My family has lost Louis. No known stories exist as to where Louis settled, if he married or when he died. The many researchers--both experienced and hobbyists, have found little on the eldest son of Hannah Wosta Wiser Leeper. First, let me tell a little of what's known.
1. The 1860 Fed. Census in Chambers County, Texas has a 16 year old "Louis Wiser" living with his mother, Hannah Leeper, two younger Wiser brothers, and his five year old half-brother, Sam Leeper. He is a German immigrant, and Chambers County is in southeast Texas near Galveston. (Click on the two census photos to enlarge)
2. A Louis Wiser next appears in nearby Harris County, in a marriage to Susan Davis on August 8, 1867. Source: Texas, Marriages, 1837-1973. No ages or hometowns are listed. Again, I do not know if this is MY Louis. Nor do I find ANYTHING else about this couple in any Texas census or any other census. I did find an African-American Susan Wiser in an 1896 Dallas City Directory listed as a "laundress." Censuses elsewhere (New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Louisiana) have Louis and/or Lewis Wiser/Weisers, but they are of different ages or birthplaces and appear to have been married to spouses other than a Susan. There is even a Confederate soldier from Alabama named Louis Wiser. No age or further info is given on him at Fold3's database. Wiser researchers have wondered if perhaps Louis had died while serving in the Civil War. There was a hint among now-deceased Wiser "kin" that Hannah Wiser's elusive husband (the father to the four boys from Saxony) was possibly a sailor on one of the many ships carrying European immigrants to America. If so, perhaps Louis followed his father's occupation?
3. Texas historians have a journal called STIRPES that is now online at the Portal To Texas History website. A wonderful database! I found this from a March 1984 edition of Stirpes with a transcription of male voter registrations from 1867 Chambers County, Texas:
Please note the young gentleman numbered as 197 (see first column on left), a Louis Wiser, native of Germany, "naturalized" in Texas in 1859 claims to have been a resident of Chambers County for 13 years. Arithmetic tells me he entered Texas about 1854, which year is about the time Wiser family stories indicate our Hannah immigrated from Hamburg. Or Hannover (depending upon which census you read).
And yes, I read every other page in this Stirpes and found no mention of any other Wiser, Wysor, or Weisers. None. Had the other brothers all moved elsewhere (Liberty County?)? Hannah, a female, was unable to vote so her name would not have appeared. She was a landowner, thanks to her husband, Sam Leeper, who was given hundreds of acres of land for his service during the battles of Bexar and San Jacinto.
But that's another story. I will update this Louis Wiser search when I figure out where to access naturalization records--if any, for 1859. Thanks for stopping by!
UPDATE 14 Dec 2020:
A Louis Wiser appears on line 22 of this 1870 U.S. Federal census page from Chicago Ward 9, Cook County, Illinois. It doesn't say much, but I'm not finding many Louis Wisers in this census who were 26 year-old immigrants with THAT spelling.
This Louis is living in a boarding house with many other immigrants. Perhaps one is also from Texas and the moseyed up north together seeking employment? He's working as a blacksmith.
Was he still there in early October of the following year when the Great Chicago Fire destroyed much of Chicago?
[Holler at me if you can't read the image well]