Before I Forget

          My mother's Aunt Bea was a family historian and quite a storyteller.

          Beatrice Willhelm, born 1907 in Santa Anna, Texas, was by occupation a registered nurse. Her work in health care took her to Texas, Montana, and California. I don't know when she became interested in genealogy, but am so very grateful for her effort in compiling this Family Record. 

          Over the years I've spoken online with others familiar with her manuscript. Some reported it had been passed down from older relatives--now deceased. Imagine the amount of time Bea spent in writing distant cousins asking for birth and death dates, pictures, and stories about their grandparents. Did she give a happy shout when the mailman brought her photos of ancestors by return mail? Or when she was mailed torn obits from faded newspapers?

          Attached are 21 pages of Bea's Willhelm Family Record and Hurley Family Record that she combined into one manuscript. I scanned my copy of a copy from another copy. I've never seen an original manuscript of Bea's work.

          I have omitted info on living people as you will see from pages containing but a few typed sentences. (Copies are available to family by request n the Comment box below). Hold your cursor over the gallery of images to find the horizontal scroll bar. Move the scroll bar to the right to see ALL of the 21 pages. Feel free to download each image. I know Aunt Bea would want you to have a copy for personal use--not commercial use.

          As to where Bea's trove of research is now, I would love to know. What a treasure she may have had in her collection of old letters and documents from the 19th century. WHERE are they now?

          Meet Aunt Bea in two photos below. One image from her later years. Another as she appeared in 1928 Lubbock, Texas with my grandmother, Audrey Coffee (on the left):

          In 2002 another researcher and a second cousin, Marsha F. White, mailed photos of my ggrandparents' family. I do so appreciate Marsha's generosity!  She too descends from George Freeman Hurley and Nancy Abigail Smith--parents of Beatrice's mother, Lena.

          Lena's legal name was Rebecca Orlena Hurley. She married William Edgar Willhelm in Katemcy, Texas on December 8, 1889. But you can read all that in Bea's document. (George and Nancy Hurley appear elsewhere on my blog. Find them with a keyword search).  I'll hush now and show the marvelous photos from our Hurley cousin. Attached are scanned copies of the originals she sent. I also have copies that have been touched-up, but want you (family) to see the originals. 

         First, from left to right, are the children of Lena & Edgar Willhelm:  Olive, Glenn, Arch, Bea, May (standing), Fred, and Art. Little Beatrice appears to be about four or five, don't you think? That would put this photo around 1912. The duplicate pic below is one that my sister touched up a bit. Remember to click ONCE inside a picture to enlarge it. Click just once to return to this page.

          Second, from L to R, sisters Lois & Edna May Alexander--daughters of May Willhelm. Then Glenn and his sister Frieda, with their brother Harold behind them. (Children of Fred and Bertha Willhelm). 

          3.  My Grandpa Art said his mother Lena was a "ginger." Here is Lena with her husband Ed Willhelm.

          4.  I think these are the youngest Willhelm children Beatrice, Art, and Olive with what may be school books. My grandfather Art is in the second photo. I am so happy to have these early photos!


          5.  Two photos of Lena and Ed Willhelm's entire family. Dates and locations are unknown. Do you know more? 

Source:  Steeves, Beatrice Willhelm Reiswig, 1907-1995. Willhelm Family Record & Hurley Family Record. 1973. Raw data. St. Helena, Napa, California, USA.  A family history and genealogy of Tobias Willhelm (1760-1834) and Daniel Hurley (1817- 1859) and their descendants.


Thanks for stopping by!
    

          FIRST: On Fold3, a popular military site, I found some records of family who had fought for the Confederacy. Attached are two images George Freeman Hurley's military file. My mother's great-grandfather, G. F. Hurley, of Company K, 34th North Carolina Regiment, was captured April 2, 1865 in Virginia and sent to a prison in New York Harbor. After swearing an oath of allegiance to the United States, he was released from Hart's Island on June 17, 1865. Researchers are happy to learn physical descriptions of ancestors, as shown here on the second page of my red-headed ancestor's record:

HART's ISLAND: In 1865, as the Civil War was ending, the Federal government used the Island as a prison camp for Confederate soldiers. Hart Island was a prisoner of war camp for four months in 1865. 3,413 captured Confederate soldiers were housed. 235 died. Their remains were relocated to Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn in 1941. It was the final prison established by the Union...and  it quickly evolved into the city's most horrible site. Located in Long Island Sound about twenty miles north of the city and just a few miles south of David's Island, Hart Island wasn't even used until April 1865, the month the Civil War came to an end. Within three weeks of its opening, 3,413 POWs are crammed into the post's tiny enclosed area Hart does not become completely cleared of prisoners until July. Within the four months of its operation, nearly 7 percent of all the camp's POWs died, mostly from illnesses brought with them, such as chronic diarrhea and pneumonia.

Green beef shoes? 2d Lt. T. D. Lattimore wrote:  "During this winter, which was so rigorous, even to those in comfort, many of the soldiers, for want of shoes for their frost-bitten feet, covered their feet with green beef hides."  From The Histories Of The Several Regiments And Battalions From North Carolina, In The Great War 1861-'65, wonderfully shared online at URL:  https://archive.org/details/01300611.3315.emory.edu


          SECOND:  My 2nd Great-Grandfather Welk Wilhelm saw many battles with and a few captures by the Union Army. This image shows Welcome "took the oath" so as to save his hide from having to spend further time in some hellish POW camp. Soldiers who signed the oath were then released, and very often rejoined their regiments to continue the fight elsewhere. I have no idea if this is his actual signature. If so, it is yet another variation of what I believe to be his legal name: William Welcome Wilhelm. Cousins might want to see the 18 images from Welk's military file that I shared back in April 2014. (Type the name  Wilhelm in this blog's Search menu on the left). May I also suggest you google the Battle of Vicksburg and its siege? Nasty business, that. 

          THIRD: Who are these Wiser-named gents? Might we be related? This is all I found on them from one collection. Clerks often hastily spelled surnames by HOW names sounded. Weisser, Weyser? Among the many variations of my surname, I will now add WEYSER to my search. Perhaps someone reading this post from a google search might know more?


          FOURTH:  Richard Childers, a 29 year old farmer, who claims Native American ethnicity, fought for Arkansas in this undated and FADED document. I thought I knew all the many Dick Childers in a four-state area. 



          FIFTH:  TOBIAS WILHELM: Another maternal ancestor, a first cousin--five times removed, born February 26, 1827, and now interred in Scottsboro, Alabama. He fought with Wade's Cavalry, and is the grandson of our earliest known Wilhelm, also named Tobias:


See his lovely tombstone: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=23386801&PIpi=51494568  (I haven't permission so I will not be posting the tombstone photo here.) 


          SIXTH: Meet Sam Coffee, a maternal 2nd great-uncle. His Irish grandfather fought with Daniel Boone at Fort Boonesborough and settled on Slate Creek in Montgomery County, Kentucky. By 1860 Sam's parents and nine siblings had moved to Morgan County, Missouri. After the War, Sam and Harriett moved to Sherman, Texas. His sons later settled in Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in southern Oklahoma. I've tracked this family for a couple of generations, and hope to meet their descendants one day. Please excuse my poor attempt to brighten these faded docs contained in the gallery below:



We have many Union Army ancestors whose military papers I hope to share, but I know better than to combine vets from two opposing armies in one post. They didn't all forgive and forget as did these two old veterans who met at one of the last Gettysburg reunions held in the early 20th century. Isn't this a marvelous picture:

                Just pulled military records from Fold3.com  regarding your 2xG-Grandfather, William Welcome Wilhelm, and his brother, Archey. Arch's birth name was very likely John Archibald Wilhelm. One doc pictured below shows "Archible," for goodness' sake. Both the 1850 and 1860 censuses indicate a birth year of 1845--which made him 17 when he enlisted at Horse Head, Arkansas. Google the locations mentioned to learn the many places their unit walked and fought. Where Welcome fought, that is. I'm not sure Arch made it out of state. I've found no record of when Archey died or where he is buried. He had allegedly become seriously ill and was released from service. Sent home, he never recovered. As you know, more Civil War soldiers died from sickness than from injury in battle. Below are Archey's records. Click on the four images within each gallery:

          Here are 18 images from Welcome Wilhelm's military records. Sadly, I am inept at getting these pictures to appear consecutively--starting with the first page. My apologies. Please click and scroll over to the right and begin reading the LAST pic. As a reminder, Welk Wilhelm was born September 14, 1843 in Hamilton County, Tennessee. Shortly before 1850, his parents migrated to northwest Arkansas. He was 18 years old when he enlisted September 26, 1861 at Camp Jackson in Arkansas. Welk survived the War and married Mary Cowan in Florence, Texas in 1866. Together they had eight children before Welcome left his family in 1882 for parts unknown. (UPDATE: As of August 2017, I've changed the year 1883 to 1882 as to when Welk fled for parts unknown. Why? Because a newspaper article said so.)  Some say he left after killing another man in self defense. I call it abandoning your family. 

          It was in the late 1990s that I first found info on our Wilhelm ancestors' service with Company C, 15th Northwest Arkansas Infantry. I am grateful to the late Edward G. Gerdes for sharing his research:  http://www.couchgenweb.com/civilwar/15infcoc.html

          The National Park Service has a brief summary of this unit's service:

 https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=CAR0015RI04

__________

Researchers Beatrice Willhelm Steeves (1907-1995) and Ola Irene Johnson (1914-1988) also have 1845 as Archey Wilhelm's birth year, along with 1843 for Welcome.