In a small, but bustling railroad city, where horses and mules were still the mode of travel, and iron fences and gates were becoming the fashion, a blacksmith could always find work.

And in that “fix it don’t throw it away” atmosphere, spelling often took second place to the skill of repairing tools and cooking utensils.

Cindy Jacob, Chesterfield, was well aware of the struggles that census takers and city workers had with complex German names when she came to Pacific prepared to wade through a slew of different spellings to find her relatives.

Jacob was looking for records of her Great-Great-Uncle Johan Friedrich Huermann who was a blacksmith in Pacific.

Uncle Johan Friedrich, originally from Neuenkirchen bie Melle, Germany, had also shown up in census records and ship manifests as Fred, Friedrich, Kasper or simply Johan. Spelling of the last name was also subject to change.

“He was also known as Fritz,” she said. “I found it several ways, but I could also tell it was him because I had the rest of the records.”

According to family records, Johan Friedrich was buried in Lot 12 of the Pacific City Cemetery. Jacob had telephoned Ruth Muehler, cemetery committee chairman, with that information.

“She (Muehler) went out to the cemetery but there was no gravestone in Lot 12,” Jacob said. “She told me that the genealogy society members worked at the library on Tuesday mornings and they might help me find something here.”

As it turned out, a list of businesses started in Pacific in 1875 uncovered one Fritz Hurmann, who opened a blacksmith shop in the city that year.

The informal history, one of the most complete histories of early life in Pacific, also includes lists of early businesses, settlers, early fraternal organizations and churches. W.K. Burton is listed as the author of the work.

Jacob recognized the entry as the relative she was researching. Johan Friedrich Huermann was the older brother of Jacob’s Great-Great-Grandfather Friedrich Ernst Huermann.

“There seemed to be a lot of Freds in the family,” she said.

Jacob plans a trip to Osnabruck, Germany, next year with a group of St. Louis genealogy researchers and wants to track down the relatives who preceded her great-great-grandfather to America to take the information back to her German kin.

Johan Friedrich and his brother Henry William had migrated to America first. They had both worked as blacksmiths in St. Louis during the Civil War. At some point Johan Friedrich migrated to Pacific.

Apparently blacksmithing was a lucrative trade in 1870s Pacific when 40 or 50 trains stopped in the city each day. Three blacksmiths are listed in Burton’s history during the 1870s.

In 1871, Johan Friedrich married Louise Schroeder. Although she was listed on the marriage license as being from Pacific, the wedding took place in St. Louis. The couple had one daughter, Amelia, who was born in Pacific.

Friedrich Ernst was a furniture builder all his life. Family history contacts in Germany say the ancestors there also were furniture builders.

Jacob also found in Pacific the obituary for Johan Friedrich’s son – who had the same name – which included a photograph and noted that he was buried in Washington.

“You find these things one step at a time,” she said.

The MVGHS maintains a family history archive at the Scenic Regional Library and volunteers work there every Tuesday morning from 10 a.m. to noon. The group helps direct family history researchers to material in the archive – which is open to the public but cannot be removed from the library.

The society also provides personalized searches of its material for a small fee. For information about a history search contact Sally Guenther, MVGHS conservator, 314-210-7070.