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Willie and Anna Hippel

William “Willie” Wesemann, the eldest, married Anna E. Hippel in 1898. Anna was born in Philadelphia on 6 March 1873, the daughter of Heinrich Samuel Hippel (1841 to 1913) and Carolina Reichert (1849 to 1905). Her brother John H. Hippel (about 1878 to 9 December 1940), a postal supervisor, and her sister Eulalia D. Noon (13 February 1875 to 12 March 1932), the wife of James W. Noon, were probably her full siblings, since their death certificates name the same parents. Her mother died at 1826 East Cumberland Street on 13 May 1905 and was buried at North Cedar Hill Cemetery on 16 May; she had been born in the United States to German-born parents. The Catharine Reichert living with the Hippels in 1880 was probably her mother.

Willie spent his working life as a watchman, thirty years of it, at a hosiery mill, an auto agency and a saw works. In 1912 the family lived at 5814 Dittman Street, and Willie was a watchman then too. In 1930 he was 62 and a watchman for a construction company, and Annie was 57; their son William, 18, a knitter in a hosiery mill, was still at home. Willie’s application for Social Security names his father as George Wesemann. He died at 5814 Dittman Street on 15 January 1940, his parents entered as George Wesemann and “Frederica Bowers,” and he was buried at Ardsley, Montgomery County, on 18 January. Anna died on 12 April 1955 at her son William F.’s house, 4535 Bleigh Street, and was buried at Hillside Cemetery on 15 April. Hillside lies at Ardsley, so they probably rest in the same cemetery; Anna’s burial is also given as Abington Township.

Willie and Anna had two sons. Each son’s birth register names Willie as his father, and censuses, draft cards and Social Security records carry the family forward, so the line from Willie to his grandsons is almost certain.

ChildBirthDeathMarried
Elwood George8 January 1902, Philadelphiapossibly 1971Sarah Perry
William Frederick3 March 1912, Philadelphia4 July 1997, Volusia County, FloridaStefanna Guzejko

Elwood George (not his cousin Ellwood George, who died as a child in 1915) worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1930, aged 28, he headed his own household with his wife, Sarah, 26, born in Northern Ireland, and their son, three. Sarah was probably born on 21 April 1903 in Ireland, the daughter of Samuel Perry Sr. (1878 to 1946) and Sarah Scott (1880 to 1956). In 1940 Elwood was living in his widowed mother’s household with his brother William, doing office work for the railroad, with four years of college behind him. When he registered for the draft on 16 February 1942 he named his mother, Anna, as the person who would always know his address. In April 1950 the census entered him as separated, a head clerk in the railroad industry lodging in David Pyffer’s household. Five months later, though, his son’s marriage application gave both parents as living at the son’s own address, 863 E. Cornwall Street. When Elwood died is not known. A grave of an Elwood G. Weisemann who died in 1971, at North Cedar Hill Cemetery in Frankford, the Hippel family’s cemetery, possibly is his; it gives no birth date and no family. Sarah died on 26 July 1986. Her death notice calls her “wife of the late Elwood G. Wesemann, mother of Elwood W. Wesemann; sister of William Perry,” survived by two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her funeral was at the Koller Funeral Home on Ridge Avenue, and she was buried at Westminster Cemetery, probably in lot Barmouth A 159, grave 2, at Bala Cynwyd.

Their son, Elwood William “Woody” Wesemann, was born in Philadelphia on 15 August 1926 and registered for the draft on his eighteenth birthday. He entered the Army on 14 December 1944, served overseas from 4 June 1945 into 1946, and served again from 28 September to 20 November 1946. On 30 September 1950 he married Kathryn L. Buster, the daughter of John Buster and Mary Gabriel, at Philadelphia. Kathryn was born on 18 June 1923 and was living at 517 Gorgas Lane. She probably died on 10 July 1986, and she lies at Westminster Cemetery in lot Barmouth A 23, beside Woody at A 24; her mother, Mary A. Gabriel Brecht, had probably remarried. Woody was probably the Elwood Wesemann of Lawnton Street in the city directories of the 1990s, with a Kathryn at the same address. He died on 20 November 1998.

Willie’s younger son, William Frederick, registered for the draft on 16 October 1940, also naming his mother. He served in the Army from 17 August 1943 to 5 March 1946, overseas from 23 January to 3 August 1944, and afterward lived at 4535 Bleigh Avenue. By 1950 he was married to Stefanna, born about 1920 in New Jersey, and they had two sons, one born about 1947, and Wayne. His mother, Anna, then 76, lived with them. Wayne Elwood Wesemann was born in Philadelphia on 28 June 1949 and died in June 1987. William Frederick died on 4 July 1997 in Volusia County, Florida.

References

  • FamilySearch. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Marriage Indexes, 1885-1951,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZWV5-W7MM, entry for Anna E M Hippel and Wesemann, 1898.
  • FamilySearch public tree profiles, William “Willie” Wesemann (person ID GMMF-KDJ) and Anna E. Hippel (person ID MTY6-HJT).
  • Ancestry.com. “Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1972”: Anna M. Fechter (certificate 056664-62, 1962), John H. Hippel (file 106719, 1940) and Eulalia D. Noon (file 21677, 1932). Read on the images.
  • FamilySearch. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” Carolina Hipple, 13 May 1905 (JD5Q-2PX; image 351 of 534), read on the image; with the “Find a Grave Index” (Caroline Reichert Hippel, 1849–1905, North Cedar Hill), the 1880 and 1900 census indexes, and “Pennsylvania, County Marriages” (index).
  • Ancestry.com. “Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1972”: [name withheld] (file 2213, 1940), Anna E. Wesemann (file 37191, 1955), Emma Brosius (file 120765, 1925), Sophia B. Starkweather (file 067523-63, 1963) and Mary M. Wesemann (certificate 011261-68, 1968). Read on the images.
  • Ancestry.com. “Pennsylvania, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1906-1917”: George Foster Wesemann (191298), Ellwood George Wesemann (131050) and Wm Fred Wesemann (48034); and “Pennsylvania, U.S., World War II Veteran Compensation Application Files,” William F. Wesemann and Elwood [name withheld], 1950. Read on the images.
  • FamilySearch. “United States, Census, 1930,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH4Q-2Q8, entry for [name withheld] and Annie Wesemann, Philadelphia, with son William, 18.
  • Census record, [name withheld] household, Philadelphia, 1930, family archive transcript Read the record
  • FamilySearch. “United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K9L-J7XG, entry for William Frederick Wesemann, application May 1938, naming parents George Wesemann and Frederica Bauer.
  • FamilySearch. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, City Births, 1860-1915,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VBT5-38F, entry for Ellwood G. Weiseman and William Weiseman, 8 Jan. 1902.
  • FamilySearch. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, City Births, 1860-1915,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPHP-RM9N, entry for William Frederick Weseman and William Weseman, 3 Mar. 1912, mother Anna (Hippel) Weseman.
  • FamilySearch Family Tree, a second, unmerged profile pair for William “Willie” Wesemann and Anna E. Hippel, built from the same census and vital-record indexes, recording the sons Elwood George and William Fred and the 1898 marriage. Person IDs not recorded.
  • FamilySearch. “Find a Grave Index,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DMPV-DL3Z, Elwood G. Weisemann, died 1971; and Find a Grave memorial 214757731, North Cedar Hill Cemetery, Frankford, Philadelphia. Contributor memorial, no family links.
  • FamilySearch. “Pennsylvania, World War II Draft Registration Cards,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2SJ-5R8S, William Fredrick Wesemann, born 3 Mar. 1912, registered 16 Oct. 1940; “United States, Census, 1950,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XB1-2T7P, William and Stefanna Wesemann with sons William and Wayne and mother Ana, Philadelphia; “United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K9F-ZK67, Wayne Elwood Wesemann, born 28 June 1949, died June 1987, parents William F. Wesemann and Stefanna Guzejko; and “Florida, Death Index, 1877-1998,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VVN4-TYB, William F. Wesemann, died 4 July 1997, Volusia County.
  • Newspaper death notice, Sarah (Perry) Wesemann, 26 July 1986, with the memorial card of Mary M. Wesemann (1968), family archive scan.
  • Find A Grave memorials 158119072 (Sarah Perry Wesemann) and 158171580 (Kathryn L. Buster Wesemann), and the memorial of Elwood William “Woody” Wesemann (number not recorded), Westminster Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, Pa., findagrave.com. Contributor memorials; no stone photograph read.
  • FamilySearch. “Pennsylvania, World War II Draft Registration Cards,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2SJ-55YB, Elwood George Wesemann, born 10 Jan. 1902, registered 16 Feb. 1942; “United States, Census, 1940,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ4M-YYH, household of Anna E. Wesemann with sons Elwood and William, Philadelphia; and “United States, Census, 1950,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XB2-ZBYF, Elwood Wesemann, Philadelphia.
  • Census record, Elwood S. Wesemann household, Philadelphia, 1940, family archive transcript Read the record
  • Census record, Elwood Wesemann in the David Pyffer household, Philadelphia, 1950, family archive transcript Read the record
  • Marriage license application, Elwood W. Wesemann and Kathryn L. Buster, Philadelphia, 1950, family archive transcript Read the record
  • FamilySearch. “Pennsylvania, World War II Draft Registration Cards,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2SJ-5RST, Elwood [name withheld], born 15 Aug. 1926, father Elwood George Wesemann; “United States, World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8TF-6XM, enlisted 14 Dec. 1944, Philadelphia; “United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K95-CCHN, Elwood W. Wesemann, died 20 Nov. 1998, parents Elwood G. Wesemann and Sarah Perry; and “Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1775-1991,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q28G-Y6L3, Elwood W. Wesemann and Kathryn L. Buster, 30 Sept. 1950, Philadelphia.
  • Residence database, Wesemann surname reference (Three Centuries of Wesemanns), family archive scan.