prisoner exchanges before eventually returning to Missouri.

The 50th Missouri Infantry, meanwhile, was organized during the final months of the war and remained largely on duty within Missouri. Koestner's surviving pension record connects him with both regiments, providing documentation of a military career that had begun close to home while he was still a teenager.

His wartime experience apparently remained an important part of his identity long after the fighting ended. The Cole County Historical Society later recalled, “Koestner had the honor of wearing his Civil War uniform and marching in the Governor’s parade during the inaugurations every four years, usually riding in the same vehicle as the Governor.”

A photograph and accompanying information preserved by Koestner relative Don Buchta indicates that Koestner's final inaugural appearance occurred during the inauguration of Missouri Gov. Henry S. Caulfield in January 1929.

By then, nearly 66 years had passed since the teenage Koestner entered the Home Guard. Most of the decades separating those events were spent on the farm. Koestner never married and became a familiar figure in the rural community surrounding Zion and Scruggs Station. Scattered newspaper references provide small but revealing glimpses of his life there.

In June 1900, Koestner was among a group of farmers near Scruggs Station who publicly announced that hunting would no longer be permitted on their properties. The notice reflected the collective action of neighboring farmers attempting to protect their land from hunters.

Five years later, a local newspaper reported that Henry Rockelmann was mowing clover on William Koestner's property, a seemingly insignificant community item that offers a glimpse into the agricultural work occurring on his farm.

Koestner also retained close ties with his mother's Wolf family. Following the death of his maternal uncle, Eberhard Wolf, Koestner served as administrator of his estate. Probate notices published in Jefferson City newspapers document Koestner overseeing the estate through its first annual settlement in 1909 and its final settlement in 1911.

Those responsibilities connected the aging farmer with the same Wolf family whose patriarch, Christoph Wolf, had helped establish Zion Lutheran Church before William was born.

Koestner remained on his farm into old age. By the early 1930s, he had lived through a remarkable period of American history. He had been born during the presidency of James K. Polk, experienced the Civil War firsthand, witnessed the arrival of automobiles and airplanes and lived into the opening years of the Great Depression.

But geographically, his life remained remarkably rooted. The Jefferson City Post-Tribune described Koestner at his death as “widely known in Cole County” and “one of the county's substantial farmers.”

In early January 1932, the elderly farmer suffered what the newspaper described as a “stroke of paralysis” at his home near Zion. He was taken to a Jefferson City hospital, where his condition became complicated by pneumonia. His official death certificate listed lobar pneumonia as the principal cause of death. At the time of his passing on January 3, 1932, he was 84.

Though he had never married, a nephew named William had lived with him for several years, and his surviving family included his brother Eberhardt Koestner of Lohman. Funeral services were held Jan. 5, 1932, beginning at the family home before proceeding to Zion Lutheran Church, where his body was laid to rest in the church cemetery.

It was an appropriate place for the final chapter of his life. Nearly nine decades earlier, his maternal grandfather, Christoph Wolf, had helped organize that congregation. William had been born into the surrounding German-American community only four years afterward, where he grew up and remained connected throughout his life.

Koestner’s life stretched from Missouri's early era of German immigration through the upheaval of the Civil War and into the Great Depression. Yet through all those changes, the Union veteran, farmer and lifelong son of Zion remained anchored to the small Cole County community his family had helped build.

 Jeremy P. Ämick is author of the historical compendium “Voices of the Moreau.”