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:
Just a few days earlier, this paper reported that the perpetrator had been captured. Wait, who was the poor fellow who was wrongly accused of murder. What a fright he had!
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:
Sources:
-- The Galveston Daily News, Galveston, Texas, published June 2, 1893, Fri., p. 7 from The Portal to Texas History via https://texashistory.unt.edu/
-- 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