Van Daniel Marshall and Bessie Gray (67 and 68)

(Four Stars): Van Daniel Marshall was the son of William Jackson Marshall and Sarah Ann Simmons.  He was born in San Augustine County, Texas on August 23, 1897.    Van was known as a good, peaceful, Christian man, who loved music and singing, and especially taking time to be with his grandchildren. However, he often had difficulty finding steady work, and rarely kept a job for very long.  He married Bessie Beatrice Gray on February 17, 1918 in Sabine County, Texas.

Bessie was a daughter of Marshall Sidney Gray and Winnie Opal Carter and was born on June 7, 1899 in Colmesneil, Texas.  Van and Bessie raised seven children:

1.  Maudie Lee born December 8, 1918 who married Terry Ford.
2.  Opal born August 25, 1920 who married Wesley Lowe.
3.  Maurine born February 16, 1924 who married Leslie Lowe.
4.  Jessie born May 10, 1925(or 26?) who married Nelwyn Melton.
5.  Daniel Maurice born October 14, 1929 who married Johnnie Hawthorne.
6.  Alice born May 10, 1932 who married C.V. Sanford.
7.  Louie Ray born July 30, 1943

Times were very difficult for the family with the onset of the Great Depression.  Van was gone many times looking for work and the family suffered many days of hunger and near starvation.  Maurine used to tell stories of how she and Jessie would trap wild birds and rabbits so the family could eat when she was only seven or eight years old.

Van once traded 50 acres of land for a truck to drive to Louisiana looking for a job, and ended up selling the truck for money to come back home, but that wasn't the worst of their troubles.  One day Van suffered from a horribly infected tooth.  Like many old folks back in the day, he rubbed the infection with kerosene or some similar fuel.  The chemicals went to his brain and he was left with amnesia and wondered for weeks.  Everyone thought Bessie must have killed him.  In fact, her cousin and San Augustine Sheriff (later Texas Ranger) Hoyt Marshall, investigated her and interrogated her pretty hard according to family traditions.  One day when things were very bleak, Bessie looked up to find Van peeking into the kitchen from the back door.  His mind was coming back to him and he recognized his home, but it took a while for his full mental capacities and memories to return to him.

One ghost story Maurine related to me involved her grandmother Winnie.  It was during the Depression and things were very hard.  Van was gone again, and Bessie was at her wits end about how to feed and take care of all her kids.  Grandmother Winnie Gray had died a few weeks earlier.  One night Maurine and Bessie heard their gate creak open as if someone was out in front of the house.  They went to the door but didn't see anyone.  However Maurine swore she heard her Grandmother Winnie's voice say, "It's okay Bessie.  These hard times are almost over.  It's gonna be alright."  And it was.  Van soon found a job and the hard times for the family finally came to an end.

Betty, their granddaughter remembered how proud Van was of her as a teenager when she sang Christian songs on the radio. He would gather his friends around to listen and brag on his granddaughter.  Bessie also loved music and was known by the family to keep time with her finger at every singing.  She attended many East Texas Blue grass concerts, even into her nineties.

Van was beloved in his community, church, and had many friends.  In fact one friend gave him and Bessie a home to live in and when the friend died, he willed that Van and Bessie be allowed to live there until they died and asked his children not to sell the place.

Van died on January 2, 1977.  On his deathbed in a hospital, he asked for someone to get him some buttermilk, and when they returned with it, he had died.

Bessie lived to be almost 104 years old and died in 2005 having lived by herself into her nineties.

They have many great, great, great grandchildren and are remembered as good Christian people.

Van and Bessie

Louie Ray, Bessie, Daniel, Van, and Alice

Van, Jessie, Daniel, and Louie Ray

Bessie Gray Marshall

Van and Bessie c1975

Bessie with a Blue Ribbon Winning Sweet Potato 

News Article about Bessie in 1991

My Talks with Lotta Mae Millsaps (52)

One of my great aunts was Lotta Mae Millsaps.  She and I shared a common passion for family history and genealogy and  spent many hours going over various records and sharing what we had found and our frustrations at not finding who the father of James Henderson Moore (Martha Iredell's father).  I recorded an interview with Lotta during the summer of 1989 and again in 1991.  I was very upset when she died and miss her greatly.  Here is a transcript of what Lotta had to say about her family history.

Lotta Mae Wolfe-Millsaps

(Present during the interview:  Ed Wetterman, Lotta Mae Millsaps, and Louise Wetterman)

...Jane Wolfe was married to David Parks and her sister married Hiram Parks and they are the half-sisters of John Peeler Wolfe.

...The name [Wolfe].  Grandpa Wolfe, dad's grandfather added the "e" to it, and I don't know who took the "o"s off.  It's supposed to be spelled Woolf.  We're Dutch, and the Hulls came from Pennsylvania....They came down through Kentucky and Virginia from Pennsylvania.  They went into Pennsylvania when they came into the States.  Then they went down in covered wagons into Tennessee, but they might have gone into North Carolina before they went into Tennessee, I don't know for sure.

...Grandmother Ramsey's mother was a Dye or a Monger.

...The records show that Grandpa Wolfe and Joseph Wolfe were newcomers [to Monroe County, Tenn.] in 1820.

...John Ramsey and wife...lived right there in Hiawatha County District, and my Grandpa Ramsey, he was a Union man and he was going to Knoxville to join the Union Army[during the Civil War], when he had taken a cold and got sick and had to come back home.  You see in them days from Monroe County to Knoxville was quite a distance if you went on foot or on a horse or something.  I don't know how many horses he had.  I know he had a homestead place there, only a little peek from where Grandpa Wolfe lived, where my great-grandfather lived, and where the Wolfe's are still living.  I know he had a place down there, and we called it the Knobs, it's what they call a low mountainous district.  Anyway, he was a Union man, and he went off, but came home and died and they buried him at Fowler's Mill.  Jimmy Hitch, who is my first cousin, tried everything he knew to do to find out where he was buried there, but they hadn't put any headstone up, or if they had, it had fallen and rotted and they couldn't find it.  But Jimmy told me he was buried at Fowler's Mill-that's right between Vonore and Loudon really.  And Grandma [Ramsey], well they had a big battle in Loudon, just the other side of Philadelphia, Tennessee, and Grandma said  she remembered hearing the guns.  They could hear the guns from where they lived, huge guns.  Well, people just went through the country just getting everything they could get and somebody come-a-running and told her.  She didn't let her oldest son go.  He should have went into the service, Uncle Hiram should have, but she didn't let him go.  She sent him away up in the hills to hide him form the soldiers, scavengers, whatever they were. They wanted to get every kind of meat and every thing that was loose.

Grandma had just killed a hog and she had just put it way like she was supposed to, and then she said she didn't know what to do [because the army was coming to take her food], and then she remembered she had some salve-something-or-other made out of willow bark, and it looked and smelled awful.  But she went and got it and she smeared all that meat with that willow bark and throwed it out in the yard, because if they found it, they would have carried it off.  So when they came, she said she was crying and she said somebody had already come through there and had ruined everything she had.  Well, she was a crying and taking on something awful, and so they picked it [the meat] up-smelled it, and threw it back down and went on.  That's the way she saved her meat. She took it into the house and washed it off and it was just as good as it ever was....I thought that was very ingenious of her.

...Your Grandma Wolfe [Martha Iredell] was a Moore and her daddy was a Corporal in the Civil War, in the Confederate Army.  He's buried in Mississippi....They came to Texas when momma was seven years old....Grandpa Moore went back to visit Mississippi, you see he had some daughters that lived out there and that he had two daughters by his first wife, Aunt Dottie and Aunt Lou.  Both of them married Crums, but they weren't close Crum's, they were cousins, and they lived right outside of Corinth, Mississippi in what they call Walnut Spring.  He went back there, took white fever and died.  They buried him there.  In later years, when they were going through war records, some ladies of Mississippi found where he had been a Corporal and they erected a tombstone at his grave, and momma said that Uncle Jeff was married at that time and they were living out here around Gatesville [Texas] at the time.  Uncle Bob, Momma's oldest brother raised them.  It was only Momma, Aunt Minda, and Aunt Sally.  He raised them, so Momma thought Uncle Bob hung the moon, and you couldn't hardly blame her because he took good care of them.  They lived on a farm a long time and I guess they then moved to Waco.  but Daddy and Momma met, Daddy was a streetcar motorman here in Waco, and Momma worked at Goldstein-McGills and they met on the streetcar, and later they got married.  I don't know how long they went together before they got married, but it was quite a while I think.  They got married on the 4th day of May.  Momma was twenty-five and Daddy was twenty-six when they got married and they had eight children.  They went back to Tennessee when I was about five. I should remember it, I was almost six, but I don't remember a thing about it.

....A thing I do remember is that Momma had never been raised in the country, especially country like in Tennessee-where there was red hills, and red gullys, and red-dirty roads....They went from Sweetwater to Grandma's house in a surrey.  An old-fashioned surrey, it had a cover over the top, pulled by two horses, it had fringe around the top, like a buggy, but it had two seats in it, a front and a back, and Momma  promised herself then that she would never again go to another town until she could go back to Texas.  She lived fourteen years in Tennessee and only went to town once during that time and that was to keep Daddy out of the army.  Se he was needed as a soldier...[Louise interrupted here]

Louise:  But they took our wheat and wouldn't give us but so much flour.  Momma had to make cornbread for breakfast [this was World War I and rationing was the law].

[Lotta continued]:  We had to eat cornbread all the time and, oh she made good cornbread, but she hated to feed us kids cornbread.  I know Daddy was terribly frustrated by trying to raise a family on nothing....Well I'll tell you right now that on the night Albert was born on the 8th of December, 1917, we went to Mrs. Kurks across a creek and we crossed on stepping stones going over there.  When we came back it had frozen over.  It began to snow and it never let up until March.  Daddy had some corn in the field and he never got the corn from the fields until March.  It was terrible, and we had to go out and get the eggs tow or three times a day because they would freeze....and that was when Louise got lice in her head....Anyway they had a lady staying with Momma to take care of her and the kids, and that's where she [Louise] got it.  Momma was so mad at that woman she could have killed her.

Summer 1991 Interview with Lotta Mae Millsaps
People present: Ed Wetterman, Lotta Mae Millsaps, and Louise Wetterman.

...The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was one hundred years old in 1968, and that's where all the family is buried....Hopewell Springs is where I think my Grandmother Wolfe was buried, but Bat Creek is where my Grandpa Wolfe [John Peeler Wolfe] lived.

...back in them days [late 1800s] in Mississippi malaria was terrible and mosquitoes was awful, and babies, unless they were really stout didn't live very long.

Louise:  I can remember her [Grandma Ramsey-Wolfe] because I turned a tub of hot water over her feet one time....Momma remembered it after I told her I remembered it.  We were in the kitchen or something, and they had these washtubs- great big old things, and I remember she walked out of that room and went into another room and laid down on the day bed.

Lotta:  You know what I remember about Texas before I went to Tennessee?  I remember they had a flood--a great flood, and we lived down on South Third street [Waco, Texas] and the water was way up high next to the houses, and the river was very high.  There were two boys, I can't remember their names, but they had a canoe.  I wanted to go in that canoe so bad, but Momma wouldn't let me.

...I remember when my little brother died.  I remember Daddy picked me up and let me see the baby.  I can't remember what it looked like, but I remember the little white gown [Louise interrupted]

Louise:  It was between 1911 and 1913 that the baby died.

Lotta:  Daddy liked to have had a fit.  It was a little boy.  I don't know, but I think Momma must have fallen....She almost lost her life I think.

End of Transcript.

I interviewed Lotta Mae to get genealogical information about the Wolfe family.  However, it is not often a great-nephew develops a special relationship with a great aunt.  Over the next few years, Lotta and I became good friends and I truly grew to love her dearly.  She is missed.

She told me a lot more during my visits with her.  I transcribed the above directly from the tapes I made during the interviews, so the words and the sentence structures are all hers.

Lotta loved genealogy and because she had gathered so much data and had remembered the stories she had heard, we are blessed with some of our own family traditions and legends.  I think she would be proud to know that she has passed these gifts on to the next generations of our good family.

Here is a letter she sent me c1989:

Prince Albert Houston (Hugh) Wolfe and Martha Iredell Moore (50 and 51)

Hugh Wolfe was the 2nd child of John Peeler Wolf and Martha Tennessee Ramsey.  Hugh was born September 15, 1883 in Sweetwater, Tennessee in the Bat Creek Community.  He married Martha Iredell Moore on May 4, 1909 in Waco, Texas.  Hugh was a farmer, a streetcar motorman, and later worked for the Texas State Highway Department.

Hugh Wolfe

Martha Iredell Moore was a daughter of James Henderson Moore of Mississippi, a Confederate Civil War veteran and Mary Jane Ricketts.  Her father died in the 1890s and she and her family moved to Texas, east of Waco, where she was raised by her older brother.

Hugh and Martha had the following children:

1. Lotta Mae B: Feb. 24, 1910-m-Perrian Robert Millsaps
2.  Arminda Louise B: Oct. 12, 1912-m-Edgar Arthur Wetterman
3.  Son- Born and Died Sept. 27, 1913
4.  Martha Josephine B:December 21, 1914-m-G. C. Murphree
5.  Albert Edison B: Dec. 8, 1917 -m-Mary Ann Alford
6.  Joe Otis B:  Feb. 26, 1920 -m- Virginia Dickerson
7.  Dorotha Iredell B: Nov. 9, 1923 -m-Melvin Newsome Loveless
8.  Robert E. B: Feb. 19, 1927 -m- 1) Imogene Rafferty 2) Dorothy Marie McAfee

Lotta Mae, Josephine, and Louise

Louise and Lotta Mae

L to R: Josephine, Hugh (in back) holding Albert, Martha Iredell, Lotta Mae, and Louise

L to R: Standing in back: Louise, Joe, Robert, Dorotha,  in front: Lotta Mae and Josephine

My Great-Aunt Dorotha Wolfe Loveless wrote the following about her father and mother:

Prince Albert Houston (Hugh) Wolfe was the second child born to John Peeler Wolfe and Martha Tennessee Ramsey Wolfe.  He was born Sept. 15, 1883.

He left Tennessee when he was about 17 years of age and came to Texas to work for a cousin, Will Ramsey, on his farm near Mart, Texas.  Some time later he got a job as a streetcar motorman in Waco, Texas.  On May 4, 1909, he married Martha Iredell Moore, a sales clerk in a department store in Waco. To them was born 8 children.   One of these died at birth.Those born in Waco were:

Lottie Mae Wolfe
Arminda Louise Wolfe
Martha Josephine Wolfe
Baby boy born dead

Sometime around 1915 or 1916 Hugh and Iredell moved back to Tennessee.  it was thought that Hugh had developed some kind of stomach problem, possibly ulcers, from working with and breathing the brass from the handles and fixtures on the cars.

They moved to Tennessee and Hugh worked on different farms for a living, among them the Kirk place, the Carroll place and Frank's place.

The years in Tennessee were very difficult and sometimes unhappy, for the family especially Iredell.  While there, her oldest sister was killed in an automobile accident and her mother died also.  It was impossible for her to return home.

She recounts how it was the happiest day of her life when Hugh came in one day and said, "Let's go home to Texas."  So in 1927 they packed up their belongings and they and their 7 children came by train to Waco, Texas.  Iredell liked to tell how well behaved the children were on the train.  It was a long trip and the other passengers said at the end of it that they had expected "bedlam" but they were model children.  Lotta Mae had drilled them on how to act.  They were told not to point and they were to keep their voices low.  The kids couldn't bear to leave the hickory nuts behind so they filled their pockets full when they left.

The depression years that soon followed were very hard years.  Hugh always managed to have a job of some kind, even if it paid only 50 cents to $1.00 a day.  But the family never went hungry and were always proud of the fact that they never accepted any kind of welfare or relief payments from the government.  Hugh always paid his poll tax and took a real interest in voting and keeping up with what was going on and encouraged his children to do the same.  During these years he shoveled gravel and worked in a dairy among other things.  Then he was given a job with the Texas Highway Department.  he worked there for 27 years, until his retirement.  It was then that he and Iredell got to make a few little trips they had always wanted to make.  This time when they returned to Tennessee it was a happy trip.

Their 50th Wedding Anniversary on May 4, 1959 was a very happy occasion celebrated with family and friends.

Hugh died on July 23, 1961 at the age of 77.

Iredell died on January 7, 1975.  She was almost 91 years old.

They were good parents and taught us the right principles of life.  They were wonderful Grandparents, always had time to spend with us kids.  They were good Christians.

Hugh and Iredell

This and more can be found in the book John Peeler Wolfe: Ancestors 1765 and Descendants 1992 by Mina Belle Wolfe Feezell and Violet Kirkpatrick Wolfe.

Charles Henry Wetterman and Anna Amelia Wachsmann, Part Two

While Charles could be gruff, Anna had a temper.  One story relates how she once chased him out of the kitchen with a knife.  Grandma Louise remembered when Charles lived with her and Edgar.  He chewed tobacco and spit on her floor.  She told him to clean it up.  He simply swiped at it with his boot and walked away.  She was not happy, though she admitted in later years that she hadn't been too welcoming to her father-in-law.

Anna developed lung cancer and died  October 13, 1939.  Charles lived with various children until his death on August 4th, 1956.  Tommy, his grandson, remembers his grandfather as a quiet old man, who enjoyed playing dominoes and cards with his friends.

L to R: Edgar, Karl, Bill

Edgar, Dutch, Bill, and Karl: The Wetterman Boys

Charles Henry Wetterman in the early 1950s

Anna kept many family treasures that have been passed down.  One is the Wetterman family Bible.  It is a German Dr. Martin Luther's Bible printed in 1897.  She also kept a small table cloth that the Wetterman's or Wachsmann's brought with them from Germany.

She also kept a small family book that she recorded births, marriages, and deaths in.  When she died, Grandma Louise continued the practice. Many of the early entries are written in German, but only a few were difficult to read.  Here is an extract of the entries divided into months, but rarely by dates.  Note that I added numbers to keep the original organization (these are not dates) and I copied these as I found them:

January:
1.  Heinrich Wetterman Sr. Born 1842
2.  C.J. Eschenburg Colorado County-1889
3.  Bradley Lewis Wetterman Born January 10, 1972
4.  B.L. Wetterman  Died Jan. 7, 1983 in Houston, buried Rock Cemetery, near Clifton, Texas

February:
5.  William A. Wetterman married Mildred Boyd Feb. 2, 1939
6.  James Roland Wetterman Born Feb. 5, 1948
7.  Lottie Mae Millsaps Born Feb. 24, 1910
8.  Robert E. Wolfe  Born Feb. 19, 1927
9.  Joe Otis Wolfe Born Feb. 26, 1920
10.  Georgia (last name unreadable) Born 1909
11.  Karolina Wettermann Died in Washington County 1923
12.  Robert Sohns Born in Washington County 1913
13.  Frank Ells Born Arkansas(?) 1913
14.  Hermann Heinrich Johann Wettermann Born 1902 in Lee Co., Texas [Also listed in April]

March:
15.  Heinrich Wettermann Born 1878
16.  Carol Lynn Wetterman Born March 10, 1952
17.  James Edward Wetterman Jr. and Dawn Allison married March 10, 1984 in Teague, Texas
18.  Rosette Laura Wachsmann Born 1902 in Lee Co., Texas
19.  Henry Witte married Emma Rodeck 1900, Lee Co., Texas
20.  Anna Amelia Wetterman Born March 28, 1877 in Lee Co., Texas.  Died October 13, 1939

April:
21.  Etgar Artuhr [sic] Wettermann Born April 1, 1911 in Bosque Co., Texas.  Died April 29, 1980, Tuesday evening at 10:30 [p.m.]
22.  Emma Henrietta Witte  Born 1904 in Lee Co., Texas
23.  Anna Rodeck Born April 8, 1896
24.  Anna Rodeck 13 April 1911 [died?]
25.  Edward Joe Wetterman Born April 23, 1968
26.  Herman Wetterman Born 1902
27.  Otto Wetterman Born 1884 in Lee Co., Texas
28.  Shirley Diane Wetterman Born April 29, 1949
29.  Shirley Wetterman Born May 30, 1923
30.  Eddie Wetterman married Louise Wolfe in Waco, April 30, 1932

May:
31.  August Otto Wettermann Born Giddings, Lee Co., Texas 1904 on May 3, Died Nov. 19, 1980
32.  Charles Henry Wetterman Born may 8, 1872 Died Aug. 4, 1956
33.  John Wachsmann Born 1895 in Lee Co., Texas
34.  William Wettermann Born 1909 Bosque Co., Texas May 8, 1909
35. Karl Wettermann Born 1872 in Washington Co., Texas
36.  John Wachsmann Sr. Born 1832 in Germany
37.  Tommy Joe Wetterman Born May 12, 1943
38.  Harold Wayne Wetterman Born May 11, 1940 Son of Carl and Inez Wetterman
39.  Suzanna Marie Wetterman Born May 23, 1964
40.  Herbert W. Wachsmann Born 1900 in Lee Co., Texas
41.  Karolina Wettermann Born in Germany, 1849
42.  James Edward Wetterman Jr. Born May 25, 1965

June:
43.  Karolina Wettermann Born in Germany, 1849
44.  Carl William Wetterman Died June 12, 1961
45.  Robert Ells Born 1875
46.  James Edward Wetterman Born June 14, 1941
47.  Marcia Ann Miller Born June 1, 1956 Daughter of Anita and Hugh Miller
48.  Brian David Wetterman Born June 19, 1970 To James and Mary Wetterman Sr.
49.  James Edward Wetterman III Born June 21, 1986
50.  Anna Amelia Wetterman Born March 27, 1876  Died October 13, 1939
51.  James Edward Wetterman Jr. Born June 25, 1965 [I need to check with Aunt Mary...one of these is wrong!]
52.  Willie Sohns Born Lee Co., Texas, 1915

July:
53.  Anita Louise Wetterman Born 10:00 am 3708 Barrot St. Waco, Texas.  July 7, 1933
54.  Carl Wetterman married Inez Wilburn July 10, 1926
55.  Jimmy (James Edward) Wetterman married Mary Eva Harrell July 28, 1962 at 8:00 pm
56.  Annie Mae Wetterman [Olsen] Born July 7, 1941 Wife of B.L. Wetterman
57.  A.H. Wolfe died July 23, 1961
58.  Kelly Hugh Wetterman Born July 29, 1961

August:
59.  Charles Henry Wetterman Born May 8, 1872
60.  [Unreadable first name] Wachsmann Born 1906 Lee County, Texas
61.  Arthur Carl Wetterman Born 1934 Waco, Texas Son of Carl and Inez
62.  Adolf Wachsmann  Born 1871 in Washington, Co., Texas
63.  Karolina Wachsmann [Neutzler] Born 1840 in Germany

September
64.  Anita Louise and Hugh Miller married September 2, 1955.
65.  Albert Hughton [sic] Wolfe Born September 15, 1883
66.  Stephanie Denise Wetterman Born September 6, 1965
67.  Macy Mildred Boyd Born September 2, 1917
68.  Bertha Wetterman Born 1880 in Washington Co., Texas
69.  Henry Rodeck Born 1897 in Lee Co., Texas
70.  John G. Ells  Born 1905

October:
71.  Inez Wetterman Born October 3, 1907
72.  Charles Wayne Wetterman Born October 5, 1938 in Houston
73.  Emma Wetterman Born 1875
74.  August Wetterman married Bertha Pruet October 9, 1926
75.  Patsy Ann Wetterman  Born at 1008 Tobar Street, Houston, Texas October 15, 1934
76.  Louise Wolfe October 12, 1911
77.  Anna Amelia Wettermann Born March 27, 1876 Died October 13, 1939
78.  Mary Ann Wetterman Born at 1521 Bosque Waco, Texas 1934.  William's daughter.
79.  Karl W. Weettermann Born 1906 in Coryal County, Texas October 31.

November:
80.  Samantha Darlene Wetterman Born November 1, 1976
81.  Charlotte Ann Wetterman Born November 1, 1977
82. [Unreadable first name] Wachsmann Born 1907 in Lee County, Texas
83.  Dorotha Wolfe-Loveless Born November 9, 1923
84.  Donald Ray Wetterman Born November 17, 1935 Waco. Son of Carl
85.  William Gaines Wetterman Born November 17, 1935 Waco. Son of William
86.  Howard Albert Wetterman Born November 11, 1946
87.  Mina Wettermann Born 1886 in Lee Co., Texas
88.  Heinrich Wetterman Sr.  Born 1905 Lee Co., Texas
89.  John Wachsmann Jr. Born 1898 in Lee Co., Texas
90.  Karl Wetterman married Anna Wachsmann 1899
91.  Bertha Wetterman married Robert Ells 1904
92.  John Wachsmann Jr. Born 1898 in Lee Co., Texas
93.  Henry Wettermann married Meta Maas 1899 in Lee Co., Texas
94.  Leo Nuetzler married Emma Osterlo 1899 in Washington, Co., Texas

December:
95.  Albert E. Wolfe born December 8, 1917
96.  Martha Josephine Wolfe Murphree Born December 21, 1913
97.  B. W. Witte Born 1901 in Lee Co., Texas
98.  Emma Witte Born 1904 in Lee Co., Texas
99.  Marnie Sohns Born 1910, Washington Co., Tx
100.  W.A. Wetterman married Buelah Gaines 1932 in Waco.
101.  B.L. Wetterman Born December 26, 1939 to Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Wetterman
102.  Annie Mae Olsen married Bobby Lloyd Wetterman December 26, 1960
103.  Emma Witte Born 1904 in Lee Co.
104 Heinrich Rodeck Born 1898 in Lee Co.

Keep in mind that all the above entries were made by Anna Amelia Wachsmann and later added to by Louise Wetterman.  Therefore some of the entries may not be totally accurate, and this could explain some of the double entries found above. I copied this book in 1989, and there have been many Wetterman marriages, births, and deaths since that are not listed herein.

Finally here are a few more pictures:

Caroline Wachsmann with Grandchildren

Adolf, Caroline, and Anna in front of Home in Manheim, Texas

Man standing on left is Charles Henry.

Charles is standing.  I think this is in Giddings, Texas

Wetterman Cafe in Coryal, County

Johann Wachsman, Adolf, Caroline, and Anna Amelia

Charles Henry Wetterman and Anna Amelia Wachsmann (45 and 46)

Charles, the oldest child of Heinrich and Karoline Wehring, married Anna Amelia Wachsmann in 1899 in Lee County, Texas. Anna's parents, Johann Wachsmann and Caroline Neutzler, were German immigrants (as were Heinrich and Karoline Wetterman). Her family immigrated through the Port of New Orleans in 1873. Caroline Neutzler's birth announcement, a family heirloom, is dated the 29th of August in 1840. It also lists Caroline's parents, Johann and Eleanora Neutzler.

Anna was born March 8, 1872 in Brenham, Texas.  There is a beautiful birth certificate for her:

Anna was a strong-willed woman, who had many beliefs that were before her time.  She believed that women should receive a full education and she would read as many books as she could.  Her mother believed that women did not need such an education, and refused to sent Anna to school, but did send her brother, Adolf.  Anna would often read at night to Charles, who was illiterate.  Anna realized that for her children to succeed in the United States, that they needed educations, as well as needing to be fluent in the English language.  Following the anti-German sentiments of World War I, she discouraged her children from speaking German, and required that they only speak English.

As a girl, Anna kept a book that she would have friends and relatives sign a message in when they visited.  Most of the entries were signed between 1895 and 1896.  Today, unfortunately, only a few pages remain.  Most of the entries were written in German, though some are in English.  The names help us identify many of the people she knew growing up.  Such as Richard Leubner, Mary Boyach, Wilke Muske, her cousins Emil Neie, and Ida Neutzler, and S. Neutzler.

Several copies of some of the existing pages follow:

Anna's father, Johann Wachsmann, whom she reportedly was very close to, died in 1895 in Lincoln, Texas.  Anna had only one sibling, an older brother, Adolf, and probably lived with him and her mother until she married Charles Henry Wetterman in 1899.

Here is a picture of the entire wedding party in 1899 in Manheim, Texas:

Charles Henry was a master craftsman, who worked with his hands building and creating, though he also was a farmer and rancher, and for a time ran a diner.  He worked hard and Louise (Edgar's wife) remembered him as being a "gruff, German."

More to come...

George Lowe and Nora Ferguson (59 and 60)

George Lowe, a son of Little Ike (Isaac) Low and Melissa Travis, was born in 1889 in Scrappin’ Valley, Texas.  George married Nora Ferguson, a daughter of H.R. Ferguson and Ella Frisby.  They had seven children:

                1. Hardy

                2. Lonnie

                3. Acie

                4. Leslie

                5. Orene

                6. Claudia

                7. Elsie Mae

Elsie Mae and Leslie

Orene Lowe

Lonnie Lowe

George and Nora’s home became the “Old Homeplace” for the Lowe family.  According to family tradition, there was a problem with the mail being mixed up between members of the Low family, so some of Ike’s children added an “e” to Low so their mail would not be delivered to other Low families.  The Old Homeplace stood on a hill that overlooked a small wooded valley in southwest Sabine County.  The house was an average home of the day, possessing a dog run in the middle with rooms on either side.  There was also a smokehouse, outhouse, and a deep well.  The house was probably built between 1890 and 1900.  L.D. Lowe, one of George’s grandsons, remembers drinking from the well as a boy, and says that it was “as good and refreshing as any water he had ever tasted.”  George used to sit on the porch and shoot wolves that would come to near the home.  George had known Nora since he was young, as she grew up about one-half mile to the east of the Old Homeplace.  

Nora’s father, H.R. Ferguson, died on May 3, 1914, and his son, Albert, inherited the Old Ferguson Place.  Albert was Nora's brother, and his wife, Emma was George's sister, making their children double first cousins.  In the late 1920’s, a dispute (possibly over free ranging hogs) arose between George and Albert.  The arguments must have gotten fairly heated because Albert had reportedly told Pete Ellis (a neighbor) that he intended to shoot George if he ever came near Albert’s home again.  Also, one of Albert’s sisters, Sulie Ferguson, had reportedly heard Albert and his wife threatening to kill George, and “burn him out.”  Eventually, George went to the Ferguson home to discuss the problem with Albert.  According to court testimony, when George arrived at the Ferguson home, Albert drew his shotgun and fired it at George, but missed him.  Albert then ran out the “back of the house and around to the front and attempted to shoot” George again.  George, who was rumored to be a crack shot with his 35 rifle, fired at Albert and hit him in the leg.  George went to trial in Hemphill for the assault with a deadly weapon against Albert Ferguson.  During the months prior to the trial and after the shooting incident, Albert reportedly told Dan Lowe, one of George’s brothers, that he “did not know why he shot” at George, but that “he did shoot at him and shot at him first.”  Albert also reportedly pointed out to Lem Williams where he was standing when he “fired the first shot” at George.  He said he wasn’t sure “why he shot” at George, but that “he did shoot at him and shot at him first.”  Albert also reportedly pointed out to Lem Williams where he was standing when he “fired the first shot” at George. 

George subpoenaed Pete Ellis, Sulie Ferguson, Dan Lowe and Lem Williams, as well as many others to testify in his defense.  Despite all the evidence that showed that Albert fired first, George was convicted of aggravated assault and was One of the main reasons that George was convicted was due to the fact that no one he had subpoenaed showed up to testify on his behalf.  The jury had little choice but to find George guilty.  He was fined $100 and time served.  Recently I spoke with a descendant of Albert's, Percy, who added more to the tale.  He stated that Uncle Acie was there as well and that he had shot his shotgun during the incident and some of the pellets had hit and wounded his aunt Emma.  This was not brought up in court, and it seems obvious that neither family wanted the boy to get into trouble.  Percy also stated that Emma had thrown herself over the wounded Albert and begged George, her brother,  not to kill him.  It was also stated that Emma carried a pistol with her the rest of her life and was terrified of George.  

A cousin, Daniel Chance is a descendant of Albert Ferguson and had wrote the following to me which is extracted here:

My mom was born Feb 2 1914 {the oldest child}, to Albert Franklin Ferguson who did have one leg 2.5 inches shorter than the other from a bullet from a Winchester Rifle belonging to George Lowe who married Albert's sister {Nora} and Albert married George's sister Emma, so it was definitely family. Acie Lowe was one of the shooters also and stated to me, before he died while living south of Liberty, Tx. with his son, that this should have never happened. Acie shot both of them with buckshot when they ran down the dog trot.. I have heard the story from my mom and just months before Acie died I had the opportunity to hear his side of the story.

Mom was 13 yrs old at this occurance so that would be the year 1927. She picked up the youngest child Lyllian who lives in Houston and hid behind the cook stove. According to mom, Albert shot into the picket fence, intending to scare George when George approached with Acie who was 16 yrs and Hardy.  Albert lost his pistol when he ran across the hall and had already discharged his single shot shotgun.. He and Emma ran down the foxtrot and was shot by Acie and then came around the house after both Emma and Albert being shot with Buckshot to the end of the porch and asked George to go on for he was near dead already, but George stated , "you aren't near dead" and shot through the 1" x 12" board underneath the wash basin stand.. I have seen where the Buckshot rickashaed off the hall wall and where the slug went through the 1x12 board that crippled him for life and consequently neither he nor Emma would not be buried in Frisby Cemetery, and I assume that is because George is buried there.. Both are at Weeks Chapel along with their two sons Percy Robert Ferguson and Jence Edward Ferguson.

I do hope that they forgave all before death.. I don't know, but Emma carried a 6 shooter forever in her purse after that and my mom always told us 4 boys that if you ever pick up a gun , use it and not to scare someone..

One of the earliest memories of George’s son, Leslie, involved the family riding to the county seat at Hemphill on the back of a wagon for George’s trial.

Scrappin’ Valley truly earned it’s name in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  In the late 1920’s or early 1930’s, Dan Lowe, George’s brother, was stabbed at a party by an unknown assailant and died of the wound.  One of Leslie’s early childhood memories occurred while he was hunting with his father on their land.  A man who had killed one of Leslie’s cousins had trespassed onto George’s land.  George had young Leslie hide inside the hollow of a dead tree while he went, gun in hand, to talk to the man.  The man left without incident, but Leslie remembered being terrified and fearing for his father’s life. 

During the 1920’s and the early years of the depression, the Lowe’s, as well as the other families of Scrappin’ Valley, ran moonshine stills.  Most of the illegal liquor was consumed by their immediate families, but some was sold as far away as Beaumont, Texas.  Jack Lowe, a nephew of George’s, remembers running the whiskey stills around Powell Town with other relatives.  He also remembers selling the moonshine for $2.00 a gallon. 

During the Depression, the Lowe family was a little better off than many other poor families of the time, as they owned their own farm and grew much of their own food.  However, George and many of his son’s worked in various government work programs of the day.  One family story states that while George was away working, a “Yankee Salesman” came to his home and “something” happened between Nora and the salesman.  Perhaps he flirted with her, or even raped her. We will never know, but according to two different family sources, when George returned out and found out what happened, he calmly took his rifle, loaded up his mule and went hunting for the man.  He reportedly found him along some back road in Sabine County, killed him and buried him there.  This may sound harsh, but it needs to be understood that there was little law in that part of East Texas at that time and many families had to take care of their own.

George died on March 28, 1944.  His death certificate  states that he suffered from hypertension and that the right side of his heart was acutely dilated.  He was 54 years old at the time of his death and was buried in Frisby Cemetery.  Nora kept a trunk with some of George’s possessions, including his shoes with the socks in them as he had left them, with her everywhere she went for many years.  She would live with various sons or daughters for the last years,  before going to live in an “old folks” home. 

I remember my “Little Granny”, and visited her often as a boy.  I would always bring her a candy bar, which she seemed to thoroughly enjoy.  She never remarried and as an outsider looking in, I think she truly loved and was devoted to George.  They were not very demonstrative with their love, especially towards their children, but I think it was there nonetheless.  Nora died in 1981, and she joined George in Frisby Cemetery, outside of Jasper Texas.

5th Generation Ancestors

Families of Wetterman, Wachsmann,Wolfe, Moore, Lowe, Ferguson, Marshall, Gray, Stimach, Stiglich, Mufuic, Cendric, Rhine, Smith, Clubb, Butler

45. Charles Henry Wetterman (Born: May 8, 1872 in Brenham, Texas. Died:August 4, 1956 in Waco, Texas) He married November 22, 1899 in Giddings, Texas 46. Anna Amelia Wachsmann (Born: March 8, 1877 in Lee County, Texas. Died: October 13, 1939 in Waco, Texas) Charles and Anna's children were: 47. August (Dutch) Otto, 48. Karl William, 49. William (Bill), and 18. Edgar Arthur. (5 Star)

Anna and Charles Wedding 1899

50. Prince Albert Houston (Hugh) Wolfe (Born: September 15, 1883 in Sweetwater, Tennessee. Died: July 23, 1961 in Waco, Texas). He married on May 4, 1909 in Waco, Texas 51. Martha Iredell Moore (Born: May 3, 1884 in Alcorn, Mississippi. Died: January 7, 1975 in Waco, Texas). Hugh and Martha had the following children: 52. Lotta Mae, 19. Arminda Louise, 53. Baby Boy, 54. Martha Josephine, 55. Albert Edison, 56. Joe Otis, 57. Dorotha Iredell, 58. Robert. (5 Star)

Prince Albert Houston (Hugh) Wolfe

Martha Iredell Moore

59.  George Lowe (Born: January 13, 1890 in Sabine County, Texas.  Died: March 28, 1944 in Jasper, Texas).  He married 60. Nora Ella Ferguson (Born: December 15, 1891 in Sabine County, Texas. Died: October 15, 1981 in Jasper, Texas).  George and Nora had the following children:  61. Orene, 62. Acie, 63. Lonnie, 64. Hardy, 65. Claudia, 23. Leslie, and 66. Elsie Mae. (5 Star)

George Lowe and Nora Ferguson. It is believed that they are holding Alice and Elsie Mae.

67. Van Daniel Marshall (Born: August 23, 1897 in San Augustine County, Texas.  Died: January 2, 1977 in Sabine County, Texas).  He married on February 17, 1918 in Sabine County, Texas 68. Bessie Beatrice Gray (Born: June 7, 1899 in Tyler County, Texas.  Died in 2005).  Van and Bessie had the following children: 69. Maudie Lee, 70. Opal, 24. Maurine, 71. Jessie, 72. Daniel Maurice, 73. Alice, 74. Louie Ray. (5 Star)

Van Daniel Marshall

Bessie Gray

75. Ivan Stimach.  He married 76. Mary Mufuic in Croatia. They had the following children: 77. Anthony, 78. Joseph, 28. Ivan (Pop). (3 Star)

79. Florian Stiglich.  He married Francis Cendric.  They had 80. Slava, 81. Pete, 82. Francis, 83. Joseph, 84. George, 29. Mary Margarite. (3 Star)

Florian Stiglich

Francis Cendric

85.  Joseph Rhine. He married 86. Arinda Smith.  George and Arinda had the following children: 87. Joseph, 88. Elbert, 39. Ferman Washington. (3 Star)

Joseph Rhine

Arinda Smith

89.  G.W./John Clubb (Died: 1902 Abilene, Texas).  He married 90. Josie Butler.  They had the following children: 91. Thomas, 92. Minnie, 93. Jessie, 40. Katie Leona. (2 Star: My late mother-in-law and her sister disagreed about G.W. Clubbs first name.  One said G.W., the other said John).

Josie Butler