June 1, 2024 Update: The photo of Sam Leeper that was previously shown in this blog post has been removed--but not the text. Today I learned from a family who had the same photo in their possession that their grandfather had written the name "Samuel Looper" on the back side. That Sam was born and raised in Overton County, Tennessee.
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MEET SAME LEEPER, SR. Was I ever happy to get a "shaky leaf" hint from Ancestry about a photograph shared by a kind researcher, David Oliver. The photo was of Sam! A man who was once guardian of my Great-Grandfather and his brothers. A man who married my 2xGreat-Grandmother Hannah after she immigrated with four youngsters and possibly felt a little desperate as a single mom in a new land. Sam. A husband who died a few days before their second wedding anniversary, and missed seeing the birth of his son on Christmas that same year.
I've no idea as to its authenticity of this photo as it came with no other information. But I was thrilled, as you can imagine. My paternal grandfather used to refer to him as "Old Man Leeper." I wish as a child I had recorded e v e r y comment heard about this Sam and his third wife Hannah, our direct ancestor:
[photo deleted June 2024]
LEEPER - WOSTA MARRIAGE LICENSE OF APRIL 19, 1853, GALVESTON, TEXAS: Please note the names of the parties written on the upper LEFT-hand corner. The spelling of WOSTA is given as Hannah's maiden name, or married name or what? Did she even speak English at that time? Galveston was filled with immigrants from all over. The newspapers (yes, now online) show many ships arriving daily, with the amount of passengers. Surely someone translated if Hannah was not yet bilingual. Yipes, this document drives me crazy with curiosity!
This certified copy was obtained by our cousin-researcher, Doris Weiser Jarvis, and dated 12 Jan. 1990. Here is Doris' transcription of the above document:
The State of Texas, County of Galveston. "To any regular ordained Minister of the Gospel, Judge of the District Court, Judge of the County Court, or Justice of the Peace. I hereby authorize any one of you to celebrate the rites of matrimony between Samuel Leeper and Hannah Wosta and due return of your proceedings hereon to me, at my Office, make within Sixty Days, as the law directs." Signed my county clerk, and certified by F. B Whiting, Justice of the Peace. Marriage celebrated on 19th day of April A.D. 1853. Record Book N0. B, pg. 87, numbered 214. (Certified copy.)
NOTE: Please click ONCE anywhere on an image to enlarge it. And to return to this page, CLICK ONCE INSIDE AN IMAGE TO RETURN. Only once, mind you.
Shirley, I've seen several instances of distant cousins' research showing our Hannah's maiden name (or a married name) of CARMEN. But with no credible source. Some link her to another Hanna Carmen, one born in another state with children with different names. None of whom seem to have any connection to southeast Texas. Please read this link to my blog post about this. I also write in that post of a letter by one of Amiels' daughters that I find fascinating:
http://treepig.posthaven.com/my-hannah-leeper-was-not-ever-hannah-carman
Another post elsewhere on this blog is a brief TIMELINE of Hannah Leeper. Please click the link below this paragraph to go directly to it. I found a record in January of 1893 where our Hannah was a grantee in a real property transaction. This is the LAST mention of her living that I have found so far. Shall we take a drive down to Austin and see the actual document? Perhaps her signature is on it, woo hoo!
http://treepig.posthaven.com/timeline-of-hannah-wosta-leeper
Texas Land Title Abstracts
Grantee: Mrs. Hannah Leeper
Certificate: 36/72
Patentee: D. P. Cowsert
Patent Date: 28 Jan 1893
Acres: 126.58
District: Bexar
County: Kimble
File: 2523
Survey/Blk/Tsp: 53 1/2
Patent #: 5
Patent Volume: 8
Class: Bex Don
Source: Ancestry.com. Texas Land Title Abstracts [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000. Original data: Texas General Land Office. Abstracts of all original Texas Land Titles comprising Grants and Locations. Austin, TX, USA.
MARRIAGE LICENSE of Barney Wiser and "Anna Harmon" - Transcribed by researcher/cousin: Doris Weiser Jarvis, and shared with this writer on 18 July 2004:
The State of Texas, County of Galveston. To any Regular Ordained Minister of the Gospel, Judge of the District Court or Justice of the Peace:
I Hereby Authorize any one of you to celebrate the Rite of Matrimony between Barney Wiser & Anna Harmon and due return of your proceedings hereon to me, at my Office, make within Sixty Days, as the law directs.
Witnessed by Clerk of the Dist. Court on the 27th day of Jan. A.D. 1874. The Rite of Matrimony between the above named parties was duly celebrated by the undersigned on the 29th of January 1874, signed by L. (?) R. Sherman, Justice of the Peace. Marriage Book N0. E, pg. 435, N0. 32.
On 24 January 1874: "To the County Clerk of Galveston county, greetings. Sir you are hereby Authorized and requested to issue licence of matrimony to Barney Wieser and Miss Anna Harmon who is to be married by our consent." Signed by Joshua Harmon and Mrs. Cleonize Harmon. (Handwritten.)
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This link below is to my blog post about Barney's older brother, Louis Wiser. I hope you can easily access it:
http://treepig.posthaven.com/louis-wiser-hannahs-eldest-son
MEET BARNEY'S TWIN BROTHER, AMIEL:
Here are a few of Amiel's sons. The son on the far left was named after him, and his nickname was "Amie." My grandfather is next to him:
You know THIS couple, Henry "Eddie" Wiser and Stella Lee. It's the only photo I've seen of either of them. In reviewing my notes just now, I had forgotten that Stella's paternal grandmother was an Abshier. My grandfather married one of her cousins. So, you too descend from Weed and Abshires. (No news to you, but a light bulb just went off here!) Kevin Ladd (now passed), another cousin/researcher and former museum curator once wrote that our Abshires (allegedly from Germany) changed the spelling to ABSHIER upon moving from Louisiana to Texas in the 1840s. Not that it was any definitive event. It just began showing up in records and then was perpetuated. I'm told the original spelling was ABCHER back in Europe.
BOUNTY LAND CERTIFICATE FOR SAN JACINTO VETERAN SAM LEEPER AND/OR WIFE, HANNAH:
And, the backside of the document:
You most likely have seen this record from Texas military records of Sam Leeper's bounty award for service in the battles of San Jacinto and Bexar. I got this copy from the San Jacinto Museum website:
Sam's son, Sam Leeper's death certificate. Several of our family have apparently spent their last hours at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Beaumont:
And the death certificate of Hannah's daughter, Rosa, who married Joseph Clayton. Her twin sister Hannah (Lina) is one of my brick walls in my research. WHERE did that girl go!
ONE CONUNDRUM: We spoke last week of how Hannah's twin daughters appear in records with different surnames. Rosa's death record above has their birth date as 1859--four years after the death of Sam Leeper. And Rosa had three children whose death certificates mention their mother's maiden name as LEAPER or LEEPER. Those three--Alice, Dan and Viola Clayton, have family members who were "informants" to their death certificates.
But one son, Gilbert Crosby Clayton, has as HIS parents' names: Joseph Clayton and "Rosa MAYS." Mays? His wife, Willie Clayton, was the informant who gave that data to the medical examiner back in 1958. So either Willie remembered something about her mother-in-law that has been lost to the rest of us. Or she guessed incorrectly.
This name MAYS jumped off the page at me because several cousin-researchers have alternative names for the twins. Among them, is the surname MASON. And yes, I've spent quite a bit of time looking for eligible men named Mr. Mason living in Chambers and Liberty County--near our widowed Hannah. The Texas marriage and death databases are many and varied (with nicknames and misspellings!) and I find no hint of Rosa's twin sister. That twin appears in census records as Hannah or Lina. I think I've seen a "Lisa" too. Call it muddying up the waters, but now I've added "MAYS" as a possible birth daddy to the twins. That Hannah Wosta Wiser Leeper was ONE interesting ancestor, eh?Here are three brief articles from The Liberty Vindicator newspaper on Eddie Wiser. The first was published June 14, 1901. The second, on August 16, 1912. The third was dated February 2, 1917.
