Long before search engines and digitized databases, family historians shared data via newsletters and newspapers. Today I found this query in a Springfield, Missouri paper submitted by a maternal fourth cousin in 1970. Thanks Newspapers.com!
There are two pages attached, with the second one showing the rest of the article.
I am familiar with the surnames mentioned by Ola Johnson. But I did not know George Wilhelm was allegedly "shot from ambush." What's that story!
Among the many lines in my database, the family that has met death through violent means more than other kin is my Wilhelm family. Or is it just that the Texas Wilhelms were um, careless with guns? Needless to say, I enjoy trailing them.
Mrs. Ola Johnson was born in Morgan County, Alabama in 1914 to William Walter Aldridge and Mabel Olive McCulley. Mabel descended from our earliest known Wilhelm immigrant. It was in Tennessee in 1810 that said immigrant's granddaughter Ailsey married William McCulley. Ailsey and William's son was Ola's great-grandfather.
Over the years Ola corresponded with my family's historian, Beatrice Willhelm Steeves. Unfortunately, Bea's considerable research was lost, save for her Willhelm/Hurley Family manuscript. That document she had shared with many before retiring. It frequently cites Ola Johnson's research as her source. Would love to have seen the letters exchanged between Aunt Bea and Ola, along with the notes that didn't make it into Bea's manuscript.
I wonder how wide a net Ola cast when mailing her queries to other ancestor-hunters. Did she receive replies to her Springfield newspaper post? It showed her home address, word! What other networking tools did Ola employ in the 20th century? Did she place a lot of long-distance calls on Sunday nights when rates were cheaper?
On my to-do list is a "Must-Look" for Wilhelms in southern Missouri. My 3x GGrandfather Pleasant Willhelm ended his days just south of Springfield, near Fayetteville. I like to think he might have taken the new MK&T Railroad north and visited family. Or maybe they met halfway in Eureka Springs for a dip into one of the healing hot springs.