George Washington Wilhelm

George Washington Wilhelm

about 1900, about 50 years old 

George Washington Wilhelm was born May 15, 1853 near the Nolin furnace

(now underwater) in Edmonson County, Kentucky, son of Joh. Wilhelm

and Elizabeth Pistol. He had two brothers, John Wilhelm and

Jessie Burris Wilhelm and his brothers were born near the Mammoth cave.

Yes, THAT Mammoth Cave! Apparently in the 1840s and 1850s,

they had this ‘hospital’ meant for tuberculosis patients as an experiment

and in the brutal winter, families went to the cave to give birth

so they could be sure things would stay warm. There was a hotel inside

that cave and is likely where his brothers were born, nowhere near the

TB patients. Their home was plowed over to create Great Onyx Job Corps Center campus

(I don’t understand what it is, but it is inside the Mammoth Cave National Park).

One day I will travel to Mammoth Cave and see if they have photos in

their archives of homes before they dismantled/plowed them over. Maybe

George Wilhelm’s childhood home is among the pictures.

Nolin furnace is now a state park as well. The cool thing about that is that

means their birthplaces will still essentially look the same as at the time they

were born.  His family helped make munitions for the civil war at the Nolin Iron Furnace,

although on the census they are listed as farmers, specifically, sorghum farmers.

 

A close up of his birth record- this is how I know he was born where he was born. 

This is how things looked at the cave when he was born. 

Sorghum is a cane you boil down into syrup, like molasses. They sold their crops to the Songster family, which sold jugs of sorghum. I am on the hunt for a jug from this company so I can have a piece of family history. Pictured below.

In 1860, George’s parents moved the family to Millerstown, Grayson County, Kentucky. Maybe to be closer to the company they were selling their sorghum to. I don’t know, but that is my best guess. Also, in 1857, the Croghan family started buying up the surrounding land around the cave itself to start a touring service. They got a good deal and were able to harvest their crops before moving and starting a new crop in Millerstown. 

When George was a teenager, hordes of grasshoppers ruined all the crops around. So farming wasn’t something that looked sustainable to a teenagered George, so he apprenticed to learn how to make ties (the wooden planks that goes underneath railroad tracks) and went deep into the woods to cut down lumber to create the ties with. He learned from William Scott for at least 5 years, but more likely ten years, from 1865 to 1875. His parents still stuck with farming sorghum- that’s another story for their own entry. However, you can read more here. https://www.historynet.com/1874-the-year-of-the-locust.htm

An interesting tidbit… George heard all about the very first Kentucky Derby, maybe even attended it as he was in the area the very first time they ran the races. I wonder if he was interested in all that, hmm.

George married Albina Wilhelm on December 27, 1877 , daughter of

Francis M Wilhelm and Jane Sebastian. The confusing thing is Albina has a brother

named John too, the same age as George’s brother. In familysearch, people are mistakenly

merging John M., son of Joh. and Elizabeth Wilhelm and John W., son of Francis M and Jane

Sebastian as the same person. It’s a mess to untangle. I still need to trace both further back to

see if George and Albina are cousins or just 2 people with the same surname. Anyways, back to George.. 

George and Albina departed from Kentucky at this train depot. 

After he married Albina, they took the Paducah train from Leitchifield, KY to Paducah, KY.

From there, they took one of the Anchor Line steamboats up to Saint Louis, then up the

Missouri River to Hermann. This was a very dangerous trip. I found a link about it-

https://www.kcur.org/talk-show/2015-07-14/steamboat-travel-was-dirty-and-dangerous-especially-on-the-missouri-river 

From Hermann, Missouri to Loutre, Missouri, I don’t have information, but there were stagecoaches

and such. I assume that’s one way they got around. They settle down and have two daughters

that apparently don’t make it to adulthood as there aren’t any records of Baby Boy Wilhelm (actual name

of their daughter. Verified in Montogomery County church records. They named a daughter "baby boy")

and Minnie Wilhelm past 1890. They have a son, Grant, on July 12, 1885 while still living in Loutre,

Montgomery County, Missouri. I don’t know what happened to Albina. I assume she passed away. 

 George W Wilhelm married Mary Daniels on August 31, 1891 in Poinsett County, Arkansas. (The marriage record was indexed, I can’t access the actual scanned image to find her parents’ names) The only reason I have her as Homer and Arthur’s mother is because of the timing of marriage. Celia is too young to be Homer and Arthur’s mother, but she is listed as their mother in their obituary, but I haven’t found their actual death certificates.  

George and Mary’s son is born in Popular Bluff, Missouri- Arthur Wilhelm is born on April 7, 1893. Then they’re back in the place of their marriage license- Poinsett County, Arkansas, Homer Lowern/Lavern Wilhelm is born October 8, 1896. So George was definitely in Poinsett County, just somehow not on the census. I assume Mary Daniels also passed away, making George a widow twice over. During this time, George also changed from making railroad ties to clearing land for people. He already learned how to cut down wood and all that, but I’m assuming with his age, arthritis set in and it was more difficult to be precise, which the railroad requires. He would strike up partnerships. In 1890s, he had a deal with the Chapman Dewey Sawmill in Poinsett County to take the lumber he cleared off the land of people who hired him.

I have no information on why he left Poinsett County and ended up in Boone County, but that’s

where he met Celia Putman, a very young widow that lost her husband in a freak flash flood.

He drowned in the Terrapin Creek (capps/batavia area).  George Wilhelm marries Celia on June 1, 1902

and Celia becomes a stepmother to Grant, Homer, and Arthur, then in 1903 they lose a baby.

Sex unknown. It’s the baby laid to rest in Coker cemetery near the corner.

George moved his sons in with Celia at her Terrapin Creek road home near the Coker Cemetery.

The view there was incredible- a huge bald rock towering over the land. I don’t know the name of this

“mountain”, but I’m sure it has a name. There is another freak flash flood and they decide to abandon

the area and they moved to Wiley’s Cove

April 1, 1906, George welcomes son with Celia, Lowern Wilhelm, and then 3 more after Lowern-

Dorothy Aline December 21, 1908, Thelma Alberta February 24, 1910, and Lee 1912…  Wiley’s Cove

is now called Leslie, Arkansas. 

 in 1910, George W. Wilhelm was a 40 year old land clearer, with a partnership with the cooperage,

with his 30 year old wife Celia B. Wilhelm and their children, Grant, age 22, Arthur, age 17, Homer,

age 13, Loren O, age 5, Alene, age 1, and “baby”, in Olyphant, Arkansas.  His son, Arthur, starts making

ties and soon Homer also makes ties as well. 

I then looked at the census of 1920 and I found George W. Wilhelm, his wife Celia, and their children,

Lowern, Alean, Thelma, and Lee in Wiley's Cove, Arkansas. George's occupation is a land clearer.

I looked at Olyphant's history and Wiley's Cove history to figure out why George moved his family.

I started researching Olyphant between 1910 to 1920. I found that the state of Arkansas had declared

Horseshoe Bend Lake as a natural forest. Aha! No more job for a landclearer. Makes perfect sense. 

He was a land clearer. So towns would sell parcels or lots of land to people for building houses on.

I haven’t found anything to clearly state WHO paid George- did the town of Harrison and Leslie pay

George to clear off the hills and get them ready for being built on, or did people buy parcels of land

and then hire George to clear their parcels? Either way, George specifically cleared land only within

the town, not out in rural areas. That’s why I suspect he was paid by the town. But there’s no evidence.

Just a theory given how he only cleared land lots that became streets. He used explosives and I bet

he enjoyed blowing up things. I found the Episcolian church recipes and apparently George adored

cottage cheese sandwiches. Here’s a small list of the sandwiches he took to work in his lunchpail.

It was passed down to his grandchildren, as I remember my grandmother enjoying a bowl of

cottage cheese with the below variations- that’s where it came from. 

Cottage cheese, peas, and watercress

Cottage cheese, preserved watermelon rind, and basil

Cottage cheese, pineapple, coconut flakes, red pepper 

Cottage cheese, strawberry preserves, and mint

Cottage cheese, orange marmalade, and thyme or rosemary 

Cottage cheese, fresh tomatoes, and basil 

Cottage cheese, cucumber, and olives 

Cottage cheese, sliced onion round, and chicken liver spread

Some of these sound delicious and I’m going to try, but there’s a few that has me scratching my head.

I never thought to put cottage cheese on white bread as a sandwich filling.

In 1924, his family all moved to Harrison, AR, I know this because they start showing up in the

harrison daily times news. His sons Lowern and Lee were… notorious. Anyways, the last time he

appears in the news is 1925, so he was alive then. But there’s no obituary for him in the same

newspaper, I find this puzzling. If anyone out there happens to have a box of papers, family bibles,

pictures, etc from our great great grandfather, please let me know and I’d love to come look through

them for more clues. 

On the 1930 census, Celia appears as a widow; so George died between 1925 and 1930.

I do not know if he died while in Searcy County or if he died while in Boone County. Or could he

have just up and left them? I doubt it as in 1924 he was aged 70… too old. 

This is how Harrison looked in 1920s when George moved back to the area to clear land for the town.

This is an ad from 1910 and George likey worked with these in his land clearing job.

In 1914, there was a terrible train wreck right at the site George was working to clear land. I have no direct evidence that George was one of the men working to rescue the survivors, but he was at the right place at the right time to have an high probability of having been at the minimum a witness. Grant likely helped as well.

This church was across the street from the Harrison High School on Cherry Street. It's now a parking lot. This is where the family attended church and his cottage cheese sandwiches appear in their church cookbook recipes housed in the Boone County Heritage Museum.