Silent Night at Zion - Charter member of Zion Lutheran Church half-brother of “Silent Night” author

Father Joseph Mohr was one of four illegitimate children born to a seamstress in Austria. He later wrote the lyrics for Silent Night, a popular Christmas song. His half-brother, Wilhelm, immigrated to Missouri and was a founding member of Zion Lutheran Church near Jefferson City. Public Domain

By Jeremy P. Ämick

The holy refrains of “Silent Night” have long been incorporated into Christmas celebrations worldwide. Written by Father Joseph Mohr, a Catholic priest and Austrian native, the song is still sung in its original German by some local churches on Christmas Eve. The words of Father Mohr are interestingly woven into the fabric of a forgotten Lutheran church near Jefferson City, where the half-brother of the song’s writer became a founding member of the congregation after immigrating to Missouri.
 
“In the year of 1792, Anna Schoiberen was a seamstress in Salzburg, Austria, and she had no one to sponsor her infant son Joseph for baptism (since) the father, Franz Joseph Mohr, a soldier who boarded in the home, had abandoned her,” wrote the late Palmer Scheperle, a descendant of the Mohr family.
 
He continued, “Franz Joseph Mohr not only fled from the home but also deserted the Austrian army. He reappeared in Salzburg after 19 years, in 1811, the same year Wilhelm (Martin) Mohr was born. History does not tell us where he spent the 19 years.”
 
Although he carried the surname of the soldier who fathered his older brother, the actual identity of Wilhelm Mohr’s father is not known; however, he was one of four illegitimate children born to their unmarried mother.
 
In 1818, when Wilhelm Mohr was seven years old, his older brother, Catholic priest Joseph Mohr penned the words to “Silent Night” and asked his friend, Franz Gruber, to compose music for it on the guitar. That Christmas Eve, the song was performed for the first time in Father Mohr’s church.
 
It is doubtful that Joseph Mohr had much of a relationship with his younger half-brother since he was already in seminary at the time of Wilhelm’s birth. One certainty is that young Wilhelm was raised in poverty prior to somehow finding the resources to leave his homeland.
 
Scheperle explained that Wilhelm “immigrated to America in about 1840 and settled in Cole County, near Jefferson City in the Zion Community, and homesteaded 80 acres adjacent and east of the present-day Jefferson City Country Club on South Country Club Drive.”
 
After coming to America, he began using “William” as his first name. Also, Scheperle speculated that he would have been Catholic, just as his older brother, but later converted to Lutheranism.
 
Immigration records indicate Wilhelm departed from Hesse-Darmstadt in Germany, a region bordering Lower Saxony. His movement to the United States parallels a period defined by the mass migration of Lutherans to the area.
 
“One of the bands united for emigration by the same motives and purposes were the Saxon immigrants who came to Missouri during January and February of 1839…,” wrote Professor Theodore Buenges in the book “Ebenezer: Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three Quarters of a Century.” 
 
Buenges added, “With two later additions that comprise a total of not quite 1,000 persons. These 1,000 immigrants must be considered the most important group among the 68,069 new arrivals of that year, and their settlement one of very much consequence for the country.”
 
The year 1843 heralded a period of new beginnings for the 32-year-old Wilhelm Mohr as he married Anna Katherina Wolf on May 2, 1843, and, a little more than two months later, became one of 37 charter members who formed Zion Lutheran Church a few miles south of Jefferson City.
 
His wife’s parents, Christoph and Anna (Vogel) Wolf, were also recent immigrants to Missouri from Germany and settled in the community located in proximity to Zion Lutheran Church, the first Lutheran church in the county. Additionally, Christoph Wolf was listed alongside his new son-in-law as a founding member of Zion.
 
Throughout the next several years, Mohr and his wife raised nine children and toiled to eke out a living on their farm, all while remaining dedicated to their Lutheran faith.
 
Scheperle explained that the 78-year-old Wilhelm Mohr, no stranger to hard work, “died suddenly on July 6, 1889 on his farm that he homesteaded in April of 1840, while he and his neighbors were harvesting his wheat crop.”
 
His wife passed away 20 years later and lies alongside Wilhelm in the cemetery of Zion Lutheran Church.
 
His older brother, Father Joseph Mohr, died in a village near Salzburg, Austria on December 4, 1848 when only 55 years old. “Stille Nacht,” or “Silent Night, as it is known in English, became a favorite tune of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia and earned Mohr worldwide fame after his death.
         
Wilhelm Mohr came to learn that the song was attributed to his half-brother as immigrants from Saxony and surrounding regions continued settling in Missouri, sharing the beloved melody at churches in the area. For many years, Wilhelm would sing the sweet refrains of the words in German on Christmas Eve among his fellow congregation members at Zion.
 
Zion Lutheran Church held its final worship service in 1975. However, Wilhelm Mohr’s legacy carries on through congregations like St. John’s Lutheran Church in Stringtown, which was established through the loving work of Zion and where “Stille Nacht” continues to be sung on Christmas Eve.
 
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
 
The Mohr brothers accomplished both. Though living a world apart in adulthood, they have through their work imparted a lasting legacy.
 
Wilhelm, by helping found a Lutheran church that resulted in the establishment of many other congregations that are still active in the local community; his half-brother, Joseph, a Catholic priest who crafted the lyrics to a beautiful song that is still embraced throughout the world during the Christmas season.
 
Jeremy P. Ämick is author of "Lutherans of Cole County, Missouri." 

Wilhelm Mohr and his wife are interred in the cemetery of Zion Lutheran Church. Courtesy of Jeremy P. Amick