Mary Hess (or Helwig) and George Willy

"Immigrants: we get the job done" -- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton

The Tabellarische Übersicht ber Auswanderungen nach überseeischen Ländern aus der Gemeinde Freinsheim (Tabular Summary of Emigration to Overseas Lands from the Freinsheim Community) includes records from 1853 to 1884. (Many, many thanks to Claire Gebben for making this document available.) According to this document, Jacob, Rosina and their youngest surviving son, three-year-old Roland, emigrated in 1854. By 1857 they were in England. Left behind in Freinsheim were Susanna, age 11, Georg, age 9, and Magdalena, age 6. Magdalena died three years later.

Georg Willy, the 16-year-old son of Jakob, is listed as emigrating in 1860/61. I was initially baffled by his destination until I came upon a headstone in Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It begins: "George Willy, born in Freinsheim Germany, June 2, 1845."

Jacob and Rosina's son may or not be the Georg Willy who arrived in NYC on 06 May 1861 aboard the SS Havre out of Le Havre. The latter Georg Willy is listed as being from Baden rather than Bavaria. However, the section of the manifest where he's listed includes passengers from both Baden and Bavaria. It's not impossible that a mistake was made. The passenger Georg Willy is listed as being a farmer by trade.

I know for sure that Jacob and Rosina's son had arrived in the States by 05 Sep 1861, because that's when George Willy enlisted in the Union Army as a private in Company A of the 54th New York Infantry. According to York County Pennsylvania Civil War researcher Dennis Brandt, this took place either in Hudson County, New Jersey, in New York City or in both. George's military record was somewhat chequered. His attitude towards authority was not what the Army might have wished. After being court-martialled twice, he was captured at the Battle of Gettyburg on 01 Jul 1863, incarcerated and eventually paroled and sent to Camp Parole in Annapolis, Maryland. (Soldiers released on parole gave their captors their word that they would not fight again. Thus, Camp Parole was basically a storage area for Union soldiers who had sworn not to fight Confederate troops.) Brandt notes that George was listed as "absent with leave to be mustered out" from Camp Parole from September 1864 through mid 1865 even though he discharged at the end of his term on 24 Oct 1864 at Governor's Island, New York.

I was interested by George's absence with leave in Maryland because according to their shared headstone, his wife Mary was born in Baltimore 13 Aug 1849. Some of her records agree that she was born in Maryland, while others claim she was born in Pennsylvania. According to two of her children's death records (George's and Christian's), her last name at birth was Hess. According to another child's death record (Elizabeth's), it was Helwig. The 1880 US Census records that her parents were born in Wurttemberg. Then again, the 1880 US Census also records that George was born in Wurttemberg.

I don't have a marriage record for George and Mary, but their oldest son was born 04 Jun 1868 in Egg Harbor, Atlantic County, New Jersey. Their second son was born there as well, but some time between October 1869 and June 1871, they moved to Pennsylvania.

I couldn't find any records for the family in the 1870 US Census. By 1880 they were (except for Christian) living in West Hempfield Township, 4.0 km NE of Columbia. George Sr was working as a stable boss. On 01 Aug 1882 he was mustered into the Grand Army of Republic, a fraternal organization for those who'd served in the Union forces in the Civil War. At that time he was said to be resident in Columbia and working as a labourer.

A surviving portion of the 1890 US Census, the "Special Schedule - Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc." lists George Willy as living in Chickies, Lancaster County. The settlement of Chickies no longer survives, although the name remains attached to Chickies Ridge and Chickies Rock. The settlement would have been near West Hempfield and Columbia.

In 1891 George and his family finally seem to have settled down in Columbia. On 03 Mar 1891, "George Willy of West Hempfield Township" purchased a lot with a two-storey brick house on the west side of South Eighth Street, between Locust Street and Ridge Avenue. This was later to become known as 34 South Eighth Street.

The history of this lot says a bit about changes in land use in Columbia Borough in the late 19th century. I was also impressed by the numbers of people who seemed involved in buying and selling lots of land pretty much in the same way that some people nowadays buy and sell shares in the stock market from self-directed brokerage accounts. I need to admit here that I had way too much fun tracking down deeds at the marvellous website maintained by the Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds.

In 1852 Elizabeth Ann Bethel Heise Mifflin accepted property in the borough of Columbia as part of the settlement of a legal kerfuffle between her brothers. After she died in 1855, her last will testament wound its way through probate court, eventually resulting in her husband John Houston Mifflin gaining ownership of the land in 1863. Over the next few decades, Mifflin sold off the land in pieces. In particular, on 10 April 1885 he sold John Hartman a chunk of land between Locust Street, South Eighth Street, Ridge Avenue and the alley running up between South Eighth Street and Bethel Street, parallel to them both. The price was $1,500. Hartman was a land trader rather than a land owner. Between May 1885 and March 1886 he sold pieces of land to four different buyers for a total of $2,320.

In particular, Hartman sold a piece in the centre of the chunk to a building contractor named Jacob Sneath, with 180 feet of frontage along South Eighth Street and a depth of 117' between South Eighth and the alley. The price was $920. Sneath divided this piece into ten lots, each with 18 feet of frontage, and built five pairs of two-storey brick houses on the lots. He built the houses well - they're still being lived in today, now identified as 24, 26, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 44 and 46.

There's something odd about the date of the deed between Hartman and Sneath, however. The deed is dated for 11 Dec 1885, but Sneath sold two of the lots (with houses) 23 Dec 1885, two more 29 Dec 1885 and four in January 1886. (The remaining two lots were sold in May and June 1886.) It doesn't seem likely either that two houses were completed in 12 days or that anyone was building brick houses in the Pennsylvania winter. I have to wonder if Sneath actually started building earlier in the summer, but the signing of the deed - and the payment of the $920 - were delayed until the houses were completed and Sneath had at least a couple of buyers lined up. It sounds as if it would have been a low-risk deal for Hartman. If Sneath defaulted before the deal was settled, Hartman would have still owned the land, which now would have had some partially-completed houses on it.

Most of the lots and houses sold for $1,040 each. There were three exceptions. The last two lots sold went for $1,050 each. And one lot, sold 11 Jan 1886, went for $1,150. I can't see anything about the deed to indicate why this house or lot might be special. The only noteworthy thing about it was that it was one of the two lots sold to women and the only lot sold to a single woman, described in the deed as a "maiden." I have my suspicions about the price and they are not pretty.

Of the ten lots, six were still owned by the original buyers in 1900. Two of those were occupied by their buyers, while the others were rented out. One lot had been resold in 1888. As of 1900 its new owners were renting it out.

This leaves the three lots purchased by John Swartz in January 1886, corresponding to house numbers 30, 34 and 42. John Swartz was, like John Hartman, a trader rather than an owner. He purchased #42 on 25 Jan 1886 for $1,040 but sold it two months later, on 29 Mar 1886, to John Wonder for $1,075. As of 1900, Wonder was renting the lot out. Swartz held on to #30 and #34 for more than three years but eventually sold them at a slight loss. He'd bought them 02 Jan 1886 for $2,080, but sold both lots on 30 May 1889 to Frank Shillott Jr for $2,050 ($1,025 per lot). Frank hung on to #30 and was renting it out as of 1900, but he sold #34 to George Willy on 03 Mar 1891 for $1,200.

The 1900 US Census found the Willys living at 34 South Eighth Street, in one of the three houses out of the ten built by Jacob Sneath that were occupied by their owners. Three of George and Mary's children had already married and established households of their own. Their oldest son, George, had married Anna H Greulich in or around 1894. Frederick married Ida Bell Lego in Hollidaysburg, Blair County, PA on 27 Feb 1894. Anna married John A Schafer in Columbia on 20 Oct 1896.

Nicholas, Elizabeth, Jacob and Christian were enumerated as still living with George and Mary as of 1900. However, there's some confusion about Nicholas and Jacob, as both had pursued military careers and both were also enumerated at military postings in the 1900 census. Nicholas enlisted in the Marines on 08 Oct 1891, then re-enlisted in 1896 and 1901. His parents described him as being enlisted in the US Navy in 1900, but he was actually stationed and enumerated aboard the USS Castine in Shanghai, China.

Jacob enlisted in the Army. He served in Company C in the 4th Pennsylvania Infantry in the Spanish-American War in 1898, being discharged on 16 Nov 1898. Military life evidently agreed with him, because he re-enlisted at Philadelphia on 20 Feb 1899 in Company D of the 7th Cavalry. He was enumerated in 1900 at the Columbia Barracks in Cuba. In between the corporals and privates are eight men listed by occupation rather than rank: two cooks, two trumpeters, a farrier, a blacksmith, a saddler and a wagoner. Jacob was the saddler. He was discharged at the Columbia Barracks on 19 Feb 1902 but re-enlisted five days later. He continued to re-enlist in 1905, 1908 and 1911.

Elizabeth and Christian actually were living with their parents. Elizabeth was working as a weaver in a silk mill. 16-year-old Christian is not listed as having an occupation - and neither is George, who was 55.

Elizabeth married William J Pfeffer in Columbia on 31 Oct 1905. Her father George died less than two years later, on 10 Jun 1907. Under the terms of George's will, #34 was not left to his wife Mary directly. Rather, she was given use of it for the rest of her life, including power to sell. If it still remained in George's estate at the time of her death, it was to go to their seven children. Thus the 1910 US Census describes Mary as "renting" the property rather than owning it. Her son Christian was still living with her at that point, working as a folder in a lace mill.

At this time, Anna Schafer Willy and her husband John were living in Bristol, Bucks County. It might have been through his older sister Anna that Christian met his wife, Mary A Brennan. They were married in Bristol 30 Oct 1912.

Mary Hess Willy died 25 days later, on 24 Nov 1912. She and George are buried together in the Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in Columbia.

After Mary's death, her oldest six children sold their interests in 34 South Eighth Street to the youngest, Christian, in return for $1,000. I found the deed particularly interesting because I hadn't been able to locate Jacob Willy in the 1910 US census and because the date of his marriage to Florence Hake is quite unclear. It turned out that at the time of the deed, "Jacob Willy single man" was "now stationed at Military Plaza 1 Manilla Philippine Islands." Because many of the parties lived outside Lancaster County, the deed was signed in stages:

Christian and Mary Brennan Willy remained at 34 South Eighth Street until Christian died on 25 Nov 1949. The property had been in the Willy family for 60 years when, on 06 Jul 1951, Mary sold it to Samuel J Maurer and his wife Catharine E Bittner Maurer for the token sum of $5.

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In memory of Janet A Werner, 1931-2015