Friday, February 22, 2013
Saturday, December 11, 2010
The Wolffs/Wolfes of Union Hill
After leaving the family homeplace near Bethania in current day Forsyth County, the first son born to Fredrick and Maria Kriger Wolff in Surry County was Henry Nathan (October 27, 1823).
Henry Nathan Wolfe had married Rachel Isaacs on 10 Feb 1845. The daughter of Joseph and Frances Norman Isaacs, Rachel was born 1 April 1823 and died 13 Jan 1914. She is buried in the Union Hill Cemetery with her husband Henry Nathan, who died 17 Oct 1897.
Henry Nathan was a miller, a carpenter, a coffin and cabinet maker, and general woodwright. Several pieces of his furniture still remain in the Wolfe family, especially a desk now owned by Jim Wolfe.
He also held several community leadership roles in his mountain community -- including service as a Justice of the Peace in 1862, membership in the military "Home Guard" to protect the "Little Mountain" district during the Civil War, and following the War, served as a County Commissioner.
Henry Nathan and Rachel's children were William Harrison (who like his father and grandfather, was also a fifer and served as such in the Civil War), Hilary Wingfield Wolfe, John Henry, Annette, Minda Elizabeth, Frances Louise and Elisha Kent Kane.
TO BE CONTINUED ....
Henry Nathan Wolfe had married Rachel Isaacs on 10 Feb 1845. The daughter of Joseph and Frances Norman Isaacs, Rachel was born 1 April 1823 and died 13 Jan 1914. She is buried in the Union Hill Cemetery with her husband Henry Nathan, who died 17 Oct 1897.
Henry Nathan was a miller, a carpenter, a coffin and cabinet maker, and general woodwright. Several pieces of his furniture still remain in the Wolfe family, especially a desk now owned by Jim Wolfe.
He also held several community leadership roles in his mountain community -- including service as a Justice of the Peace in 1862, membership in the military "Home Guard" to protect the "Little Mountain" district during the Civil War, and following the War, served as a County Commissioner.
Henry Nathan and Rachel's children were William Harrison (who like his father and grandfather, was also a fifer and served as such in the Civil War), Hilary Wingfield Wolfe, John Henry, Annette, Minda Elizabeth, Frances Louise and Elisha Kent Kane.
TO BE CONTINUED ....
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
What happens in Union Hill stays in Union Hill
Or something to that effect ....
-- The spelling of the family name Wolff changed to the English spelling somewhere between Father Henry Nathan Wolff and his children, probably beginning with either of his two sons, William Harrison Wolfe and John Henry Wolfe.
My grandfather once told me there was a family feud over whether English or German would be spoken in Father Wolfe's home. There appears to have been a split within the family, however. It seems that some of the family either moved from Union Hill to Kapp's Mill area (of Surry County) or married someone from there. Yet most, including Harrison and John Henry, returned to be buried in the Union Hill cemetery.
Another reason for the change in spelling is alleged to have been to avoid association with the Wolff names who had married first cousins.
Henry Nathan -- son of Frederick and Ana Krieger -- married Rachel Isaacs (daughter of Joseph Isaacs and Frances Norman) 10 Feb 1845. Their children were
William Harrison Wolfe (1845-1925) married Ruth Jane Calloway
Hillary Winfield Wolfe (1847-1919)
Annette (Nettie) A. Wolfe (1851-1927) married Shadrache Hanes
Lowiza Frances (Frankie) Wolfe (1853-1881) married Winfield Scott Thompson
John Henry Wolfe (1855-1934) married Carrie L. Todd
Elisha Kent Wolfe (1860-1917) married Rachel Latutia Isaacs
Amanda Elizabeth (Betty) Wolfe (1862-1932) married Robert Wilson Harris
-- Harrison Wolfe remained in Union Hill. As a child, I recall camping along the creek below his house in the late 1940's and early 1950's -- a deserted two-story farmhouse that overlooked a once prosperous estate. I remember the library -- ransacked by treasure-hunters -- where hundreds of books had been thrown to the floor. I remember playing in the outbuildings, standing too close to an old well behind the house and panning for fool's gold in the creek ....
Years later, returning to the homesite, I shook my head in dismay at what had happened to those books, whether someone had taken them before setting fire to the house. Today a lovely, modern home sits near the site. Below the hill, the creek in which I once waded and searched for fools' gold now runs through a culvert under the paved road.
Harrison married Ruth Jane Calloway.
Their children were
Jesse Mackie Wolfe (1867-1940) married Celestia M. Nixon,
Frederick Ferree (Free) Tichnor Wolfe (1869-1914) married Jane Mildred Dockery
Eugene Luther Wolfe (1871-1951) married Mary Etta Mays
John Henry Welborne Wolfe, (1872-1956) married Mary Bethania (Mamie) Marshall
William Cletus Wolfe, (1880-1967) married Stella Kiger
Adolphus Harrison (Dolph) (1881-1955) married his first cousin Verlie E. Wolfe
-- Nathan Henry Wolfe (often confused by genealogists with his brother's son, John Henry Welborne Wolfe) lived at one time in Kapp's Mill in Surry County. He married Carrie L. Todd in 1881. Their children were Charles, Hubert and William (1885- ).
... more to come.
-- The spelling of the family name Wolff changed to the English spelling somewhere between Father Henry Nathan Wolff and his children, probably beginning with either of his two sons, William Harrison Wolfe and John Henry Wolfe.
My grandfather once told me there was a family feud over whether English or German would be spoken in Father Wolfe's home. There appears to have been a split within the family, however. It seems that some of the family either moved from Union Hill to Kapp's Mill area (of Surry County) or married someone from there. Yet most, including Harrison and John Henry, returned to be buried in the Union Hill cemetery.
Another reason for the change in spelling is alleged to have been to avoid association with the Wolff names who had married first cousins.
Henry Nathan -- son of Frederick and Ana Krieger -- married Rachel Isaacs (daughter of Joseph Isaacs and Frances Norman) 10 Feb 1845. Their children were
William Harrison Wolfe (1845-1925) married Ruth Jane Calloway
Hillary Winfield Wolfe (1847-1919)
Annette (Nettie) A. Wolfe (1851-1927) married Shadrache Hanes
Lowiza Frances (Frankie) Wolfe (1853-1881) married Winfield Scott Thompson
John Henry Wolfe (1855-1934) married Carrie L. Todd
Elisha Kent Wolfe (1860-1917) married Rachel Latutia Isaacs
Amanda Elizabeth (Betty) Wolfe (1862-1932) married Robert Wilson Harris
-- Harrison Wolfe remained in Union Hill. As a child, I recall camping along the creek below his house in the late 1940's and early 1950's -- a deserted two-story farmhouse that overlooked a once prosperous estate. I remember the library -- ransacked by treasure-hunters -- where hundreds of books had been thrown to the floor. I remember playing in the outbuildings, standing too close to an old well behind the house and panning for fool's gold in the creek ....
Years later, returning to the homesite, I shook my head in dismay at what had happened to those books, whether someone had taken them before setting fire to the house. Today a lovely, modern home sits near the site. Below the hill, the creek in which I once waded and searched for fools' gold now runs through a culvert under the paved road.
Harrison married Ruth Jane Calloway.
Their children were
Jesse Mackie Wolfe (1867-1940) married Celestia M. Nixon,
Frederick Ferree (Free) Tichnor Wolfe (1869-1914) married Jane Mildred Dockery
Eugene Luther Wolfe (1871-1951) married Mary Etta Mays
John Henry Welborne Wolfe, (1872-1956) married Mary Bethania (Mamie) Marshall
William Cletus Wolfe, (1880-1967) married Stella Kiger
Adolphus Harrison (Dolph) (1881-1955) married his first cousin Verlie E. Wolfe
-- Nathan Henry Wolfe (often confused by genealogists with his brother's son, John Henry Welborne Wolfe) lived at one time in Kapp's Mill in Surry County. He married Carrie L. Todd in 1881. Their children were Charles, Hubert and William (1885- ).
... more to come.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wolff and Dietz
Johann Ludwig (Lewis) Wolff married Anna Catherine Deitz 21 May 1776. After her death during childbirth (1779), Lewis married Anna Marie Moser (daughter of James Moser and Sarah Binckele) circa 1789 in Stokes County.
Revolutionary War Service: In the Spring and Autumn of 1776, Lewis' commanding officers wrote that he had served as fifer three or four weeks in the Expedition against the Cherokee Indians. In September he was ordered back to Surry to join the Virginia troops and to nurse a sick family member.
In February 1778, Wolff volunteered again for duty in Salisbury, North Carolina to transport Tory and British prisoners from Salisbury prison to Martinsville in Guilford County, North Carolina. In 1780, Wolff served under Captain Joseph Phillips for three months, marching various routes through Surry & Wilkes, Burke & Lincoln [counties] in North Carolina, and then into South Carolina.
Wolff served at the Battle of King's Mountain, SC, under Cols Campbell, Cleveland, Shelby & Major J. Winston with Tennessee's OverMountain Men who defeated Fergerson's troops to turn the tide of America's fight for Independence.
Wolff's application for a pension was approved; he was granted a pension of $32.16 per annum. Wife Anna Maria was given a pension of $25.21 at his death on 8 Nov 1842. He was buried in the Lutheran Cemetery in Rural Hall, NC.
In an affidavit by Lewis Wolff on 29 Aug. 1840 in Stokes Co., NC, he stated that he had served a three-month tour of duty as a musician (fifer) in the same militia company under Capt. Henry Smith with Stokes' County's John Martin (who married Nancy Shipp).
John"Jack" Martin was born as the first child of Joseph and Ann Sandage Martin in 1756. The family was living in Louisa Co. Virginia. John settled first in Stokes Co. No. Carolina and played an important role in the Revolutionary War and in the settlement of the area.
In 1784 Martin married Nancy Shipp, daughter of Josiah Shipp (d. 1800 and Anna Cox 1724-1828). During the years 1798-1799 and again in 1811-1812 he served the County as a representative in the State General Assembly. For 30 years he also served as Magistrate of the Stokes County Court. Martin was a prominent farmer, owning nearly 8,000 acres of land, part of which was a grant from the English Crown. John and Nancy Shipp Martin had a family of 10 Children.
Why is this Martin connection relevant to the Wolff lineage?
We will soon see additional connections between the Wolff (Wolfe) family with Jonesville's alleged original namesakes, Obediah and Salethiel Martin (sons of James Martin and Elizabeth Crawford of Amherst Co., Va.), with their niece Sarah (Sally) Martin (daughter of James Martin Jr.), with the Martin family connection to Amherst, Virginia, and with the alleged illigitimate son of Thomas Jefferson, Claiborne Howard, who married Sally Martin.
Ahhhhhh ... what tangled webs we weave .......
Revolutionary War Service: In the Spring and Autumn of 1776, Lewis' commanding officers wrote that he had served as fifer three or four weeks in the Expedition against the Cherokee Indians. In September he was ordered back to Surry to join the Virginia troops and to nurse a sick family member.
In February 1778, Wolff volunteered again for duty in Salisbury, North Carolina to transport Tory and British prisoners from Salisbury prison to Martinsville in Guilford County, North Carolina. In 1780, Wolff served under Captain Joseph Phillips for three months, marching various routes through Surry & Wilkes, Burke & Lincoln [counties] in North Carolina, and then into South Carolina.
Wolff served at the Battle of King's Mountain, SC, under Cols Campbell, Cleveland, Shelby & Major J. Winston with Tennessee's OverMountain Men who defeated Fergerson's troops to turn the tide of America's fight for Independence.
Wolff's application for a pension was approved; he was granted a pension of $32.16 per annum. Wife Anna Maria was given a pension of $25.21 at his death on 8 Nov 1842. He was buried in the Lutheran Cemetery in Rural Hall, NC.
In an affidavit by Lewis Wolff on 29 Aug. 1840 in Stokes Co., NC, he stated that he had served a three-month tour of duty as a musician (fifer) in the same militia company under Capt. Henry Smith with Stokes' County's John Martin (who married Nancy Shipp).
John"Jack" Martin was born as the first child of Joseph and Ann Sandage Martin in 1756. The family was living in Louisa Co. Virginia. John settled first in Stokes Co. No. Carolina and played an important role in the Revolutionary War and in the settlement of the area.
In 1784 Martin married Nancy Shipp, daughter of Josiah Shipp (d. 1800 and Anna Cox 1724-1828). During the years 1798-1799 and again in 1811-1812 he served the County as a representative in the State General Assembly. For 30 years he also served as Magistrate of the Stokes County Court. Martin was a prominent farmer, owning nearly 8,000 acres of land, part of which was a grant from the English Crown. John and Nancy Shipp Martin had a family of 10 Children.
Why is this Martin connection relevant to the Wolff lineage?
We will soon see additional connections between the Wolff (Wolfe) family with Jonesville's alleged original namesakes, Obediah and Salethiel Martin (sons of James Martin and Elizabeth Crawford of Amherst Co., Va.), with their niece Sarah (Sally) Martin (daughter of James Martin Jr.), with the Martin family connection to Amherst, Virginia, and with the alleged illigitimate son of Thomas Jefferson, Claiborne Howard, who married Sally Martin.
Ahhhhhh ... what tangled webs we weave .......
The Wolff lineage: Dietz and Krieger
August 27, 1769 - A German, Wilhelm Adam Wolff, and his family arrived
today. Some years ago they joined the little congregation at Manakosy, Maryland.
They are very poor but pleasant, friendly people. The parents have brought six
children with them. The eldest son is at work in Manakosy but will follow them.
September 2nd they moved to a couple of hundred acres of land between the
Leinbach farm and Bethania.SOURCE: Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, Volume I, p. 392
Wilhelm Adam Wolff, a caprenter from Germany and his wife Maria Elisabetha _______ (1725-1803), arrived in Pennsylvania on the Edinburgh in 1751 with an infant son. They settled initially in York Co. PA, but by 1759 they had moved to Monocacy, Maryland. In 1769 they moved to North Carolina, near the Moravian settement at Bethania. The oldest son, Friedrich Lorenz Wolff remained in Maryland after his parents and younger siblings moved to NC, but joined them in 1777.
They had eight children:
1. UNK2 WOLFF, b. Bef. 1751; d. c. 1751.
2. ii. FRIEDRICH LORENZ WOLFF, b. 07/05/1751; d. 03/31/1826.
3. iii. JOHANN ADAM WOLFF, b. Bet. 1752 - 1756.
4. iv. JOHANN LUDWIG WOLFF, b. 04/28/1757, York, PA; d. 11/08/1842.
5. ANNA ELISABETHA WOLFF, b. 06/07/1759, Monocacy, MD.
6. vi. JOHANN DANIEL WOLFF, b. 03/26/1761.
7. vii. ANNA CATHARINA WOLFF, b. 06/23/1763; d. 09/14/1805.
8. GOTTLIEB WOLFF, b. 05/09/1765, Monocacy, MD.
Wilhelm died 24 July 1773. His wife Maria Elisabetha died 11 Sept 1803. Both are buried in the Lutheran cemetery in Rural Hall, NC.
Their fourth child Johann Ludwig (Lewis) Wolff (1757 - 1842) married Anna Catherine Dietz, daughter of Jacob Dietz and Anna Mumbacher, in Bethania 21 May 1776.
Lewis Wolff would become an officer in the Revolutionary War.
Lewis Wolff and Catherine Diez would have two sons:
Daniel Wolff (1776-?)
Frederick Wolff (1779-?) m. Maria Krieger (1784-1867)
Lewis Wolff and Anna Maria Moser would have these children:
Christina Wolff (1783-?) m. Joseph Miller
William Adam Wolff (1792-1857) m. 1) Catherine Huffman (d. bef. 1845), 2) Tena or Christina, widow of John Cromer
Joseph Wolff m. Jane Huffman
Sarah Wolff (1793-1858) m. John Henry Spainhour (1790-1835)
Elizabeth Wolff m. William Craig
THE WACHOVIA SETTLEMENT in NORTH CAROLINA
In the fall of 1752, Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg and an accompanying party of five men traveled by from Bethlehem PA to the east coast of North Carolina and then inland to select and purchase a tract of nearly 100,000 acres from Lord Granville. The first settlers arrived in November, 1753, a group of eleven single men selected to provide the necessary skills for establishing a new community. Four others accompanied them on the journey but returned to Pennsylvania soon after. The tract was named Wachau or Wachovia, for the ancestral home of the Zinzendorf
family near the Wach River in Europe.
Additional settlers arrived beginning in 1754 and 1755, including the first women. The first community established was Bethabara, initially a stockaded fort protecting the neighboring farms. Never much more than a farming community in the early days, it is now within the city limits of Winston-Salem, on the northwest side of the city center. Researchers will find records for two different graveyards in Bethabara, the Moravian one and a second one, often called Dobbs Parish, which was used for "outsiders."
In 1759 the site was selected for a village, Bethania, about three miles northwest of Bethabara. The first houses were built in the summer of that
year, just before an epidemic of typhus broke out that killed ten of the settlers. Bethania had its own church, still an active congregation, and
graveyard or God's Acre, and supported the surrounding farms with basic goods and services.
Johann George Krieger was born in Lancaster Pensylvania and moved to Surry
County when he was about 7 years old. He was a volunteer in the Revolutionary
War in the company of Captain Joseph Phillips and Col. William Shepherd in Surry
County....
When eight years of age, Catharine and her parents moved from Pennsylvania to
Guilford County, North Carolina and some years later, they moved to Stokes
County, North Carolina, settling on Belew's Creek. She was working in the house
of Brother and Sister Michael Hauser, in Bethania when she met Brother Johann
George Kreeger.George Kreeger married Catharine Ludwig, June 10, 1783 .... They had eleven
children: Peter, Maria, Elizabeth, Jacob, Catharine, Philippina, Johann George,
Margaretha Eva, Gertraut, Beatus, and Susannah.
Their oldest daughter, Maria, married Fredrick Wolff, son of Johann Ludwig (Lewis) Wolff and Ana Catherine Deitz. (MARIA KRIEGER, b. 18 May 1784, Stokes Co., NC; d. 28 May 1867, Surry Co., NC; m. FREDERICK WOLFF, 16 Sep 1802, Surry Co, North Carolina; b. 29 Apr 1779, Surry Co., NC; d. Surry Co., NC.)
Maria and Fedrick Wolff had these children:
Ludwig Wolff (ca. 1807-?)
Anna Catharina Wolff (ca. 1809-?) m. Clement Norman
Mary Wolff m. William Wilmouth
Elizabeth Wolff (ca. 1816-?) m. Lewis Grigg
Lawrence Wolff (ca. 1820-ca. 1842)
Charity [Gertraud?] Wolff (ca. 1821-?) m. Jesse Mahaffey
Henry Nathan Wolff (1823-1897) m. Rachel Isaacs (1823-1904)
.... and so it continues .....
The Dietz line
Before arriving at the Moravian settlement in old Surry County, North Carolina, before marrying the first Wolff or any other early settlers, before relocating to the foothills of the Yadkin Valley and beyond -- our Dietz ancestors were already anticipating the long voyage across the Atlantic.
Political and economic conditions in Europe had changed; the Protestant Reformation had sent European society into turmoil.
Many came to America to increase the power and resources of the old European world. New monarchs had the resources to finance exploration, which gave way to a growing class of merchants eager to expand trade. These came for economic reasons, to procure the minerals and resources of the new world or, failing in that quest, to see what the new land had to offer.
Some came for political reasons, representing powerful European kings and queens who sought to expand their empires. Other early settlers were criminals sent over from prisons as their punishment. Others came as indentured servants.
Others came primarily for religious reasons, either to escape persecution and the religious upheaval at home or to convert Native Americans. For whatever reason -- they came to America.
It was circa 1540 when Jacob Dietz's great-grandfather Christian was born into a life of strife and persecution in Germany. His determination for freedom and a better life continued through at least three generations, through his son Rupel (1568) and his grandson Bartholomew (1582 -- married to Maria Dorthea Schmitt), to his great-great-grandson Johann Jacob Dietz (c. 1697) who departed Germany for America in 1741 with his wife and son.
Jacob Dietz's wife Letfroh ______ is said to have died enroute to America. Dietz subsequently settled in Pennsylvania where he raised a large family with multiple wives.
It was his son Johann Jacob Dietz Jr. (c.1722) who later departed Pennsylvania for the rich farmlands of the Yadkin Valley. Young Jacob settled in Wachovia with a succession of (at least) three wives, one of whom was Anna Katherina Mumbacher, the mother of Anna Catherine Dietz (1759 - 1 Dec 1779). Anna Catherine Dietz subsequently married Johann Ludwig Wolff (28 April 1759 - 8 Nov 1842) and lived out her life in the area that became Stokes County.
So is this fun to learn about or what?
Christian Dietz is a link to my family's past, our pedigree -- i.e., our ancestors, the "line" of people from whom my family has descended.
And there is more .... much more to share ....
Political and economic conditions in Europe had changed; the Protestant Reformation had sent European society into turmoil.
Many came to America to increase the power and resources of the old European world. New monarchs had the resources to finance exploration, which gave way to a growing class of merchants eager to expand trade. These came for economic reasons, to procure the minerals and resources of the new world or, failing in that quest, to see what the new land had to offer.
Some came for political reasons, representing powerful European kings and queens who sought to expand their empires. Other early settlers were criminals sent over from prisons as their punishment. Others came as indentured servants.
Others came primarily for religious reasons, either to escape persecution and the religious upheaval at home or to convert Native Americans. For whatever reason -- they came to America.
It was circa 1540 when Jacob Dietz's great-grandfather Christian was born into a life of strife and persecution in Germany. His determination for freedom and a better life continued through at least three generations, through his son Rupel (1568) and his grandson Bartholomew (1582 -- married to Maria Dorthea Schmitt), to his great-great-grandson Johann Jacob Dietz (c. 1697) who departed Germany for America in 1741 with his wife and son.
Jacob Dietz's wife Letfroh ______ is said to have died enroute to America. Dietz subsequently settled in Pennsylvania where he raised a large family with multiple wives.
It was his son Johann Jacob Dietz Jr. (c.1722) who later departed Pennsylvania for the rich farmlands of the Yadkin Valley. Young Jacob settled in Wachovia with a succession of (at least) three wives, one of whom was Anna Katherina Mumbacher, the mother of Anna Catherine Dietz (1759 - 1 Dec 1779). Anna Catherine Dietz subsequently married Johann Ludwig Wolff (28 April 1759 - 8 Nov 1842) and lived out her life in the area that became Stokes County.
So is this fun to learn about or what?
Christian Dietz is a link to my family's past, our pedigree -- i.e., our ancestors, the "line" of people from whom my family has descended.
And there is more .... much more to share ....
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
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