My Great-Grandfather Amiel Wiser died in Devers, Texas on a Saturday night, October 26, 1895. He was 50 years old. What illness he suffered is no longer remembered.
His pregnant widow Sylvina was left to raise eight children--the eldest at 15. The youngest was born seven months later.
I've found no obituary or death certificate. But I have this brief death notice from The Galveston Daily News on Wednesday, October 30, 1895 for "Mr. Weiser."
"One of the oldest settlers here" in Liberty County, Texas. A generous remark. But I think there were many alive then who had lived long in Devers. His daughter Nora recalls him saying he had moved from Germany when he was but six years old. (about 1851).
However, Amiel's older brother Louis told a 1867 voting registrar that he had lived in Texas for 13 years. (Arriving about 1854). The tax record indicates he was naturalized in 1859.
A certificate from April 1853 filed in Galveston County shows their mother Hannah's marriage to Sam Leeper, an early Liberty, Texas resident. It is my earliest record of Amiel's mother.
Both Amiel (known as "Lemuel"), age 15, and Louis, age 16, appear in the 1860 Federal Census with their mother Hannah Leeper, 36, living near Wallisville in Chambers County, Texas.
I hope to find more records of my German immigrant ancestor.