From "The Wintermantel Story - Beginnings" by Dianne Z. Stevens - 2013
John Jacob and Salome Walter Wintermantel's fifth child was George Jacob Wintermantel (known as Jacob) (1832 Ihringen, Baden – 1916 Sauk Co, WI). Jacob was a shoemaker before the Civil War. He married Agnes Joos from Switzerland about 1860. Jacob and most of his descendants stayed in Wisconsin. And one of his descendants became a good friend of mine even before I knew she was a descendant! That may be why I have such a wealth of information about Jacob. I even have a wonderful story about how his wife's family came to America. You can find it all in “Sources.” In the meantime, I will condense some of it for you here.
Jacob and Agnes had three small children when he was drafted in October, 1864 and became part of Company H, Thirty-seventh Wisconsin Infantry. He fought with Ninth Army Corp in battles at Fort Steadman, VA and Petersburg, VA.
Jacob's brother George wrote about Jacob's Civil War service in his 1875 letter:"During the Civil War George JACOB'S lot came to go into the army, and he went to Petersburg and Richmond in Virginia. He returned to Wisconsin safe and sound at the close of the war. It was hard for him to leave wife and children. He told me that sometimes everything was a cemetery for the fallen soldiers."
In another letter, written in 1908 to his sister-in-law, Matilda Druschel, in Oregon, George writes again of brother Jacob:
"The family of my brother Jacob has had much grief and heartache. He has about 118 acres, about 80 acres in hills and woodlands, and a few acres of swampland."
We don't know what that “grief and heartache” was.
Jacob and Agnes stayed in Sauk Co., WI. The 1870, 1880, and 1900 census shows them in Franklin Township. In 1910 they are living in Prairie du Sac; Agnes reports having birthed 9 children, 8 still living. (Their son William died at age 27.) All the children stayed in Sauk Co except for the eldest, Jacob, who moved to Iowa.
Here is a very little bit about each of George Jacob's children:
Jacob married Amelia Buttke and raised a family of one child in Iowa
Salome married Albert Hudson. They raised a family of one child in Lodi, WI.
William never married. He died at age 27.
John lived in Prairie du Sac and clerked at Conger and Schoephorsters General Store. He married Emma Ragatz and had five children all of whom stayed in the area
Sarah and her sister, Rosina, married brothers, Felix and Fred Sprecher. Sarah married Felix and had three children. Sarah's granddaughter, Doris Listcher writes for the local paper in Prairie du Sac and has written articles about the Wintermantels and drew the picture of the Wintermantels Coming to America.
Mary married August Mellentine. They had no children. They stayed in Prairie du Sac.
George F. never married. He and his brother Christian ran a butcher shop in Reedsburg. George liked to tell limmericks.
Christian ran the Butcher shop with George. He also never married.
Rosina Agnes married Fred Sprecher, bother of Felix, husband of her sister Sarah. Rosina (Rose) had five children. One of whom, Wilbert, has a wife, Marcella Felix Sprecher, still living at 102. Another child, still living, is Rosina's daughter, Ruth. Ruth is the mother of my dear friend, Marilyn.
daughter of Johannes Joos and Veronika Bandli
William never married per Doris Gasser. he was four months old when his father left for the Civil War.
1940 - George is living with his niece, Jessie Cowles.
Per Gasser he never married. "He was somewhat of a mavrick in the family... (He) enjoyed people and liked to entertain children repeating limericks."
per Doris Gasser: "George and his brother Christ ran a butcher shop in Reedsburg until Christ died in 1927. George went into selling McNess travelling door to door. He seemed to enjoy his work and was a success. He shared a home with his sister Salome and niece, Jessie as well. They purchased home on Laurel Street after having rented a smaller home south of Main Street in Reedsburg."
William Frederick WINTERMANTLE
From "The Wintermantel Story - Beginnings" by Dianne Z. Stevens - 2013
John Jacob and Salome Walter Wintermantel's seventh child was William Frederick Wintermantle (known as William) – (1838 Ihringen, Baden – 1927 Portland, OR). He married Sarah Dengel and had eight children, four of which survived to 1900: George, Mary E. (married Stone), Rosa (married Finnigan), Sadie (married Enke). William and Sarah and all their children ended up living in Oregon. Like his brothers Jacob and Christian, William served in the Civil War. We have the following from brother George about William's Civil War service and his life up to 1875:
"Brother William enlisted in the army in the beginning of the war. He served 3 years in the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment, mostly under General Bloncl in the southwest, in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and in Indian Territory. He was in many battles and bloody situations, and in danger day and night between southern rebels and enemy Indians. In 1865 he moved with John Jacob to Iowa where he bought and sold farms several times, naturally not without profit. But two years ago he moved to Kansas where he again acquired 160 acres of land. Probably, according to law, every soldier with an honorable discharge was entitled to 160 acres of land. He sold a farm in Iowa, I think it was 730 acres. His wife was a daughter of a German preacher from Illinois."
William testified extensively during his brother, Christian's, pension case, of which we have the file. He testified that Christian and Matilda moved together from Wisconsin to Iowa after the war and they lived together with William's family in Iowa until 1874 when William and his family moved on to Kansas.
William and Sarah's daughter Mary married Andrew Stone and had six children. The third was a girl named Bercha. Bercha grew up and married a man named Earlyn Besaw, so her name was Bercha Besaw. I'll bet there weren't too many Bercha Besaws around.
Bercha's eldest sibling was a boy named Lawrence Orr Stone. Lawrence and his wife had four children. His wife may have died before 1940, I'm not sure. But the 1940 census shows him married to another woman with no sign of his children. I finally found one of them, 12 year old Betty Louise Stone, living in the Waverly Children's Home in Portland, Oregon. This was basically an orphanage. I shall continue to look for the other three children Cletus, Donald, and Marjorie Stone
From "The Wintermantel Story - Beginnings" by Dianne Z. Stevens - 2013
John Jacob and Salome Walter Wintermantel's fourth child was Anne Marie Wintermantel (1829 Ihringen, Baden - 1870) Only lived to age 40. She married Rudolf Yaeger. They had one son, Fred. Fred's daughter, Lillian Yaeger, married James Callaway and they had 10 children in Wisconsin and Canada.
From "The Wintermantel Story - Beginnings" by Dianne Z. Stevens - 2013
John Jacob and Salome Walter Wintermantel's second child was John Jacob Wintermantel (b. 1825 Ihringen, Baden – 1894 Iowa). John Jacob and his brother, George Frederich, had come to America before their parents and family in 1846 or 1847. When John Jacob (1799) and Salome arrived with their six children in Sauk County one of their first thoughts was to find the two older brothers and unite the family.
Brother George wrote the following about his brother John Jacob:
"Brother John Jacob was found by Brother William in Memphis in 1860 and they took the train to Wisconsin. He lived for several years with the parents. In 1865 he went to Iowa, bought land, married, sold the land again, moved farther west, bought other land at Winterset, Madison County, Iowa, where he now lives. He is a widower, but lives in well-to-do circumstances."
John Jacob (1825) married Caroline Schoepflin. She brought 5 children with her to the marriage. Caroline and John Jacob had two more children. When the youngest was only 2 Caroline died. Then John Jacob married Eliza Jacquiss and had Katherine Ethel Wintermantel who married Harry Woodford. Kate and Harry had eight children including twins. In 1919 during the great flu epidemic, Harry, just back from WWI, and the twins, Elmer and Eleanor, who were then 2 1/2, all died.
From "The Wintermantel Story - Beginnings" by Dianne Z. Stevens - 2013
John Jacob and Salome Walter Wintermantel's second child was John Jacob Wintermantel (b. 1825 Ihringen, Baden – 1894 Iowa). John Jacob and his brother, George Frederich, had come to America before their parents and family in 1846 or 1847. When John Jacob (1799) and Salome arrived with their six children in Sauk County one of their first thoughts was to find the two older brothers and unite the family.
Brother George wrote the following about his brother John Jacob:
"Brother John Jacob was found by Brother William in Memphis in 1860 and they took the train to Wisconsin. He lived for several years with the parents. In 1865 he went to Iowa, bought land, married, sold the land again, moved farther west, bought other land at Winterset, Madison County, Iowa, where he now lives. He is a widower, but lives in well-to-do circumstances."
John Jacob (1825) married Caroline Schoepflin. She brought 5 children with her to the marriage. Caroline and John Jacob had two more children. When the youngest was only 2 Caroline died. Then John Jacob married Eliza Jacquiss and had Katherine Ethel Wintermantel who married Harry Woodford. Kate and Harry had eight children including twins. In 1919 during the great flu epidemic, Harry, just back from WWI, and the twins, Elmer and Eleanor, who were then 2 1/2, all died.
Per Patsy Clark Email 17 Mar 2004:
Paulus "came to America at the age of 17. He first lived in Wisc. but spent most of his 75 years in Minn. He was a farmer. He died at home in Hutchinson after a one and a half year illness. The community 'held him in high esteem.' 'He was an honest and conscientious man.'"
From "The Wintermantel Story - Beginnings" by Dianne Z. Stevens - 2013
John Jacob and Salome Walter Wintermantel's eighth child was Rosina Wintermantel (b. 1840 Ihringen, Baden – 1923 Leola, South Dakota). Rosina married Paulus Heitz and they had eleven children. They moved to Minnesota in 1865. On the 1910 Census Rosina reports she has had 11 children/ 10 are still living. Their daughter Salome had died in 1894.
From September 18, 2003 Sauk Prairie Star, p. 8, "Wintermantels: Schmiedlin Branch Reunion"
" Jacob went to live in Hull, Iowa. . ."
per Margaret jenstad: The baby died of "summer complaint," severe diarrhea, usually in infants, caused by spoiled milk.
From September 18, 2003 Sauk Prairie Star, p. 8, "Wintermantels: Schmiedlin Branch Reunion"
Al was from Lodi.
From September 18, 2003 Sauk Prairie Star, p. 8, "Wintermantels: Schmiedlin Branch Reunion"
"(Salome and Al) made their home in Reedsburg. After Al passed away, Salome made a home for her two brothers George and Chris who were in the butchering and meat market business in Reedsburg."
From September 18, 2003 Sauk Prairie Star, p. 8, "Wintermantels: Schmiedlin Branch Reunion"
"(John) lived in Prairie du Sac and clerked at Conger and Schoephorsters General Store. John married Emma Ragatz and lived next to the EUB church is Prairie du Sac."
Per Doris Litscher Gasser - Sarah was a seamstress who travelled to poeples' homes and sewed for them in their own home.
She and Felix farmed about half a mile north of the Black Hawk church on HWY C.
When they moved to Prairie du Sac they lived on Sixth Street.