Archives for Wagner
The Court Martial of William Wagner
January 9, 1865 was a rainy Monday in Corporal William Wagner’s Union Army camp at Clarksville, Tennessee. He and his Company had been stationed there for a couple years. They were bored and impatient for the war to end so they could go home. Earlier in the day, William had quarreled with Charles Walster over a pistol. (Walster was a survivor of Company M transferred to Company H after a third of his Battery was…
Old Bill Wagner
Jacob William (later dubbed "Old Bill") was born in 1840 in Elleringhausen, Germany. At the age of 6, he and his family joined the waves of German immigrants after their friends in Quincy, Illinois, kept writing for them to come. Six-year-old William took his little sister Henrietta by the hand and led her up the gangplank onto the ship. She never forgot the smell of tar coming from the cordage coiled on deck. They had…
Wagner Descendant’s Guide to Canton, Missouri
Canton, Missouri is where multiple generations and branches of our ancestors were born and lived and are buried. I’ve visited several times during my life, and it was the Homeplace for several generations. We have so many ancestors, cousins, aunts and uncles who lived here I cannot mention them all for this. DOWNLOAD PDF Here's a travel report from a recent trip my cousin Ben Wagner took to Canton. The Wagner house on Lewis Street…
Frederick Vesper
Frederick Vesper was my 3x great grandfather. He immigrated from Munden, Germany in 1846 at the age of 26, arriving at New Orleans. He settled in Canton, Missouri, where he farmed and lived the rest of his life.
Are we related to Barack Obama?
The short answer is: sort of. President Barack Obama's maternal GGGG grandfather Thomas L. Clark settled in Canton, Missouri around 1835. All of Thomas' 11 children were born there and they lived there at the same time our family (Surnames: Wagner, Eckert, Hetzler, Giegerich, Vesper). Obama's ggg grandfather Christopher Columbus Clark is buried in the same cemetery (Forest Grove) in Canton as our ancestors. By searching through the Canton newspaper, I found multiple connections that…
Coming to America – Weilers and Wagners
The Weiler/Wagner ancestors came to America from Germany and Switzerland between 1834 and 1891 during the mass immigration of Europeans. Some came as eager young teenagers leaving their parents and homeland behind, others were older with spouses and children seeking a better life for their family. They came without knowing the language or what they could expect. They settled the new land and farmed, smithed and used their talents to make a good life in…
Dear Nellie
I recently discovered a letter written in 1884 by George Redeforth in Warsaw, Illinois, to his fiancé Nellie Stenson. Although they aren’t related to me, my ancestor John Wagner lived there at the same time. In my quest to learn about George and Nellie, I discovered an article about my own ancestors and uncovered George's story on the river. Read:
Hanning Freyhofer Story
One cannot tell the story of the Hannings without the Freyhofers. With scenes that could be straight out of a movie or an episode of Little House on the Prairie, our ancestors came looking for the American Dream and they found it in Indiana and Kansas, along with a few nightmares. Their stories are filled with indians, locusts, droughts, and buffalo hunts. The Freyhofers immigrated from Switzerland through New Orleans in 1834 and the Hannings…
1943 Wagner Family Recordings
Ben Wagner recently found some 78-RPM 8-inch records in his late father Arnold’s collection. On them are the voices of our ancestors - my great grandparents William C. Wagner and wife Lilly Giegerich, along with their son William F and Lilly's aunt Tillie Eckert Henry. The recordings were made on Saturday, June 5, 1943, during a trip home by William and Arnold to visit their parents in Canton, Missouri. Other recordings are of the brothers…
Tapes for Grandpa
In 1972 my grandfather, Homer Henry Wagner, was in the hospital after a heart attack. I wasn't allowed to visit him because I was only 8. So I recorded two reel to reel tapes for him to listen to. I sang songs, told jokes, played cello, and recited poetry. Diana Thornton at Cheat Lake camp with grandfather Homer Henry Wagner: My mom, Lois, helped me and sang along with me on some of them. Diana…