This file part of www.sainthenryparish.org website
Wolfram Timeline
WOLFRAM FAMILY of
Dodge/Jefferson County, Wisconsin
In 1835 Michigan
Territory was in the midst of petitioning Congress to become a state. One of the requirements was for Michigan to
assist Wisconsin in becoming a separate territory. The US Government moved the process along in
1835 by advertising land for public sale in Wisconsin, prompting thousands of
New Englanders to come to Wisconsin to purchase the cheap land at $1.25 per
acre. They traveled by way of the Erie
Canal to Buffalo, New York and then by way of the Great Lakes (Lake Ontario to
Lake Huron to Lake Michigan for $6 per person; Lake Huron and Lake Michigan
have the same elevation; Lake Superior was “landlocked” until a canal was built
in 1855) on ships to Wisconsin where they found bountiful land and new business
opportunities.
Almost all of the desirable land in Milwaukee had
been sold by the time of the second public land sale in March of 1839. The population had grown to nearly 5000
people in the four years since the 1835 sale.
The 1839 sale opened up the rest of Southeastern Wisconsin including Ozaukee County for settlement, particularly to thousands of
immigrants who bought land amongst the Yankees who preceded them.
1845 --
1846 --
Buying land 1846 in the Watertown area.
According to family
oral history, Carl had met Elizabeth Shiels on the
journey by ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean and had convinced her to marry
him. His older brother Joseph A. Wolfram
did not marry until 1853 when he takes Anna Raismaier
as his bride at St. Henry’s Catholic Church in Watertown.
Our WOLFRAM ancestors first appear in recorded census taken
1850.
1850 Census taken 15 August has Joseph Wolfram, farmer age
30 yr old in Jefferson County-Town of Watertown as Head of Household.
Living in same household is 66 yr. old male (Gregory?) and
71 yr. old female named Barbary.
This information is from Jefferson County- Wisconsin - Town
of Watertown, US Census.
However, across the border line in Ixonia
Township -- From the Town of Ixonia census, dated a
month later, we find Charles (English for Karl) Wolfram age 28 yr. old living with 28 yr. old
Elizabeth and two small children, age 2 and 1 yr. old.
Karl’s family would
be living on the property owned by Christoph Wolfram, Sr
-- and their children are named Christoph, Jr, and Barbara after the elderly
Wolframs who are residing nearby. The
properties may have been next door to each other as the land was on a dividing
line for the Townships of Watertown and Ixonia.
Joseph was residing
with two elderly adults and the census taker recorded “Barbary”, 71 yr. old
female and “Grea” as 66 yr. old male farmer living with Joseph. Was “Grea” a
different WOLFRAM (perhaps Gregory) ---
or --
Was “Grea” actually Christoff G.
Wolfram, married to Barbara??????
The Parish Records
of St. Henry's Catholic Church, Watertown, start with marriage registration of
Joseph WOLFRAM.
Page 1, dated 1853
has a handwritten entry of the marriage of Joseph Wolfram to Anna Raismaier on June 27.
The parents listed
for the bride were Anna (maiden name WARM )and George RAISMAIER
of "Town 7" and the parents listed for the groom were Barbara (maiden name WILD ) and Christoph
WOLFRAM, living in "Town 8".
The sons of Christoff, both Joseph A. Wolfram and Karl (Carl - or
Charles), were considered founding fathers of St. Henry's Parish in
Watertown. Their names are mentioned in
a book written in 2003 by Kenneth Riedl for the 150th Anniversary of the Church
in Watertown.
These young Wolfram
brothers, as they entered their early 30s, started raising families that would
continue to live in the Watertown area for the next 150 years.
Our present Wolfram
family – Charles Wolfram of
The
story so far -------
Karl or Charles
WOLFRAM was a weaver of cloth, belonging to a German Guild in Bavaria. Copy of his traveling "passport"
that allowed him to move between cities in Germany give us clues to his
identity. He was well educated and may
have been involved in the politics of the time since his German "Wanderbuch" shows he moved between several cities from
1841 to 1843 at
a time when it was usual to train in just one area. His Wanderbuch
showed he had permission to travel as a journeyman from 1841 to 1843. He was still in Germany
A copy of this Wanderbuch was provided by a great-granddaughter, Florence
Donahue nee Lutovsky and there are hand written
notations of monies owed to Carl that he recorded in this booklet.
The German Karl
Wolfram had lived in Tirschenreuth where he was a weaver
of cloth. He would have belonged to a
Guild but the industrial revolution had made the “home cottage” industries
unprofitable. His journeyman’s passport
describes him as 5 ft. 10 in. with grey eyes, blond
hair and “stumpf” nose. Family oral history recalls Karl as wearing
high leather boots and a tailcoat as he carried children “piggy-back” over
creek water to the rural school where he was the school master. He had been well educated and owned many
school books which were passed on to his son, Anton after Karl died.
His daughter Anna Neis would say that she recalled seeing her Mother giving
birth in the farmhouse and then having to get up to clean up after herself by
washing her own bedsheets and hanging them on a line
outdoors to dry. She proceeded to give
birth about every 2 years as there were ten children born in twenty years.
A newspaper
advertisement printed
Karl’s older
children marry. Barbara marries Joseph BAUMGARDNER, Christoph marries Anna RIEDL, and Anton
marries Mary ENGELHART a few months before his sister
Clara marries Gregory ENGELHART.
Karl’s
son, Anton, moves in with his father on
Karl was known to teach children at a rural
schoolhouse. He had been well educated
in Bavaria and could probably speak Latin as well as German and English. Family oral history tells of him wearing
large black leather boots and walking over the countryside, carrying children
“piggy-back” to his school house. He
left many dozens of books with son Anton.
Karl would live to be 80 yr. old, dying in 1902 at
It is a house close to the Rock River where Anton’s wife,
Mary, can fish for carp, which she then pickles as is the Bohemian custom. Her granddaughter, Florence recalled seeing
her Grandmother fishing for carp by taking a washtub and hay rake to the river.
There she would easily pull the fish into the tub because the fish were so
plentiful in the springtime. Mary then
pickled the carp, which was considered a delicacy. There were also plenty of strawberries from
the garden. Florence remembered chickens
in the yard as well as a few cows and a horse.
The time spent on
After Anton and Mary’s son, Edward, also dies
at this residence, May, 1903, the family talks of moving further out in
the countryside. Looking back at the east side of town where their farm had
been, they move to
After youngest son. Ben, married in 1916, they moved back to town residing
Joe Wolfram born on Wolfram homestead
Joe had
been born 1881 on his grandfather's farm that sat on the dividing line of Ixonia and Watertown townships. The house he was born into had been built in
the German tradition with white stucco plaster finish on the sides with exposed
oak timbers that crossed in the Old World Bavarian style. It had a fieldstone
foundation that could have served as storage cellar as well as housing animals.
The front of the house faced south looking toward
Joe's
grandfather had bought farm land that was heavily wooded with a hilltop
providing protection from easterly winds and lower wetlands to the west. His grandfather had settled there in
September of 1864 after emigrating from Germany and marrying a girl he had met
on the journey over the Atlantic Ocean.
His grandfather was a widower with children in June of 1875 when Joe's
parents married and moved into the farmhouse they were to share with Karl and
his other five children still living at home.
1875 - 1897
The
Wolfram family lived on Gopher Hill Farm until Joe was 16 yr. old. Grandfather Karl had sold the farm to his
son, Anton, signing it over to him on
In 1897 grandfather Karl moved with
son Anton and his family into the city of Watertown to a small house at
1902-03
1904
St
Henry's Marriage Record Book - Pg 5 -
Joe was
known for his ability to handle horses.
1905 – 1935
By
1905, Joe was farming again with his new bride in Dodge County at the Flor farm. His
parents had moved to
Joe and
Augusta farmed and raised nine children during the next thirty years. Their last son, Francis, was born 1921.
Their
eldest daughter became pregnant and a son was born to Clara Wolfram circa
1924. This child, George, was raised by
Joe and Augusta as their own although he was in fact their grandson.
Family
oral history: According to her
daughter-in-law, Elizabeth EGYHAZI Wolfram, Augusta
was a tidy housekeeper. She "always
had the table set ready for guests. She
always had a tablecloth and crackers on the table. She would babysit
her grandson, Charles, and would sit rocking him in her chair. She often sat in rocking chair in a corner of
the living room. She washed her clothes by hand and did her own housework and
cooking. She was soft spoken and Liz recalls her often saying "Now you
mustn't quarrel. The Lord doesn't want
you to do that." She had suffered
the death of one child who died 8 days after birth in 1916 when she was 32 yr.
old. However, three more children were born, making a total of eight births.
The
elderly Joe and Augusta retire in old age to the city of Watertown, living out
their last years on
Augusta
died of congestive heart failure on
Son,
Raymond, had been born 1920 ----
Born in a farm
house in Dodge County, near Lowell, Wisconsin in the Township of Shields, Ray
was raised on this farm. He attended the nearby St. John's Catholic Church
where he served as an alter boy and received First Communion on
Ray had 6 siblings,
3 brothers and 6 sisters, and also a nephew who was raised as a sibling.
At 16 yr. of age,
Ray left home to work and lived on the August Kopfer,
Sr. farm near Lebanon, Wisconsin. He did
chores for the senior Kopfer, farming 90 acres, and
he helped Aug. Kopfer Jr. farm his 80 acres of
land. The Kopfer
family treated Ray well paying $25 per month plus room and board. For an increase of $1 per day, Ray moved on
to the Koser farm of Richwood, Wisconsin. However, he had to sleep in an unheated
upstairs room with only oatmeal for breakfast every day. Each day began with chores at
Mr. Koser had a habit of driving into town afternoons to
socialize at a local pub. He had a well
trained horse that could deliver him safely home at a late hour. However, Ray would have to get out of bed to
unhitch the buggy and bed down the horse because of a drunken master. After 2 months of this work, Ray decided to
leave his employment. To avoid a
confrontation, he did this by carefully packing his belongings and hid them in
his closet in the early morning. That
afternoon, he had hitched up Mr. Koser's fine horse
and buggy and helped Mr. Koser prepare for the trip
into town by tucking warm blankets around him to protect against the cold
weather. He saw Mr. Koser off as he usually did, but
then returned to the farmhouse where Mrs. Koser was
taking her afternoon nap. He was then
able to slip upstairs to get his belongings and leave the farm unnoticed. He walked all the way home.
Ray then worked for
Louis Zimmerman of Juneau for about 2 years.
He roomed there and Louis' adopted daughter cooked meals for them.
Ray's first
employment with a company in the city of Watertown was with the Otto Biefeld Co. where he earned $22 per week. In May, 1941, he left that job to serve in
the U.S. Army in Bermuda during WWII.
He was paid $21 per month plus benefits!
Returning to
Watertown after the war, Ray was working at Hartig's
Brewery. A friend and co-worker, Mr.
"Stoney" Luther, introduced Ray to
Elizabeth Egyhazi.
Since Mrs. Luther had moved from South Bend, Indiana, her friend
Elizabeth had been traveling by train to visit her and spend weekends in
Watertown. After a few short months of
courtship, "Liz" and Ray were married in South Bend, Indiana on
The couple settled
in a rented house in Watertown. Soon after the marriage, Ray was laid off work
from Hartig's Brewery. Fortunately, he began employment with Brandt,
Inc. of Watertown and had a secure job there until retirement in early 1985.
1927, Mary Wolfram obit with
supplemental genealogy info
1953, Joseph Wolfram obit with
supplemental genealogy info
1966, Augusta Wolfram obit with
supplemental genealogy info