Archives for WEILER / WAGNER
Mystery Heirs of Frederick Herman Barth
How an old debt helped me put a big crack in a brick wall My third great grandfather Frederick Herman Barth was born in Hanover, Germany in 1816. I had very little information about his parents or anything about him before he moved to Canton, Missouri. There was also confusion about his wives, and the family stories didn’t provide much more than the fact that they came to Canton from Maryland after immigrating from Hanover.…
Wagner Descendant’s Guide to Canton, Missouri
Canton, Missouri is where multiple generations and branches of our ancestors were born and lived and are buried. I’ve visited several times during my life, and it was the Homeplace for several generations. We have so many ancestors, cousins, aunts and uncles who lived here I cannot mention them all for this. DOWNLOAD PDF Here's a travel report from a recent trip my cousin Ben Wagner took to Canton. The Wagner house on Lewis Street…
Frederick Vesper
Frederick Vesper was my 3x great grandfather. He immigrated from Munden, Germany in 1846 at the age of 26, arriving at New Orleans. He settled in Canton, Missouri, where he farmed and lived the rest of his life.
Rev. Weiler’s Louisville church to become whiskey bar and Bob Dylan art gallery
In 1933 my great great grandfather Rev. Weiler, wife Addie Hanning and their last child Pearl moved to Louisville, Kentucky to serve the church at 604 East Market Street. Cindy Ward sent me this article about the church being turned into a whiskey bar and Bob Dylan art gallery. Pretty sure Rev. Weiler would not approve of his pulpit becoming "the high church of bourbon." It was from this pulpit in 1937 that Rev. Weiler preached…
Santa Claus, Indiana connections and events
I have found numerous connections to Santa Claus, Indiana. 1816-1830 Abraham Lincoln lived about four miles away as a boy on Pigeon Creek Farm (Santa Claus didn't exist yet). 1847 The Hannings settled there and helped found and name the town. 1852 The Freyhofers settled there from Seymour at the invitation of the Hannings. 1854 John Hanning cofounded the Santa Claus United Methodist Church 1858 Interesting connection between Rev. William Weiler and the Freyhofers: In 1855,…
Letter from Jacob Freyhofer, 1871
On February 22, 1871, Jacob Freyhofer, age 64, widower, from Randolph, Kansas, wrote a long letter to his adult children, probably Susan Hanning, back in Santa Claus, Indiana. Jacob was one of the earliest settlers to Riley County, Kansas along with several of his sons. Read more about the Freyhofers and Hannings here. Jacob is responding belatedly (for which he apologizes profusely) to their “happy and interesting letter” dated Jan. 16. He thanks them for…
Old Bill Wagner
Jacob William (later dubbed "Old Bill") was born in 1840 in Elleringhausen, Germany. At the age of 6, he and his family joined the waves of German immigrants after their friends in Quincy, Illinois, kept writing for them to come. Six-year-old William took his little sister Henrietta by the hand and led her up the gangplank onto the ship. She never forgot the smell of tar coming from the cordage coiled on deck. They had…
Are we related to Barack Obama?
The short answer is: sort of. President Barack Obama's maternal GGGG grandfather Thomas L. Clark settled in Canton, Missouri around 1835. All of Thomas' 11 children were born there and they lived there at the same time our family (Surnames: Wagner, Eckert, Hetzler, Giegerich, Vesper). Obama's ggg grandfather Christopher Columbus Clark is buried in the same cemetery (Forest Grove) in Canton as our ancestors. By searching through the Canton newspaper, I found multiple connections that…
Til the Butcher Cut Him Down
This 1971 film by Philip Spalding was narrated by my great uncle Bill Russell. The film includes him talking about the musicians and himself, shows Preservation Hall, New Orleans, second lines, Ben Jaffee, and even Bill Russell's apartment with his massive collection. A superb study of the history and men who played New Orleans Jazz through the eyes of one of its greatest trumpet players: Punch Miller (died 1971). Kid Punch was renowned in New…
We’re All Connected
It turns out that my half siblings and a close friend and his mother and my mother are all distant cousins, at least by marriage. It wasn’t some deep dark secret the family had kept hidden. I only just stumbled on it. Sometimes I think that instead of a tree, my family works better as a spirograph or vines that twist and tangle onto themselves as they grow in all directions. READ: