“By the Rev. Daiss I was baptized and confirmed”: Rev. Joseph John Daiss

This cabinet card photograph appears to be a reproduction of an older original of Rev. Joseph John Daiss and one of his two wives, first wife Eva Catherine (Singer) Daiss, who died in 1893, or Mathilda Kruse, whom the minister married in 1900.

I can’t be sure which of his wives this is. The style of her dress suggests the 1880s-1890s but I’m no expert in fashion. She does appear to be younger than he, so perhaps it is Mathilda.

On the back of the beige card mount is written in ink, ” Rev. and Mrs. J. Daiss. By the Rev. Daiss I was baptized + confirmed, and he also performed our marriage ceremony. Vernon’s mother.”

Alas, if only she had written Vernon’s last name or her own name.

Son of a vintner, Rev. Daiss was born 28 November 1850 in Korb, Rems-Mur-Kreis, Baden-Wuerttemberg. He came to America in 1878 after training for the ministry, and first served a Lutheran church in Nebraska.

He and his first wife, Eva (1853-1893) moved to Missouri in 1882, first to High Ridge, Missouri, and then in 1885 to Berger, where he served as pastor at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (now St. John’s United Church of Christ) 32 years.

In 1917, he retired and moved to St. Louis with his second wife, Mathilda (Kruse) Daiss (1865-1953), daughter of Rev. Michael Kruse and Catherine (Wall) Kruse.

The Union, Missouri Republican Headlight covered his retirement in its 5 October 1917 issue, reporting that Daiss had in his 32 years in Berger christened 356 children, confirmed 362 children, performed 130 marriages and 232 funerals.

During all this time, claims the writer, “there was never a word of difference between the pastor and his congregation. Truly he was a man of peace and worked faithfully in the vineyard of his master.”

Daiss and his first wife had six children, of whom only two survived to adulthood: Selma H. Daiss (1891-1971) and Thekla (Daiss) Boeger (1881-1935).

His 23 October 1919 obituary in the New Haven, Missouri Leader eulogized him thusly:

“During Rev. Daiss’ long pastorate at Berger, he gained the love and high esteem of all the citizens of that community, who mourn his passing and deeply sympathize with his bereaved family.”

Rev. Daiss certainly took thought for the future care of his wife and children. At his death Daiss left two farms comprising some 320 acres in Cuming County, Nebraska to his wife, Mathilda. He directed her to keep and rent out the farms and to divide the income among herself and his two daughters. The farms were to pass to his daughters after his wife’s death.

Rev. Daiss and his two wives are buried in the cemetery of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Berger, Missouri. St. John’s United Church of Christ in Berger is apparently not currently in use, although the building still exists and appears to be well cared-for.