Wild, Wild West

A Mystery Identified

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a record for a Henry C. Holzgrafen who fought from 1863-1866 during the civil war in Company C of the 1st Cavalry California Volunteer Regiment. Immediately I thought this must be my third great-grandfather's brother, Henry Holzgrafe, who immigrated to the United States in 1845 and settled in Evansville, Indiana. Many questions arose from this hypothesis including, what was he doing enlisting in a California regiment when he had land and a family in Indiana? Does this period of enlistment even coincide with his timeline? Is there any other more suitable candidate who this veteran may be?

After doing a lot more research and going back and forth in who I believed he was, I finally determined that this individual is unique from the Holzgrafe family. Thus far he does not fit in the family tree and may be related to other Holzgraefe families of Northern Germany (there were at least four).

The spelling of his surname, Holzgrafen, is distinct from any other group which came out of Schweicheln to the United States. Yet having an "n" at the end of the name was not abnormal in the older German records. Sometimes surnames in the region would have the final "n" and others would omit it. I understand it as being much like the pluralizing "s" in English. For instance we have two surnames Wood and Woods. They may have originated from the same family, but after being separated for some time, the spellings diverged. So, Henry could still be related.

Cowboys and Indians

Col. Kit Carson in leading his men in the First Battle of Adobe Walls

He was born around 1833 in Germany and probably came to the states before 1849. He probably was a 49'er who ended up enlisting in the military in San Francisco, CA in 1863. He and the California Column traveled thousands of miles on horseback and ended up being led by Colonel Christopher (Kit) Carson through the First Battle of Adobe Walls on November 25, 1864 in which Henry Holzgrafen was listed as having been wounded. The battle took place in the panhandle of Texas along the Canadian River where Kit Carson and his men attacked a Comanche Indian settlement and was eventually forced to retreat when several Comanche and Kiowa settlements banded together and drove out the white men.

Chef Holzgrafen

Blake Street looking towards 15th street, Denver, CO 1866

In 1866, after finishing out his service with the California Volunteer Cavalry in New Mexico, Henry ended up in Denver, CO as proprietor and cook of Billy's Restaurant on 15th Street between Larimer and Lawrence. Denver was just a brand new western town at the time. In January 1867, Henry left his bills unpaid and joined the 7th US Cavalry Regiment at Fort Lyon, CO. Henry's position in the Regiment was cook, though it was not one he had for long. After seeing the terrible conditions of the food and supplies and the way in which Colonel George A. Custer treated his men, Henry and 80+ other men all deserted one night in April 1867 before Custer eventually led his men into the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Miner Holzgrafen

Deadwood, SD 1870's

Henry made his escape and ended up in a small silver mining town called Montezuma, CO. He was listed in the 1870 Census as a cook. A newspaper article about the silver mining town mentions a Holzgrafen, H.C. and Company which made a large fortune from the mines. It must not have worked out, however, because in 1880 Henry can be found as a cook again in the mining town of Deadwood, Dakota Territory (South Dakota).

Finally, Henry appeared in the special census of 1890 for veterans. He was correctly identified in a tiny community called Elliston near Deer Lodge, Montana. No further information has been discovered yet about this man. I would love to find out specifically where he came from and if he fits into the family tree. It would be pretty neat to be related to a real Cowboy and man of the Wild, Wild West!

Cause of Death

Something that has struck me as very interesting for some time now is the timing of the deaths of brothers Ernst (1764-1805) and Otto (1760-1803) Holzgraefe of Schweicheln. In writing a history of the family, I have been looking at the contemporary history of Europe as well. Just after the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte rose swiftly to power becoming First Consul in the new French government before becoming an Emperor. The Napoleonic wars began in 1803 and ran until Napoleon's ultimate defeat in 1815. Much of the wars were played out on battle fields in the Holy Roman Empire (modern Germany) between the French and the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians. My theory was that Ernst and Otto may have been killed as a result of these wars! In 1807 after the deaths of Ernst and Otto, the French client state of the Kingdom of Westphalia was organized which was the precursor to the modern German state of Nordrheine-Westphalia. It was ruled by none other than Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte. Schweicheln was located within this territory which lead me to believe that Napoleon's forces suppressed this area which may have resulted in the death of the Holzgraefe brothers!

So, I decided to find out for sure. Some time ago I was asking for help translating a German record up in Salt Lake City's Family History Library. The consultants there are very good at what they do. It takes them seconds to read what it would have taken me hours to decipher. One consultant recommended a website for help in translating causes of death:

http://antiquusmorbus.com/german/german?.htm

The "?" should be replaced by the first letter of the cause of death (I haven't gotten "y" to work yet). So, I looked up the death records which have been posted on Ancestry.com to see if they might reveal how these brothers died. I found a column on the record which didn't seem to list a place, date, or name so I assumed that this might be the cause of death. After a few minutes of searching using this website as a tool I found it! Ernst had died at the age of 41 of Brustkrankheit and Otto at the age of 43 of Brustfieber! Brustkrankheit, which literally means "Breast Disease", probably meant Tuberculosis and Brustfieber (Breast Fever) probably meant Pneumonia.

So, here I am thinking of all these amazingly historically associated causes of death that would really connect my ancestors to the big picture when in reality...they died of simple preventable diseases by today's terms. It turns out, there probably was no such struggle at all in this area of Germany during the Napoleonic wars. Most of the battles took place in Southern Germany, Austria, and Prussia. The actual battle which resulted in the Treaties of Tilst (ceding much of Prussia's territory to France as French client states including Westphalia) actually occurred over 1,000 Km from Schweicheln in today's Kaliningrad, Russia!

Prussia in 1807 (orange) and its territories lost at Tilsit (other colours).

I am currently taking an Immunology class as well as a Virology class at BYU and learning about these diseases makes me glad to be alive in the 21st century! Ernst's son, Albert (1796-abt. 1845), moved from Schweicheln to a town called Haddenhausen in a different parish, so I do not as of yet have his death information. Albert's son, Friedrich (1828-1867), died at the age of 39 of Diphtheria, a perfectly preventable disease by today's standards. The Diphtheria vaccine was invented in the 1890's just a few decades after his death. Friedrich's son, Henry Louis (1859-1929), lived to the age of 70 and died of "Chronic Nephritis and Myocarditis" (a heart attack) as it states on his death record in Oregon. Henry Louis' son, Wesley (1889-1973) lived to the age of 84 and died in California of "Rheumatic Heart Disease, Atrial Stenosis, and Congestive Heart Failure". Wesley's son, Perry (1921-1994) - my grandfather lived to the age of 72 and died of "Coronary Artery Disease and Miocaridial Infarction" (a heart attack).

So, it seems that I have a genetic predisposition to heart attack, but I should be fine until about 70 or 80. I'm so grateful to be living in this day and age when medical advances can prolong lives up to twice as long! Had Friedrich lived in today's world, he may have been able to live his life two times over! Also, please vaccinate your children!!! Many of the diseases which were lethal at such a young age back in the day are now nearly extinct or easily preventable. Next time you get a runny nose and a fever, count your many blessings! AND GET VACCINATED!!!! :)

Fegel Facts

Well, I'm back from my vacation to Brazil and I'm catching up in all my classes of my last semester here at BYU and I still find time to do some research on the side. I wasn't expecting to find anything, but I was fortunate enough to stumble upon something quite substantial for the Fegel branch of the family.

As a review, Christian Friedrich Fegel (1822-1865) was born in Hille very close to Haddenhausen where Albert (1796-1846), son of Ernst Holzgraefe (1764-1805), had moved to begin his family. Christian married Albert's oldest daughter, Anne Catharine Margrethe Ilsabein (1819-1847) and together they had a daughter named Emilie Ottilie Fegel. His wife died in 1847 and so he remarried to her younger sister, Justine Wilhelmine Caroline (1821-...spoiler alert! 1856). The two of them made their way to Evansville, but Emilie died at sea. They lived near my third great-grandfather there in Evansville and had many children...or so I thought...

I had previously believed that together Wilhelmine and Christian had seven children. Today, as I was randomly searching the internet for more information about the Fegel family, I stumbled upon this website which suggested something entirely different. This shows the marriage dates for three Fegels and their wives. A father, son and grandson. The last two coincided with what I had, but the first, was very different. The record was for the marriage of Christian Fegel to W. Ellermeyer on 6 March 1856. This didn't make sense initially. Christian would have been married to Wilhelmine Holzgraefe still. The more I looked at it, the more it didn't make sense.

Then I stepped back and looked at all the census records over the years which had Wilhelmine in them. I found that in 1850 she was 30, in 1860 she was 30 and in 1880 she was 53 (still haven't found the family in 1870). Now, census records are by no means a primary source and can be very inaccurate, but 10 years? That throws up a red flag. How can she be 30 years old in 1850 and 1860? Now that I was looking at it again, I remembered how weird that was when I first linked these records to her...then it all made sense.

Christian and Wilhelmine Holzgraefe were married in Germany, came to Evansville where they had two children after which Wilhelmeine died around 1856 (no proof of that yet). Then Christian married a third time to a Wilhelmine Ellermeyer in 1856 and they had five more children thus continuing the Fegel line, but not the Holzgraefe line.

So, what does this mean? It means that there are no living Holzgraefe descendants from the Fegel branch of the family as the one son of Christian who married and had children was the son of Wilhelmine Ellermeyer, not Wilhelmine Holzgraefe. This also leaves a few more questions to answer like, who is Wilhelmine Ellermeyer? and how/when did Wilhelmine Holzgraefe die? and where is she buried?