Before I Forget

My paternal third great-uncle, Abraham Lincoln Ackley, was mentioned in a San Francisco newspaper one summer in 1891. I was happy to find this article on GenealogyBank this morning. 

Abe and his brothers, along with their dad, Sam Ackley, operated ferries that carried people, animals, and supplies across both the Cimarron and Arkansas Rivers in what is today eastern Oklahoma. 

ONE SMALL QUIBBLE:  Tulsa was then (and is now) in Creek Nation. The "mouth of the Cimarron" River may have been near Keystone, which was in Pawnee Nation, Oklahoma Territory.  (My Ackleys lived in O.T. until Oklahoma became a state in 1907). So I will forgive a reporter from a Fort Smith, Arkansas paper who may have considered anything west of the Arkansas River part of that wild and woolly frontier, "Cherokee Nation." This murder may very well have occurred in Osage Nation, as I find a "Salt Creek" listed near Grainola, Oklahoma.  

Source:  The Morning Call (newspaper), San Francisco, Calif., Friday, June 26, 1891, Vol. 70, page 8

          Finding proof that supports a family mystery? That's what I call a great day! But learning that your ancestor murdered a man? It's a sobering feeling.

          Read what The Galveston Daily News reported on June 2, 1893 about Welcome Wilhelm:

          In her Willhelm Family Record, my Great-Aunt Beatrice Willhelm Steeves wrote this about Welcome's flight from Texas:

My grandfather, William Welcome Willhelm, at about the age of 18 joined the war between the States in Co. C, 15th Northwest Arkansas Infantry.  In one of the battles the flag bearer was shot and grandfather rescued the flag before it hit the ground and carried it through the battle.  A bullet aimed at him, hit a coin in his pocket and made it look like a thimble.  He was captured in the battle of Vicksburg, when on July 3, 1865, General John C. Pemberton, commanding the 50,000 Confederate troops around Vicksburg forced to surrender 37,000 men and 172 cannons to U.S. Grant Commander of the Union Army.  After the war, grandfather went to Texas, married and had a family of 3 boys and 5 girls.  Just before the birth of his youngest child in 1883, some trouble came up and grandfather's life was threatened.  Due to the lack of law and order on the Texas frontier, grandfather was advised, for his sake and the sake of the family, to move his family.  He left to look for a place to move to and then returned to await the birth of his daughter.  When the baby was born, he left again and went to Arkansas to his father's place.  In December of that year he sent grandmother some money.  That was the last the family ever heard of him.

           Welk's parents, Pleasant and Jane (Lockmiller) Willhelm, were living in the Boston Mountains in Madison County, Arkansas. (near Fayetteville)  A pretty but rugged place. I would think it a good place to hide. But it would also be the first choice of the Williamson County Sheriff should he care to send in "the law."

          I saw True Grit. Did any Texas Rangers try tracking my ancestor?


WHAT WILHELM LEFT BEHIND:

          William Welcome Wilhelm married Mary Elizabeth Cowan in Florence, Williamson County, Texas just before Christmas in 1866. Having grown up in Arkansas, Mary and Welk were new Texas residents. Both had many relatives living in the same counties in Texas and Arkansas. Did they know each other as children or meet after Welk's service in the War? Perhaps their families knew each other from Tennessee before the Wilhelms had moved to Arkansas in the late 1840s?

          Mary had eight children with Welk in Texas:  

                    Addie Martha "Mattie" born 19 Oct 1867 in Bell County, 

                    William Edgar born  28 Aug 1869 in Bell County, 

                    James Arthur born 15 Oct 1872 in Granger, Williamson County, 

                    Mary Virginia "Jennie" born 26 Feb 1875 in Bell County, 

                    Grace Idena born 8 July 1877 Circleville, Williamson County, 

                    Joseph Flemon born 4 Jan 1879 Williamson County, 

                    Ollie Josephine born 30 March 1881 Williamson County, 

                    and Alice Emily born 20 April 1883 in Williamson County.

          The 1880 Federal Census records Welcome and Mary's young family living in Precinct No. 6 in rural Williamson County, Texas. Welk is working as a blacksmith. Their oldest "Mattie" is 12, and little Joseph is two years old. 

          As of this writing I do not find a "W. Berry" in the 1880 Census for Williamson County or surrounding counties. There ARE several families with the surname Berry. But none named "Barry." Knowing names and dates are often incorrect in newspapers, I look for variations. Among the many archived newspapers from that time, I've not found any mention of Mr. Berry's untimely death. I will update here when I learn more of Mr. Berry at Donahue Creek.

          Imagine Mary's horror when Welk left her five months before the birth of their last child. My heart goes out to her!

          To the best of anyone's recollection from elders now long gone, Mary last heard from Welk a few months after he had fled to Arkansas in 1883. She had the support of her parents and siblings, but to our knowledge did not remarry.

          She died June 1, 1894 at the age of 51. She is buried in the Katemcy Cemetery in Mason County, Texas near her father, William Flemon Cowan. I've long wondered how her family coped after losing Welcome. My great-grandfather, Welk's son, grew to be a stern, exacting man who was later estranged from his brothers and sisters. He was but 13 when his dad had left home.

          How did that event shape Edgar's history--and ours? 


UPDATE:  Found a similar article in a Dallas, Texas newspaper. This account has a different year for the murder:

--  Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Precinct 6, Williamson, Texas; Roll: 1333; Family History Film: 1255333; Page: 541A; Enumeration District: 161.

--  Steeves, Beatrice Willhelm Reiswig, 1907-1995. Willhelm Family Record & Hurley Family Record. 1973. Raw data.fdfdrf St. Helena, Napa, California, USA.  A family history and genealogy of Tobias Willhelm (1760-1834) and Daniel Hurley (1817- 1859) and their descendants

--  The Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), published Sat., 27 May 1893, p. 5

          Big news. Descendants of enslaved people once owned by members of the Cherokee Tribe have had their citizenship rights restored by a federal judge. The Freedmen are again lawful and equal citizens of a sovereign nation. 

          In 1866, as part of a treaty with the U.S., the Cherokee Nation agreed to give its former slaves citizenship. You will recall that a war had just ended. A war where one side fought to preserve its right to enrich themselves from the labor of humans they bought and sold. That side lost. 

          Yet in 2007 Cherokee citizens voted to remove membership privileges from the Freedmen--its name for those who descended from enslaved Cherokees. 

          This from a tribe that itself has had numerous treaties broken by our U.S. government for 200+ years. 

          Freedmen fought in the courts to restore their citizenship. A ten year battle that ended this week. 

          Judge Thomas F. Hogan wrote in Cherokee Nation v. Raymond Nash: 

          "The Court finds it confounding that the Cherokee Nation historically had no qualms about regarding freedmen as Cherokee 'property' yet continues, even after 150 years, to balk when confronted with the legal imperative to treat them as Cherokee people. While the Cherokee Nation might persist in its design to perpetuate a moral injustice, this Court will not be complicit in the perpetuation of a legal injustice."

          On April 12, 1912, John H. Coffee of Kingston, Oklahoma, and Ina Hight of Denison, Texas, were married. A widower who had lost his wife Nancy (James) Coffee in 1895, this was John's second marriage. He was 60. It was the bride's third marriage. She was 40.

          Born Ina Marie Beasley, her second husband, James Robert Hight, had recently lost his wife, Ruth Ella (Beasley). Yes, Ruth was Ina's older sister.  James was left with the care of their six children. I imagine his concern as a father was a factor in his January 1, 1909 marriage to Ina Marie Greer. 

MEANWHILE BACK IN LITTLE DIXIE: (Yes, southeast Oklahoma is called that)  The next I find Ina Hight is in 1912 Marshall County after marrying my 2xGreat-Gramps. John has a grocery, a restaurant, and a candy store in Kingston. His obit later indicated "Mrs. Iona Hight" was from Denison, Texas. If accurate, then Ina somehow moved from Comanche County, Oklahoma to northeastern Texas. Would love to know how she met John Coffee. 

          Here are two images from the 1913 Polk City Directory for Kingston, Oklahoma showing John's restaurant and grocery:

         
          They came to Oklahoma for their dad's funeral. Upon learning of John's will leaving them $2 each, they promptly hired lawyers to contest the will. But after a few weeks, it ended well. John's children dismissed their claim. 

          Descendants may find these 19 pages interesting, as they are actual copies from the court's probate file. Woo hoo! Click on each page, and move the horizontal scroll bar to the right to see all 19. Errors and all! White Out wasn't yet invented.

A heart-breaking story, not for the squeamish. 

        Really, Florida? All able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 55 had to be employed or face arrest? In August of 1918 did Pensacola have a problem with vagrants? Was it a slam against itinerant or migrant workers? 

Source:  

• The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.), 31 Aug. 1918. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1918-08-31/ed-1/seq-4/>

That Sam Leeper! The bounty land this old soldier received for fighting in the battles of San Jacinto and Bexar was all over Texas. With more papers appearing on the internet, I find previously unknown counties where Sam's name appears on land patents. I wonder what amount of $$$ of real estate its value might hold today. His untimely death in 1855 left his third wife, Hannah, holding the deeds. 

From The San Antonio Express in October 1909:

UPDATE:  June, 2020  - Found another one in Smith County:

          My maternal Great-Grandfather keeps popping up in newly-uploaded papers online.

          On September 13, 1940 a Lamar County newspaper in Texas published this fuzzy photo of Edgar Willhelm standing next to the offspring of a well-known symbol of the Democratic Party. He had just turned 70 years old, and he and his wife, Lena, were living on "Sylvan Pattonville Road" according to the 1940 Federal Census. From The Paris News, page 8, see the clipping along with the whole page:

          BTW, make mine a 1941 Plymouth in cherry red!

          My Great-Grands were living in Santa Anna, Coleman County, Texas, as evidenced by this mention of "E. Willhelm"  in a church newsletter published January 19, 1909. Reading this description of West Texas reminds me of the old greeting, "Hey, how are you? Tell me the price of corn." (Yes, I honestly heard that expression as a kid. It was said with a laugh)

          And one more ad Ed placed in The Bartlett Tribune & News, Bartlett, Texas, Vol. 38, No. 43, Ed. 1, Friday, June 6, 1924:

          The bane of my research today is initials. Initials used in a man's given name. And therefore used in a wife's legal name. 

Even though World War I had ended November 11, 1918, a number of American servicemen stayed in Europe to assist the occupation army. Six months later, many assigned to the Headquarter Company's 357th Infantry set sail from St. Nazaire, France on May 26, 1919. Their transport ship home was the USS Huron. Among those soldiers was my grandfather (No. 45) who was soon to land in Newport News, Virginia at Camp Stuart. Well, not that soon. One paper I have shows he arrived on American soil on June 7th. His older brother, Urban, was also on that ship. He is listed as No. 61 on the second image below:

SOURCE:  Ancestry's database: U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939.

Private Elton Wiser had enlisted October 3, 1917 from McClain County, Oklahoma. The Army officially released him from duty on June 18, 1919 at Camp Pike in Arkansas. You will see that he served in both France and Germany, and saw battle at St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. Other offensives recorded in his file:  Villers-en-Haye, Puvenelle, Preny, and Sebastapol. 

When I first requested his military file from the National Archives in St. Louis, we were told it had been destroyed in the 1973 fire. But in a later package we were happy to learn the NARA had indeed recovered much of his file--although a bit singed. 

In his final years my grandfather spoke of his time in Europe. And, frequently! I regret I didn't record his stories via audio or pen.  As a child I remember him describing the noise of battle as DEAFENING while the shells fell. How some men frozen with fear didn't duck from bullets headed their way. How his unit missed meals, and went for days without bathing. Funny the things you remember being told as a kid. In particular, Grandpa confused me by bragging that he abstained from drinking wine while in France, as did many of his comrades when off duty.

"Hey, Wiser! Come with us. We're going to the village to drink" they would call to him.

But, no. He was adamant that he never went to bars. Why, I watched the popular 1960's TV show Combat, and knew soldiers drank. Was he just saying this for my benefit? Or was he really a teetotaler. He spoke of it often enough that I thought he "doth protest too much." At least I hope so.

Older relatives recall his painful suffering from what we now call PTSD. Grandpa was so very proud of his service, and was especially honored to have served under General Black Jack Pershing. He kept an 8 x 10 photo of the good general on his wall. See Elton in uniform before his journey to Europe. He was 21 when he enlisted in 1917.