Ferdinand Henry Wessler (1852 - 1932)

Born 7 Jan 1852 in Bresen, near Torun, Poland

Husband of Anna Lina (Bircher) Wessler — married 6 Jul 1898 in Pasadena, California, USA

Descendants

Died 5 Jan 1932 at age 79 in Anaheim, Orange, California, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Kirstie Schraffenberger [send private message]

Biography

The following biography is written by Kirstie (born) Newton, daughter of Christopher Newton, son of Lillian Meyer, daughter of Mabel Vaun Wessler, daughter of Ferdinand Wessler. Thus, Ferdinand is my great-great-grandfather, and, as the family stories go, a daring and swashbuckling man who left the family farm in what was then Prussia to join the army at a very young age. A man of mystery, as we know less about his ancestry than of any of the other legendary patriarchs of our family, but quite about his life.

According to his Christening Certificate, "Ferdinand Heinrich Wessel" was christened on January 9th, 1848, in Briesen (or Bresen), Kulm, Westpreussen, Prussia, or, alternately, in Rehden Graudenz, Westpreussen, Prussia. Two different sources for this certificate list it differently. His parents are listed on the certificate as Pauline Kopke and Heinrich Wessel. Our family records indicate that he was born two days earlier, on January 7th, 1848. The exact location is difficult to pin down. but Bresen is probably the location of current day Frydrychowo, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland.

In 1974 Christopher Newton conducted an interview with Ferdinand's son Lloyd Wessler. The following information is taken from that interview:

The Wesslers were a well-off family, owning lands along the Vistula River near Torun (still called Torun today), even loaning money to the King of Prussia. During the Napoleonic wars, Napoleon's troops decimated the family farm on their way in and out of Russia.

Ferdinand was drafted into the army at a young age (according to his son Lloyd, age 12!) and received his military training in Berlin. He first fought in the Seven Weeks War (he would have then been 18 years old):

From Encyclopedia Britannica: "Seven Weeks’ War, also called Austro-Prussian War, (1866), war between Prussia on the one side and Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, and certain minor German states on the other. It ended in a Prussian victory, which meant the exclusion of Austria from Germany."

Ferdinand then fought as part of the Prussian infantry in the Franco-Prussian war, during which he received a medal and also got typhoid supposedly from drinking water from a horse's hoofprints. Lloyd believes he may have been a sergeant.

From Encyclopedia Britannica: "Franco-German War, also called Franco-Prussian War, (July 19, 1870–May 10, 1871), war in which a coalition of German states led by Prussia defeated France. The war marked the end of French hegemony in continental Europe and resulted in the creation of a unified Germany."

At one "scrap at Metz" (the location of a siege in the Franco-Prussian war), Ferdinand received a scalp wound from the tip of a French sabre. He also fought in the Battle of Sedan and the Battle of Gravelot. Lloyd mentions one of his weapons in battle was a "needle gun," which is probably one of the varieties of rifles mentioned here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_gun

He must have decided that the army life was not for one such as he, for in 1873 he immigrated to America (according to the 1900 census). Lloyd tells us that he arrived in a "dampher," (a steamer with four kettles). Lloyd believes that he worked as a carpenter at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876, and then went to Maryland where he dressed stones for gristmills. However, in a biography written up in the pages of A History of Orange County, California, published in 1921, he worked in a machine shop in Philadelphia for five years after his arrival, a trade that he had begun learning back in Bresen.

Somewhere around 1878 he headed west to Lincoln County, Kansas. He purchased 160 acres of railroad land, and then another 160 acres near Wilson, KS, offered for sale by the school district. There he raised cattle and grew grain, but also faced grasshoppers, drought, and was burned out once by a prairie fire.

On Thursday, June 12, 1879, Ferdinand married Miss Ama Elsa Babcock, in Ellsworth (or possibly Wilson), Kansas. Ama was born in Missouri as the youngest daughter of her father's second marriage. The Babcocks had been in America since before its founding as a nation; they are found in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the first settlements of the 1600s, before that, in Wivenhoe, Essex, England. Ama's father was in the cattle business and moved around, living in both Illinois and Nebraska before coming to Kansas.

Ferdinand and Ama had five children together: Mabel (1880), Grace (1883), Edward (1887- but must have died in infancy), Henry (1888), and Ersie (1890). During the hard years farming on the prairie, he also worked other jobs. Ellsworth was the end of the line for the Union Pacific Railroad, and cattle were driven there from Texas. He worked as a bridge carpenter for the Central Pacific Railroad on the El Paso to Chihuahua line. The History of Orange County biography states that he also served as constable and then treasurer of Highland Township, KS, but this remains a bit mysterious as the only "Highland, KS," is a considerable distance from the Ellsworth area.

Ama died at home in Kansas in July 1893, leaving Ferdinand to raise the four children, ranging in ages from three to twelve years old. At some point in the next few years he sent Grace Maud to live with her mother's sister, Irene Babcock Bird (Aunt "Neen"), who was widowed young and taught in country schools in Nebraska. Grace Maud grew up there and got married in Nebraska.

In 1897 Ferdinand gave up on Kansas and moved the family to Pasadena, CA. There he began courting a new wife, Mrs. Lena (Bircher) Blaich^[1], who had emigrated from Switzerland. She had been previously married to William Blaich and had 3 children. They lived on neighboring farm back in Kansas, according to census records.^[2] Ferdinand and Lena got married on July 6, 1898, in Anaheim, California. They had one son together, Lloyd (born 1901), the son whose 1974 interview is referenced here. In 1902, Ferdinand officially foreswore his loyalty to the Emperor of Germany and became a naturalized US Citizen.

Ferdinand and Lena had a productive life together in Anaheim, and were considered to be important enough founding citizens of the county to be written up in the local history book! This is where we learn that he purchased twelve acres of land on "the Garden Grove road west of Anaheim" and turned into a thriving citrus orchard, where we are told he grew Valencia oranges. He became a member of the Cooperative Fruit Association.

He also worked as a gardener in the original Busch's Gardens of Pasadena, which opened in 1906 (http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pasadena-s-busch-gardens). In 1919 he built a house on the property (see photo). He and Ana attended Fullerton Baptist church. His Orange County biography states that politically, he was a devoted Republican.

Ferdinand died on January 5, 1932 and is interred in the Fairhaven Memorial Park in the old Mausoleum, in Santa Ana, California.

Note: his medal earned during his army years was last known to be in the possession of his grandson Henry Meyer, living in the 1970's in Evanston, Illinois. If any of Henry's descendants happen to read this biography and have this medal, we'd love to see a picture.

Sources

1. ↑ Ancestry.com. California, U.S., County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1849-1980 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.

   Name: Anna Lena Blaich

   Gender: Female

   Marriage Age: 36

   Event Type: Marriage

   Birth Date: abt 1862

   Birth Place: Switzerland

   Marriage Date: 6 Jul 1898

   Marriage Place: Pasadena, California, USA

   Spouse: F H Wessler

2. ↑ Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1895 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: v115_79; Line: 17. Ancestry.com. Kansas, U.S., State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

Interview with Lloyd Wessler, 1974, conducted by Christopher Newton

Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 (ancestry.com)

History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present by Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs, Publication date 1921, Publisher Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. (https://archive.org/details/historyoforangec00armo)

US Federal Census: Years 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930

Kansas State Census Collection: 1875

California State Court Naturalization Records 1850-1986