Wahrmund Family - Part 1

For some time, I have been working on the article regarding the Wahrmund family + doing research on the family Pioneers in Texas. It appears the post is going to be quite long as I have come across interesting information besides dates and census records only. The longer I study the family history, the more I find and the less I am likely to complete my work soon. That is why I decided to create a series of posts about the Wahrmunds (well, at least three) instead of one. In this way, I can share it all with you partially quicker. Besides, I do not enjoy long posts on other people's blogs and I do not want to bore the reader with a tedious epistle either.

 

 Louis Wahrmund was born to Mr. Karl August Wahrmund and Miss Dorothea Juenke on 7 August 1853 in Gillespie County, Texas. Louis' father was one of the early German pioneers in Texas. Karl August Henry Ernst Wahrmund came to Texas with his parents and siblings on "Talisman" in Jan. 1846. He was born on 23 March 1832 in Wiesbaden, Germany. The head of the family was Louis' grandfather Johann Christian Wahrmund born on 30 Sept. 1792 in Wiesbaden, Germany as well.
The Wahrmund family decided to settle in Fredericksburg, they lived in a tent till they were able to build a log cabin.

Louis married Miss Bertha Kott on 30 March 1880 (1). He had his own farm. In 1880 the couple was recorded by Census. The two lived in Precinct 2, Gillespie, Texas (2).

Bertha was born in Fredericksburg, TX. Her father August was a soap boiler there. However, the man was born in Saxony, her mother Karoline Menzel Kott was born in Prussia(3) Louis and Bertha had three children Mathilde, Lina and Ernst. In 1910 the family lived in Harson, Gillespie, TX. (4). Louis passed on 12 Feb. 1933 (5)

The Family

Who little Alfred was, I do not know. Maybe one of Louis' children, maybe a son of Louis' cousin. The baby was buried in the old cemetery in Fredericksburg, TX.

Louis' father, Karl was 13 when the Wahrmunds arrived in Texas. Three years later, the boy went hunting with a rifle. When he was passing a neighbor's place, Karl heard a woman's voice calling for help. He found out that the woman was sick with cholera and her husband was lying next to her dead.

The young man went back home to get help. The boy's father and other neighborhood people got to the sick family's house by an ox-cart. The men buried in one grave all the dead persons found in that house, the women cared for the sick lady who lived two days more before she passed away.

During those days Karl shot a buffalo in the area where the nowadays Fredericksburg High School is situated.

Louis' father Karl married when he was nineteen. Miss Dorothea Juenke became Karl's bride on 26 June 1851. The couple had 11 children who survived till adulthood, 2 of their children died young. Dorothea came to Texas from Brunswick, Germany. Together with her parents Wilhelm Juenke, Henriette nee Tilly and siblings Karoline, Wilhelm, Heinrich she sailed on "Mathilde" in 1846.

Karl August has experienced a few face-to-face encounters with Indians. One of them was when the latter ones had already become hostile regarding their contacts with the German settlers. That was on a rainy day when Mr. Karl was hunting. The man met an Indian who was carrying a rifle wrapped in a buckskin (in order to prevent the gun powder from getting wet). Not being able to use the gun quickly, the Indian dropped his weapon and raised his hands. Mr. Wahrmund took the rifle, shut all the bullets out of it and gave it back to the Indian who bowed, said something in his native language and left the spot.

During the Civil War, Karl August Wahrmund served as the first sergeant in a Confederate Army unit under Captain Frank von Stunke. He also worked for the US government - he delivered food and clothes to the Indians and at the same time looked for the captive white children. It happened that Karl and his men found a little girl wrapped in a bundle that was guarded closely by 4 Indian men. After the talks, the latter agreed to trade the girl for food and clothing. The child was later returned to her relatives.

When the war ended Mr. Wahrmund, his wife and children moved to Tivydale when they ran a farm (6). In 1910, Karl and his wife were recorded during the census. They lived in Harson, Gillespie, TX (7).

Karl August Ernst Heinrich Wahrmund lived 79 years, he died on 27 Feb. 1911. His wife passed eight years later on 18 May 1919.

Family Line

Louis Wahrmund
⇒ his father Karl August Wahrmund (b. 23 March 1832, Wiesbaden, Germany/d. 27 Feb. 1911, Texas)
⇒ his brother Emil Wahrmund (b. 3 June 1828, Wiesbaden, Germany/d. 4 March 1901, Texas)
⇒ his daughter Mathilde (Wahrmnud) Meckel (b. 20 Feb. 1859/d. 17 Sept. 1913)
⇒ her husband of Heinrich Bernard Meckel (b. 16 May 1854, Fredericksburg, Gillespie, TX/d. 16 March 1909, Fredericksburg, TX)
⇒ his mother Henriette (Luckenbach) Meckel
⇒ her brother Friedrich Wilhelm Luckenbach
⇒ his son Louis Carl Luckenbach
⇒ his wife Jeannie Katherine Hart
⇒ her sister Elizabeth (Hart) Angel
⇒ her husband Rufus Monroe Angel - our 3rd cousin once removed
⇒ his father James Monroe Angel
⇒ his mother Elizabeth Sarah (Gant) Angel
⇒ her father Benjamin Thomas Gant
⇒ his brother Jacob Rippy Gant - our great-great-grandfather

Resources

Pioneers in God's Hills. A History of Texas and Gillespie County People and Events. 1960, Gillespie County Historical Society. Printed by Boeckman-Jons, Austin, Texas.

1. "Texas Marriages, 1837-1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VK1Y-9LW : 22 January 2020), Louis Wahrmund, 1880.

2. "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFN8-2CQ : 15 July 2017), Louis Wahrmund, Precinct 2, Gillespie, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district ED 62, sheet 283C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,255,305.
3. "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXFX-VTJ : 12 December 2017), August Kott, 1860.

4. "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MK12-7BW : accessed 1 March 2020), Louis Wahrmund, Harson, Gillespie, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 152, sheet 13A, family 27, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1554; FHL microfilm 1,375,567.

5. "Texas Deaths, 1890-1976," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3QQ-MZ6 : 13 March 2018), Louis Wahrmund, 12 Feb 1933; citing certificate number 8070, State Registrar Office, Austin; FHL microfilm 2,115,344.

6. Dietel, Norman J. The Harper Herald (Harper, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, March 19, 1982, newspaper, March 19, 1982; Harper, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1035935/: accessed April 8, 2020), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Harper Library.

7. "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MK12-7Y2 : accessed 1 March 2020), Karl Wahrmund, Harson, Gillespie, Texas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 152, sheet 13A, family 22, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1554; FHL microfilm 1,375,567.