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.