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Page 4 of 63 min read

George Foster and the Feasterville Family

George Foster Wesemann was born on 5 November 1913, the fourth child, with all four living, and his father then a hatter of 37. He had polio as a child, and it took much of the use of his legs. One of his granddaughters remembered a man who worked around it. He built a device that let him drive, and other devices besides, and in leg braces he could stand and walk with his knees locked. She remembered the smell of his pipe, and that his lap was uncomfortable because of the steel. He told the grandchildren he had lost two fingers from picking his nose.

On 27 January 1935 George Foster married Ida Mae Lauterwasser, born in Philadelphia on 23 January 1917, the daughter of Frederick George Lauterwasser and Ida M. Robertson. In April 1950 they lived on Carter Road in Philadelphia with their son, George, thirteen. They later moved to California. George Foster died at Banning, Riverside County, on 31 March 2000, and was brought home to be buried at Forest Hills Cemetery, Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County. Ida Mae died at Banning on 14 January 2003. His sister Emma’s obituary of 2002 names him as “George Wesemann of Banning, Calif.”

Their son, George F. Wesemann, Jr., known as “Sonny,” was born on 18 September 1936. He played organ and piano for his church from a young age and played music for the Sunday Breakfast Association. He married Marianne Tilley, born on 15 May 1941, and for forty years they ran C & C Dairyland in Feasterville, Bucks County, together (thirty-nine, by his obituary). Marianne volunteered at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Cairn University, was active in the Christian Women’s Club, and loved painting, crafts and flower arranging. A directory of the 1990s lists George F. and M. Wesemann at Feasterville Trevose, and a George F. Wesemann at Albrightsville. Sonny died at Feasterville on 5 November 2017, aged 81, and was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery, Huntingdon Valley. Marianne died on 20 September 2018 at the Holy Redeemer Hospice in Meadowbrook.

Living family members are not shown.

Marianne was born a Tilley and was raised by her aunt and uncle, whom her obituary calls her parents, “the late Dorothy and Milton Pfoutz”. In April 1950 Marianne, eight, was living in Philadelphia with P. Milton Pfoutz, 43, an Internal Revenue employee, and his wife, Dorothy T. Pfoutz, 41, entered as their niece, with her two brothers, 12 and 9, entered as nephews. Dorothy was herself a Tilley: she married Percival Milton Pfoutz at Philadelphia on 9 November 1942 as Dorothy A. Tilley, the daughter of Arthur Tilley and Louise Magnier. At the application she lived at 4247 N. Franklin Street, and her father was a dyer at Langhorne. Percival Milton Pfoutz, Jr., born on 7 January 1907, was a manager, the son of the late Percival M. Pfoutz, Sr., born in Maryland, and Nellie Hughes. Milton Pfoutz was probably the man of that name buried in 1975 at Whiting, Ocean County, New Jersey, and Dorothy T. Pfoutz (2 August 1908 to 30 July 1999) probably died in Ocean County. That Marianne grew up in their care, as the 1950 census shows, is almost certain.

Marianne’s own parents were probably Edward Tilley and Margaret Whitehead. In 1940 Edward, 24, and Margaret, 20 or 21, were counted with three sons, aged 4, 2 and under a year, twice: once in the household of Stanley and Lillian Harding at Southampton Township, Bucks County, where Edward was the head’s brother-in-law, and once in Philadelphia with Margaret’s parents, Andrew and Mary Whitehead. Andrew Whitehead and his son Andrew, Jr., were gardeners. Stanley Harding was a self-employed plumber, Lillian did housework for a private family, and Edward Tilley was a weaver in a ribbon mill; the Whitehead household gives him instead as a knitter in a hosiery mill. Their son Stanley Andrew Tilley, born in Philadelphia on 14 April 1940, died on 15 September 1988. The two brothers with Marianne in 1950 match this family’s younger sons in name and age, and Edward was probably Dorothy Pfoutz’s brother. No record names Marianne’s own parents, so the link rests on her brothers and her aunt’s surname.

References

  • 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.
  • A family researcher, family memoir, family archive scan.
  • Find A Grave memorials for the Wesemann line, consulted 2026, Elizabeth Cosbey/Crosby Wesemann and George Willford Wesemann (Hillside Cemetery, Roslyn); George Foster Wesemann and Ida Mae Lauterwasser Wesemann; Naomi Carrie Wesemann May and Everett Paul May (Indiantown Gap National Cemetery); Clarence C. Metzger (Murray City Cemetery, Ky.).
  • FamilySearch. “United States, Census, 1910,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGWD-NL9, George W. Wesemann household, Philadelphia Ward 17; “Pennsylvania, Civil Marriages, 1677-1950,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29M-G94Y, George W. Wesemann and Mary M. Knoll, 10 Sept. 1907; “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, City Births, 1860-1915,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPHB-RJM3, Ruth Ester Wesemann, 17 Dec. 1908; “United States, Census, 1940,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQX7-9B8, George Weseman household, Philadelphia Ward 42; and “United States, Census, 1950,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6X13-JKMC (May M. Wesemann in the Nicholas Reitter household) and familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6X1M-WGF5 (George F., Ida May and George F., Jr., Wesemann), Philadelphia. The 1940 image (image 452 of 747) was viewed 24 Sept. 2026; see also “United States, Census, 1940,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQJP-LG1, Nicholas Reitter household, Philadelphia, including Ruth, 31, and familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ43-4YJ, George F. and Ida Mae Weseman household.
  • Census record, George F. Wesemann household, Philadelphia, 1950, family archive transcript
  • Find A Grave memorial 100060895, Emma Knoll Wesemann Metzger, carrying her Paducah Sun obituary text; also the Morning Call obituary, 2002.
  • “George F. Wesemann, Jr.” obituary, Lamb Funeral Home Inc., dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/huntingdon-valley-pa/george-wesemann-7628012, read in full 24 Sept. 2026; and FamilySearch, “Find a Grave Index,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGKM-3S3D, George F. Wesemann, Jr., born 18 Sept. 1936, died 5 Nov. 2017, Huntingdon Valley.
  • Obituaries of George F. Wesemann, Jr. (2017) and Marianne Tilley Wesemann (2018), Lamb Funeral Home Inc. / Dignity Memorial, dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/huntingdon-valley-pa/marianne-wesemann-7995892 (Marianne’s, read in full 24 Sept. 2026).
  • Residence database, Wesemann surname reference (Three Centuries of Wesemanns), family archive scan.
  • FamilySearch. “United States, Census, 1950,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XBG-KC7Y, household of P. Milton Pfoutz and Dorothy T. Pfoutz, Philadelphia, with nephews James P. and Andrew S. Tilley and niece Marianne Tilley; “Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1775-1991,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q28P-6BH2, Percival Milton Pfoutz and Dorothy A. Tilley, 9 Nov. 1942, Philadelphia, bride’s parents Arthur Tilley and Louise Magnier; “Find a Grave Index,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV2P-5CR6, Milton Pfoutz, 1907–1975, Whiting, N.J.; and “United States, Social Security Death Index,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VM53-GTR, Dorothy T. Pfoutz, 2 Aug. 1908 – 30 July 1999, Ocean County, N.J.
  • Marriage license application, Percival Milton Pfoutz Jr. and Dorothy A. Tilley, Philadelphia, 1942, family archive transcript Read the record
  • FamilySearch. “United States, Census, 1940,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQQV-YNN, household of Stanley Harding, Southampton Township, Bucks County, Pa., with Edward and Margaret Tilley and sons Edward, James and Andrew; familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQWT-23H, household of Andrew Whitehead, Philadelphia, with son-in-law [name withheld] and daughter Margaret Tilley; and “United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007,” familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K9G-ZJR5, Stanley Andrew Tilley, born 14 Apr. 1940, died 15 Sept. 1988, parents [name withheld] and Margret Whitehead.
  • Census record, Andrew Whitehead household, Philadelphia, 1940, family archive transcript
  • Census record, Stanley Harding household, Upper Southampton Township, 1940, family archive transcript