Charles Giesige

Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Giesige

Charles Giesige and his wife Anna Houck come from Holland (Dutch) and received a permanent government grant after his service in the Mexican War of 1847 to 1849. Charles was a tailor and Anna used to be very good at cradling wheat; she was paid double because she was hard working. Anna carried wheat from their homestead, in Henry County on County Road 13, August Giesige's farm, to Brunersberg.

Matt Giesige's son Raymond Giesige, (Charles Giesige's grandson) organized the V.F.W. in Defiance, Ohio, on August 20, 1935. He also organized the V.F.W. in New Bavaria, Ohio, on December 15, 1946, with fifty charter members. Raymond Giesige named it after his godchild, Raymond Diemer. Raymond Giesige was also in the First World War.

Raymond Giesige and his wife Catherine are natives of the New Bavaria-Defiance area. Now, as of July 1975 they reside at 1022 Grove St., Defiance, Ohio. In June of 1975 they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Raymond and Catherine have two sons - Ray L. from Celina, Ohio, and Ken J. from Littleton, Colorado. Raymond Jr. is a guidance counselor and brother Ken is an executive at JohnsMansville in Colorado. Raymond Giesige and wife have six great-grandchildren and 13 grandchildren. Catherine was a nurse's aid for a many of years in Toledo.

Raymond Giesige, a history buff, visited the gravesite of William Frederick Cody, at Lookout Mountain, 15 miles west of Denver, Colorado, in 1973. Disappointment overcame Mr. Giesige when he realized the famous man's monument was missing, a Civil War marker he had so surely earned. Buffalo Bill Cody was not only a Civil War veteran, he was a colonel and a scout with the Grand Army of the Republic.

Raymond Giesige

Buffalo Bill was born on February 26, 1846, in Iowa Territory. Known for being a buffalo hunter, Pony Express Rider, plains scout, guide, and a master showman, Buffalo Bill became an American legend. Bill died of heart disease at age 88, January 10, 1917.

Raymond was a grave registrar in 1934 and 1935, and a young man standing at his father's grave told Raymond his father hadn't been in the Civil War, like the marker implied. So the young man gave Raymond the marker and for 38 yrs. or more, Raymond kept that marker. Then in 1973 Raymond had it sandblasted and sent to the Buffalo Bill Museum in Colorado.

Raymond's son Ken, living in Denver, helped his father keep in contact with the curator at the museum. The inscription on Buffalo Bill's grave reads: Presented by Ray and Ken Giesige, V.F.W. Post No. 3360, Defiance, Ohio. (Defiance Crescent, April 25, 1973.)

Submitted by Raymond Giesige