Tulare County Biographies

GEORGE JOHN WEGMAN

Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
     Of German birth and ancestry, George John Wegman opened his eyes to the 
world in Hesse-Darmstadt, where Michael Wegman, his father, owned a vineyard and 
winery. He was educated in the good schools kept near his home, and after he 
became old enough helped his father, by whom he was trained to be industrious, 
self-reliant and persevering. He was yet a comparatively young man when he 
married Caroline Wennerholdt, born in Kur-Hessen, daughter of Jacob Wennerholdt, 
an officer in the German army, who, during nineteen years� service, participated 
in the wars forced on Europe by Napoleon, fighting at Waterloo, running many 
risks and receiving numerous wounds, and who when his service was ended was a 
hotel-keeper until his death. 
 
     In 1849 Mr. Wegman and his good wife sailed for the United States, their 
cash capital small, but they had youth, health and hope. For a time after their 
arrival, Mr. Wegman worked as a cooper at Lancaster, Pa., but about 1855 he went 
to Warsaw, Hancock county, Ill., and established himself as a cooper, then as a 
farmer. Some ten years later he moved to Wisconsin and took up a farm in 
Jefferson county, where he remained ten years, till in 1875, when he came out to 
the Pacific coast and settled in Tulare county, on Elbow creek, three miles 
northeast of Visalia, where he bought land and engaged in farming and 
stock-raising. His success was very satisfactory and he prospered until his 
death, which occurred December 29, 1896, when he was about seventy-five years 
old. His wife died June 24, 1903, aged eighty-two years, five months, and 
twenty-three days. She was a devout member of the German Reformed Church, all 
through her long life exemplifying in character the doctrines she professed. Mr. 
and Mrs. Wegman had four children: Caroline, wife of Andrew Belz: Theodore, who 
died in Wisconsin, aged fourteen years; Eliza Otelia, who cared for her parents 
until they passed away and has since lived on the old Wegman homestead, with her 
sister and her brother-in-law; and Mathilda, who died in California when she was 
eighteen years old. From the time of his arrival in California until his death, 
more than two decades afterward, Mr. Wegman was a citizen of Tulare county, and 
held an honorable position among its good and thrifty farmers. 
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913  Pp 442, 445