I found William Frederick Koehler by way of his daughter, Mary, who entered our family by marrying William Schettler, the son of Wilhelmina Hensler. Wilhemina, alert readers will recall, is a sister of Dorothea Hensler-Friedrich, our great x2 grandmother. William's father, Christian Schettler, may have been the son of a landed aristocrat, a Junker, like his brother-in-law, Johann Friedrich. That would make all three of the Hensler sisters disappointed baronesses. But I haven't located any immigration records that might prove my hunch. I know from the 1900 U.S. Census that Wilhelmina and family arrived in America in 1874, six years after her sisters, possibly staying behind to attend to matters with the parents' estate.
Mary's mother was Louise Bartel. She died when Mary was only two years old. Mary had an older sister, Minnie, and a younger brother, Fred. Minnie would've been about three when her mother died. Fred's date of birth is ambiguous but probably coincides with his mother's death, which, according to her headstone, was in March of 1861. The date has historical significance: Abraham Lincoln delivered his first inaugural address on March 4th, 1861.
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Louise Bartel Koehler, about 1860, and her three children: Fred, Mary and Minnie, about 1862 |
William Koehler was 28 when his wife died. He and his family were the tenants of a bachelor farmer for whom he was working as a hired hand. Neither the bachelor nor the widower were in a position to raise two young daughters and an infant son. The insurrection in the South was perfectly timed, and the president's decision to raise an army must have been a irresistible opportunity for William Koehler. The war gave him permission to leave his children with accommodating neighbors and, at the same time, gain the respect afforded a soldier. In the absence of a war to fight, he might rather have earned only approbation for failing to provide for his family.
He enlisted in Company C, 1st Cavalry Regiment Wisconsin at Beaver Dam on August 15, 1862 and was mustered in at Madison, WI, on August 23, 1862. His enlistment was for 3 years. The 1st Cavalry gained some recognition for its part in the capture of Jefferson Davis. This excerpt is from the collection of Historical Notes and Reports of The Union Army, Vol 4, page 74:
On May 6 [1865] a detachment of the regiment under Lieut.-Col. Harnden set out to search for Jefferson Davis. At midnight of the 7th a negro gave a minute account of the whereabouts of Davis and at early dawn of the 8th Harnden set out, traveling 45 miles that day. Early on the 9th the detachment resumed the march and at Abbeville met Col. Pritchard of the 4th Mich. cavalry, who had been ordered to camp there, guard the ferry and patrol the river. At 3 o'clock next morning Harnden went forward, believing Davis to be near.
The advance guard came upon armed men, who ordered them to halt, and opened fire. Harnden advanced with a large force and the firing became general until a prisoner captured by Sergt. Howe stated that the supposed enemy were Michigan troops under Col. Pritchard, who had selected his best mounted men after Harnden had frankly told him his mission and where Davis was supposed to be, and had proceeded at full speed to that point and surrounded the camp which held Davis, though the latter was not captured until after the regiments had fired upon each other. Many will ever believe the 1st Wis. cavalry entitled to at least equal credit for the capture.
William is mustered out as a Private on July 19, 1865 in Edgefield, Tennessee, now part of Nashville. The public record picks up again in the U.S. Federal Census of 1870, in which Minnie, now 12, is listed as a domestic servant in the household of George and Elizabeth Adams, farmers in Clyman township. Mary, 11, is now Mary Lange, the adopted daughter of Adreas and Antoinette Lange of Beaver Dam. Only Fred is back with his father, who's remarried and raising a new family on a small farm in Iowa.
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U.S. Civil War service record of William Frederick Koehler (Keller) |
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William Koehler with his second wife, Charlotte Henrietta Finke, about 1870 |
Some light is shed on the years between 1865 and 1870 when, in 1908, William Koehler's second wife, Charlotte Henrietta Fink, applies for his war pension. On October 30, 1908, Mary appeared before the Special Examiner of the Bureau of Pensions. The following is a record of her testimony, in which she refers to her father as "the soldier":
I am 49 years of age. Residence as above. I am the wife of William Schettler and daughter of the soldier by his first wife, Louise Bartle. I do not know where they were married. I suppose she was the first wife. I have always been told that I was 1-1/2 years old when she died. I think she was buried in the Lowell Cemetery but I was out there some time ago and tried to find out something about it but could not. There was no record there and I did not find any one who knew. I was raised by a family named Lange I remember the soldier when he came back from the war. He came here with claimant. She did not come in. She was out in the wagon. I had seen her the summer before that and I never saw either of them after they left here.
He took my brother with him. There were but three of us. Mr Lange's people lived here in Beaver Dam. My brother was about 6 months old when my mother died. Mrs Piesche told me about it and she [was a] neighbor to them when my mother died. She is dead.
I have no interest in the case. I have heard the foregoing statement [...] it is correct. [...] I have understood your questions and my answers are correctly recorded.
signed Mary Schettler.
William had eight additional children by Charlotte and died in 1896. In his last will and testament he bequeaths his estate, valued at $5450.00, to his wife and her heirs, but with the following exception:
"There are three (children) from my first wife, whom I bequeath as follows: To my daughters Minnie and Mary $100.00 each. To my son, Fred Keller, $5."
Fred was living in Nebraska, married, with three children when his father died. He was to die a short while later of typhoid fever but probably had time to spend his five dollar inheritance. The girls, too, were married and raising families. Minnie married Carl Friedrich Sette who had a sizable farm in Barton County, Kansas. Mary, we know, married our cousin (3x removed), William Schettler, a Beaver Dam wagon master, and lived to be 89.
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Carl Friedrich Sette and Wilhelmine Koehler Sette, about 1930 |
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Mary Koehler Lange and William Fredrick Schettler, about 1880 |
I said earlier that William Schettler's father may have been a landed aristocrat from Zorndorf, the home town of the Friedrichs and a short distance from where the Grohndorfs originated. Both his wife's sisters had married Junkers, and they all settled in Beaver Dam. Curiously, the soldier's -- William Koehler's -- second wife, Charlotte Henrietta Finke, was the daughter of a Zorndorf bricklayer who settled near Beaver Dam more than a decade before Johann Friedrich arrived. Carl Sette, Wilhelmine Koehler's husband, also originated in Zorndorf. His father is listed as a "colonist" in the Brandenburg emigration records when he emigrates in 1856. Carl's mother may even be a Hensler. Her birth name is given as "Henkel / Henhil", while our great x2 grandmother's name, as well as her sister Marie's, was given as "Henhiler".