The Wilhelm Family

The progeny of Jakob Wilhelm has had its roots in Henry and Defiance Counties for the past 138 years and has extended already into the 6th generation. The following family history is a collection of facts and anecdotes gathered from a variety of sources including old county histories of Henry and Defiance Counties, History of Northwest Ohio, by Winters, parish records of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, personal interviews with elder members of the family as well as old letters of recollection handed down through the generations to the present day. Many of the family anecdotes have been passed down through the family orally from one generation to the next. A few important areas of the Wilhelm family records are still impending further research.

Orchards, dairy, and livestock farm of Wiley Wilhelm and Sons, RR1, New Bavaria on County Road Y.

The first Wilhelm of my family heritage that set foot on American soil was my great-great-great-grandfather Jakob Wilhelm .vho was born in either the year 1789 as his son Adam recorded in the 1883 version of the Defiance County History, or 1791 as Father Christian Viere, a French missionary priest inscribed in the parish records of St. Michael's of the Popular Ridge (now known as Sacred Heart Parish). The exact village of birth in Germany is not recorded to my knowledge anywhere. Father Viere merely mentions that Jakob was born in the "Palatinate," which was a district west of the Rhein River near Bavaria, controlled by the Prussians during his life in that area of Germany. Today this area is known as the Rheinland-Pfalz district.

Jakob joined the Prussian army at an early age and from all facts available it appears as though he experienced all the hardships and grandeur of a soldier of fortune. From accounts furnished to the History of Defiance

County (pp. 229-230), his son Adam relates some facts about his Bavarian father serving in the Prussian army, an army widely noted for its severe discipline and select soldiers. According to Adam's recollections his father Jakob fought for a number of years during the Napoleonic wars in Europe probably between the years of 1808 to 1815. Most of western Europe was caught up in a tangle of political revolution against the ruling monarchies by those seeking constitutional governments. The Kingdom of Prussia, which encompassed most of the country of Germany, was at the center of all the turmoil. This leads us into the situation where most of the European countries were continually shifting their political and military alliances from time to time. The irony of this will come out in a few paragraphs.

Jakob Wilhelm was among those Prussian soldiers who fought with Napoleon Bonaparte in the "Peninsular War" in Spain, where Napoleon attempted to replace a Spanish monarch with his own French brother. Rejecting this attempt, the Spanish fought the French and the Prussians until eventually they triumphed; only with the help and military efficiency of the English and the Duke of Wellington. Adam remembers his father disliking the Spaniards vehemently since he personally witnessed Spanish torture of French soldiers being nailed to barn doors. Out of a division of 5,000 men Jakob Wilhelm was one of 276 men to survive and of the 276 he was only one of 5 men to escape serious wounds!

From the "Peninsular War" Jakob next found himself marching again with Napoleon in a Prussian-French Alliance towards the fateful (June- December) march into Russia in the famous "Battle of Moscow." This was during the severe winter of 1812. Having survived the -40° Fahrenheit Siberian cold, great-great-great-grand?father Jakob took part in what could be classified as one of the most memorable battles of the century; the "Battle of Waterloo" in Belgium. Jakob now was fighting with the English under the Duke of Wellington, whom he had fought against only a few short years before in the "Peninsular War" in Spain! The Prussians dealt the finishing blow to Napoleon at Waterloo under the expert leadership of Feldmarschall Blücher.

Jakob arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, in either 1836 or 1837. His son Adam's account in the Defiance County History (pp. 228-230) says the former, and Winter's History of Northwest Ohio confirms it as the latter. At any rate he arrived with his wife Odelia (Schmidt) Wilhelm (1795-1849) and their 3 sons Jacob Jr., John Sr., Adam and one daughter Marian. They left from the English Channel port of Le Havre, France, on a voyage that lasted 72 days across the Atlantic. From Baltimore they migrated across Pennsylvania. From fragmented evidence that I have come in contact with, the Wilhelm family had a wool industry somewhere in the state of Pennsylvania. An old altar cloth is now in the possession of Mrs. Chas. (Lucille Thomas) Gajawski of Lambertville, Michigan, the late daughter of Mrs. Mary Wilhelm Thomas of Toledo. The cloth was used to celebrate Mass in the Wilhelm log cabin during the circuits of missionary priests and bishops in this area. The altar cloth was manufactured in the Wilhelm textile mill. Actual location of the mill is impending further research. From a report in the Henry County Review, October 12, 1972, in an article dealing with the 125th anniversary of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, local historian, Mrs. Walburga Martson mentioned some of the Wilhelm family being in the New Bavaria area as early as the 1820's and having established here a wool industry; and then some of the family members returning to Germany once the settlement had been established. Much of this information needs further confirmation.

Adam further reports that in the year 1838 the family stayed one year on a farm in Stark County, Ohio, and then spent the following three years in neighboring Tuscawarus County on an 80 acre farm, during which time period the only girl (Marian) died at age 17 of unmentioned causes. Finally around 1840 Jakob purchased an 80 acre spread in Henry County in Section 25, (the northwest quarter) 21/2 miles east of New Bavaria on the old Defiance Beach Ridge (County Rd. "Y"), located in Pleasant Twp.

So thick was the underbrush that a trail of 3 miles distance had to be blazed through the wilderness to get to the 80 acre plot they had purchased. My 2nd cousin Julius Wilhelm (son of Joseph Wilhelm) told me that as a young man, there was an old oak tree at the far northeastern corner of this 80 acres that he helped to cut down, since the top of the tree was rotting away. The virgin Oak was so large in diameter that he remembers after it was felled, a tall man could not see over the top of the main log which took about 6 men three days to cut out of the old tree!

The nearest milling point was a distance of 18 miles at Brunnersburg. Since the family was very poor in the beginning, they could not afford a team of oxen. Therefore the grain that was carried to Brunnersburg was transported on their own backs, many times braving the thin ice of the Maumee River. There are a few anecdotes concerning the Wilhelm family in the Pleasant and Marion Twps. of Henry County during the early pioneer period of this region of northwest Ohio.

One morning from the window of the old log cabin Christina, the daughter of John Sr., having stayed home from church that particular morning due to illness, saw a huge female black bear crawl over the high corral fence and fetch away a newly born calf. The early pioneers had to build the fences high and sometimes even had to keep a bonfire burning all night in order to ward off wild predators from stealing their livestock.

Jakob's wife Odelia is reported to have baked bread for the neighboring Indians for over 30 years, according to evidence found in the recollections of an elderly family member. The Wilhelm log cabin was located on the sharp bend by the creek, which flows thru the farm. The creek is a branch of the Turkeyfoot. Both Jakob and his son John made whiskey and bartered it with the Potowatammi Indians who were encamped on both sides of the Wilhelm cabin in the neighboring fields.

Another anecdote that has been passed down thru the family concerns an Indian that used to work for John Wilhelm Sr. It's told that every year for a number of years while bands of wandering Indians that were passing through, perhaps from reservation to reservation here in the Midwest, one Indian (tribe never mentioned) in particular used to help with the farm work for 6 or 8 weeks; asking for at least partial payment for his labor to be in the form of homemade whiskey. On the last occasion that he visited by great-great-grandfather it is said that he walked from Allen County (somewhere near Lima) to New Bavaria to pay a personal debt that he owed to John Wilhelm. In gratitude for his honesty and labor in walking that great of distance he was given a gallon of free whiskey to take with him!

Jakob Wilhelm died at either age 85 or 83, depending on whose account of birth is correct - Father Viere's or Jakob's son Adam's - in the year 1874. He and his wife Odelia are buried in Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery, New Bavaria. Jakob's original gravestone is in very good condition (see photo) and very legible. The inscriptions on the stone are all in German.

The only records of Jacob Jr. are to the effect that he was born in Bavaria, Prussia, (same general district as his father and brothers) in 1808 and died in New Bavaria in 1892 at the age of 84. His marriage to Christiana Diemer in 1845 is the first marriage present in the records of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, but at that time it was still a mission parish.

However for Adam Wilhelm, my great-great-grand uncle, there is a wealth of information to deal with. He left home immediately after the cabin was constructed to seek work in the Defiance area where the Maumee Erie Canal was being constructed as well as the state power dam. He became a teamster on the canal works, at Independence, Ohio. His first marriage was to Mary Anne Rikart of Fort Jennings, Ohio, who bore him 9 children. After her death he married a Rosa Virgho of Monroe, Michigan, who also bore him two children. As time progressed he became a rather wealthy man. In 1871 he purchased the Defiance Mills Co. and was at one time proprietor of 3000 acres of land. In the year 1868 he returned to the country of his birth, Germany, to visit relatives and friends and tour the major cities of Europe. A friend of Adam's went with him on this European excursion by the name of a Mr. Vandenbrock. Adam Wilhelm served as a Defiance County commissioner for 6 years. He was an ardent Roman Catholic and contributed liberally to the welfare of the Catholic churches in the area. He was only one of two catholic families in the area when he first arrived in the Defiance area according to the Defiance County History (1883).

Gravestone of Jakob Wilhelm in Sacred Heart Cemetery, New Bavaria.

John Sr., who was my great-greatgrandfather, stayed on with his father Jakob, on the homestead and eventually inherited the property from him. John was born in Bavaria, Prussia, in either 1816 or 1818. He married Barbara Wein, who was born in Reichbach, Bavaria, (no date available). Barbara was of the same parish as John in New Bavaria. Her parents, Jakob and Elizabeth Wein, brought their daughter to America at an early age, the mother dying shortly after their arrival in this country. The father lived on well into his 80's.

John Wilhelm was a shrewd and widely respected businessman in his community and far beyond the community as well. From stories told within the family circles, John Wilhelm's homestead was a stop-over for many of the numerous cattle buyers doing business in this area during those pioneer days. They would temporarily entrust to his safekeeping thousands of dollars of cash until they would finish their business and return with it to their home bases of employment, many times the Chicago Stock Yards. It was never a wise choice to be traveling the frontier with large sums of cash and since the personal check and credit card were not in vogue, it was customary to temporarily deposit your money with trusted friends until you finished whatever traveling business you had to do. John's safe is still in the possession of my uncle, Willard Wilhelm, who resides on the home place of his father, Adam Wilhelm - grandson of John Sr.

During his lifetime John added on to his father's homestead and eventually possessed 460 acres of land before his death. When one considers that he could not write his own name, as was the case with most of his contemporar ies since there was no chance to obtain any kind of formal education, the accomplishments of his labors during life are somewhat astounding. We have witnessed during my generation that higher education guarantees you no monopoly on success and good fortune if you don't have the free spirit, honesty and thrift, which were virtues possessed by great-great-grandfather John's generation and usually not at the expense of an institution of higher learning. To John and Barbara Wilhelm were born the following children: Christina, who never married and remained in the New Bavaria area until she died at age 74, in 1928; Mary, who married Peter Hoffman of this area; Barbara, who married John Kiebel of Holgate where they both lived out their lives; Elizabeth, who married John M. Preissendorfer of Defiance; and the only son John, who married Mary Dietrick of New Bavaria. John Sr. died in 1882 at the age of 68 yrs. in New Bavaria. He and his family were all members of the Catholic church and actively supported it. He survived his father Jakob by only 8 years! As for political preference he usually voted Democrat in national and remained independent in local elections.

John Wilhelm Jr., my great-grandfather was born in 1849. He was the only son of his parents and inherited the land from his father, assuming the responsibilities of the farm at a very early age. According to a letter of recollection from the Preissendorfer side of my relation, John served in the American Civil War. John's sister Elizabeth did many of the farm chores while he was serving in the Union Army. Research as to actual military unit and garrison and station of duty are at the present time pending further investigation. However, having been born in 1849, he would have only been 16 years old at the last year of the war. Serving at such an early age was not an uncommon occurrence in those days however.

At one time he owned 680 acres in and around Pleasant and Marion Twps. In the New Bavaria area he was known as the "hog king" since annually he would raise and market thousands of hogs for the stockyards in Chicago. Most of the wrought iron fences in front of the homes on the old ridge road (Road Y) as well as in front and around Sacred Heart Catholic

Church (only the rear section now remaining) were to keep great-grandfather's hogs out of their lawns and gardens! In his later life a severe epidemic of hog cholera wiped out most of his financial assets and a heavy investment in the stocks of a sugar company that never materialized nearly broke him financially. The foundations of this company are still visible beyond the westward limits of Cental Foundry Division's G.M. plant in Defiance.

To John and Mary Wilhelm the following children were born: John, who married Christina Glanz; Adam, who married Maggie Ensmann; Frank A., nicknamed "Barney," who never married; J. Albert who left home at an early age and no recollections of where he went or settled ever recorded; Katharine, who married Ed Kahlo of Defiance; Joseph who married Mary Shondel of New Bavaria; Peter, who married Frances Diemer and farmed the homestead with his father. The Wilhelm Family Bible is in the possession of the surviving wife of Ruell Wilhelm, son of Peter; Frances Lorretta, who married Albert Hornnung of New Bavaria. She is still alive and living in Michigan; Josephine, who never married, is surviving and living in Hicksville. October 30, 1929, one day after the crash of the stock market, the beginning of the Great Depression, John Wilhelm died at the age of 80.

Adam Wilhelm, my grandfather, born in 1878 purchased 120 acres of land from his father's previous holdings in Marion Twp. Another 60 acres he purchased from Romey Hashbarger giving him a total of 180 acres of land. Adam married Maggie Ensmann, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Friedrick Ensmann. Maggie's father Friedrick came to this country when he was 13 from the German speaking section of France called Alsace-Lorraine. He labored in the fields and on farms working for people until he could afford to pay for his parents' passage to this country from Alsace-Lorraine! Quite a feat for any thirteen year old.

Wiley Wilhelm is at right of horse and sled with his eldest son Thomas in front. The old frame house was built by Wiley's great grand uncle, Adam Wilhelm who was born in Prussia in 1823.

The home of John Hoffman and wife Mari (Wilhelm) Hoffman, now a fruit storage on the farm of Wiley Wilhelm. Left to right: Mrs. Pete Hoffman (Marie Wilhelm), holding John Hoffman (born 1887); sisters Christine Wilhelm and Elizabeth Preisendorfer, and a niece - Mrs. John Bauer (Mary Wilhelm).

Family of John and Mary Wilhelm. Left to right: John Wilhelm, Jr., Mary (Dietrick) Wilhelm, John, Adam, Frank, Joseph, Catharine, J. Albert, Peter, Agnes, Frances, Josephine

Adam managed to pay for his farms and raise his 11 children through the tough times of the great depression of the 1930's and the 1940's, as did many hard-working people during that era of American history. To aid the financial burdens of the time Adam started a meat market at the home place, on the Putnam-Henry Counties border on Road 12. Along with the market, where they did their own butchering as well as custom slaughtering, the family also handled a meat route which encompassed most of Henry and Putnam Counties and even overextended itself into cities like Findlay in Hancock County. Adam continued this route until his wife took ill of diabetes and died in 1953. This was the last generation of Wilhelms to my knowledge to have spoken the Muttersprache (mother tongue) of German, a tradition sadly discontinued in many homes about the same generation. This was probably due to the unpopularity of Germany during the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Adam died in the year 1957 just a few months shy of his 80th birthday.

Adam and Margaret Wilhelm had the following children: Alvin, who married Elsie Bostelman and has 4 children, Nelda, John, James, and Jane. Alvin died in 1965 of heart complications. Elsie now lives in their home on Frazier Ave. in Holgate; Betty, who married Lloyd McGuire of Lima and has 12 children; Dorothy, who married Harley Gebhardt of Holgate has 4 children, Bob, Jim, Fred, Helen, and Larry; Catharine, who married Faye Diehl of Leipsic has 7 children; Walter, who married Evalyn Fockler has 9 children; Willard, who is unmarried and living on the farm of Adam, his father; Margarette, who married Charles Selleck of Sherwood has one daughter Charoline, now living west of Ottowa on St. Rt. 15; Albert, who married Jean Stafford and has 6 children. Albert died of heart complications in 1960. Jean and her children, that are not married, live in Custar; Lucille, who married Leo Hoeffel of Defiance, has 5 children; John, who married Phyllis Buser and has 3 children; Wiley, who married Martha Bostelman, sister of Elsie, has 7 children.

Family of Wiley and Martha (Bostelman) Wilhelm. Left to right, bottom row: Martha holding Thomas' son Andrew, Wiley holding Elizabeth’s daughter Suzanne, Douglas, Annette, Mathew, Adam Charles; back row: Edd Pilger, Suzanne (Wilhelm) Pilger, holding daughter Rebecca, Thomas holding daughter Mellisa, Daniel Mary (Bellman) Wilhelm, Timothy, Wiley Jr., Peter, Stephen.

Wiley Wilhelm was born on August 20, 1913 -- just 111 years after the historic defeat of the Indians by General Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. He married Martha Bostelman in 1941. The same year he purchased 40 acres from Bertram and Urban Giesige in the southwest quarter of Section 29 in Marion Twp., Henry County. At one time this belonged to Wiley's great-grand uncle Adam and then purchased by Adam's brother John Sr. in Marchof 1871. This original 40 acres has undergone some radical changes since the days of its purchase from the United States Govt. under Martin Van Buren by land speculator, George R. Lewis. My mother recalls that the land was so run down and swampy in the early 40's that during July and August, usually the hottest and dryest months, bull frogs could be heard croaking in the fields! Wiley planted an orchard in the early '40's on the high ground of the farm in which the old ridge (known as the Defiance Beach Ridge) Road passes through. Approximately 20 acres of the farm is in orchard or vineyard. Many of the original trees have survived to the present and are in excellent bearing condition. Wiley and his sons also care for a rather large herd of dairy cattle as well as raising out a large number of hogs every year. All of the boys farm together as well as being employed in other pursuits.

Wiley spent 6 months of his youth in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression working in the National Forests, mainly in the state of California. He was 20 years old during this time in the C.C.C. camp -- 1933. Wiley and Martha are both semi-retired at the age of 61 years. Wiley and Martha Wilhelm have 7 children: Thomas, who married Mary Bellman of Deshler and has 6 children -- Annette, Douglas, Mathew, Adam, Mellisa, and Andrew. He has worked 11 years at General Motors Corp. at Defiance as well as helping Wiley farm. He attended Hamler High School; Martha Suzanne, who is the only daughter, married Ed Pilger of Syracuse, New York, and has 2 children -- Rebecca and Elizabeth. They are both employed at G.M. Corp. in Defiance. Suzanne is a graduate of Hamler High School; Timothy, who is yet unmarried, has worked for 11 years also at G.M. Corp. as well as on his father's farm. He also attended Hamler High School; Peter, who is unmarried and still living at home, graduated from Divine Word Seminary, Perrysburg in 1965. He served two years in the U.S. Army, one year of which was on combat duty in the former Republic of South Vietnam as a military policeman during the Tet Offensive (1968). He is a graduate of Bowling Green State University having majored in both history and German. One year of his university experience was spent on a study abroad scholarship offered by B.G.S.U. to the University of Giessen and University of Marburg in the Federal Republic of West Germany from the fall semester of 1971 through the summer semester of 1972. He is now employed at Four County Joint Vocational school in Archbold as a social studies instructor; Stephen, who is a graduate of Hamler High School and also unmarried, served 2 years in the United States Marine Corps as a combat engineer, one year in service overseas on the island of Okinawa. He is presently employed as deputy sheriff of Henry County; Wiley Jr. who is unmarried and a graduate of Patrick-Henry School District, is still living at home also and doing much of the work on the home place formerly done by his retiring father; Daniel, who is still in high school and living at home with his parents sharing in the family duties around the farm. Wiley and Martha have 8 grandchildren. Thus ends the updated version of the Wilhelm family history.

In conclusion I will summarize by making a few observations and general comments. The politics of the Wilhelm Family have interestingly undergone a few significant changes. From recollections of my grandfather Adam, I remember him as distinctively being the one to break the tradition of voting a Democrat national ticket. He disagreed vehemently to the basic liberalism of the Roosevelt years and he and my father as well, began voting Republican in the primary elections. However, they never cared to be labeled as Republicans but rather as Independent "Conservatives" instead, the former philosophy of the Republican Party under the Taft and Goldwater wing of the party.

During the fall and following summer of 1971-72, I had the personal privilege of going to Germany to study for a year. During that time period I did a lot of traveling in Europe, most of it however in and around Germany the homeland of my ancestors on both sides of the family. In compiling this family history it was a pleasant feeling to know that I visited places that were mentioned and felt individually, the "Gemiitlichkeit" (German Hospitality) that the older generations of German-Americans brought with them and nourished in these small northwestern Ohio communities, as well as in other American communities across this country. The family of Willi and Lina Walter of Bemflingen, Germany, had me as their guest for a week in their home. My surviving grandmother, Elizabeth (Walter) Bostelman, is related in that her father was a brother to Willi's father. In this home and in the small town of Bempflingen itself I personally experienced the hospitality I referred to above. I felt immediately at home. One cannot do that in all parts of the world. It simply speaks of the manners and culture that most of us in Henry County have simply taken for granted. Let us hope that we as well as the progeny that follow us take the pains to preserve these cultural traits of our ancestry.

Submitted by Peter W. Wilhelm