Category: Wertenberger-Family

Essays and correspondence referencing the Wertenberger family. (1870-2000)

Member Instructions

Charles E Dial, 2011, Copy Editor for The MWD Essays.

  Documented Features This website is a membership site where any authorized group member can access and read the stories. Initially, every authorized user will be a member of the same group. The site is best viewed on a tablet, laptop, or desktop device. Everything will work on a phone, but the smaller screen forces…… Continue reading Member Instructions

000115 MHW to Dear Folks at Home (Chile)

Dilla Himmelright Wertenberger c.1953.

[No Envelope] Concepción, Chile [Monday,] Jan. 15th 1900 Eight A.M. Dear Folks at Home: After waiting nearly five weeks, finally on the third steamer that came from the north I received a letter from home last Wednesday dated Nov. 26th, [1899]. I was glad that everything was alright at home and that Ada’s school was…… Continue reading 000115 MHW to Dear Folks at Home (Chile)

990929 MHW to Dearest Folks (Chile)

Dilla Himmelright Wertenberger c.1953.

[The contents of this letter and of Charlie’s (#990928) indicate that the two were mailed together in it.] Panama, Columbia S.A. [sic]Sept. 29, ’993:30 P.M. Dearest Folks: While my hair is drying (just being washed) I’ll add a few words to what Charlie has already said. How glad I would be if I could show…… Continue reading 990929 MHW to Dearest Folks (Chile)

990928 CHW to My Friends and to all concerned (Chile)

CH Wertenberger, probably precedes 1917.

[Although the envelope is missing, the contents of this letter and of Dillie’s (MHW’s) (#990929) indicate that the two were mailed together.] Panama,Sept. 28 ’99 Dear Friends and to all concerned: Well, of all things, this beats all! This morning at about seven o’clock we landed at Colon. [sic] We are now foreigners in a…… Continue reading 990928 CHW to My Friends and to all concerned (Chile)

990927 CHW to My Dear Folks on the Hill (Chile)

CH Wertenberger, probably precedes 1917.

[The purser of the steamer Athos carried an envelope containing Dillie’s letter (#990925) and this letter of Charlie’s from Colón, Panama, to New York City, where he mailed it on October 13. According to the postmarks, the letter reached Redhaw on October 16.] The Athos, Sept. 27th 1899 My Dear Folks on the Hill: if…… Continue reading 990927 CHW to My Dear Folks on the Hill (Chile)

990925 MHW to My Dear People at Home (Chile) [AJD]

Dilla Himmelright Wertenberger c.1953.

[The purser of the steamer Athos carried the envelope containing Charlie’s letter (#990927) and this letter of Dillie’s from Colón, Panama, to New York City, where he mailed it on October 13. According to the postmarks, the letter reached Redhaw on October 16.] [Sept. 25, 1899] On Board the deck of the Steamer Athos, Atlantic…… Continue reading 990925 MHW to My Dear People at Home (Chile) [AJD]

990919 MHW to Dear Folks at Home (Chile)

Dilla Himmelright Wertenberger c.1953.

[Note: MHW and CHW were married in Redhaw, Ohio, on August 17, 1899.] [Tuesday,] Sept. 19, 1899New York Dear Folks at home: While I am waiting for Charlie this morning I thought I would write you a few lines more before we leave our native shores. We passed the health examination yesterday, met many of…… Continue reading 990919 MHW to Dear Folks at Home (Chile)

Santiago

1998 Christmas Photo of Mary W. Dial at Judson Retirement Center, Cleveland, OH

Events circa 1901-1906. Written 1985-1995. It was the 22nd of September, the first day of Spring of the first year of the twentieth century when I was born under the Southern Cross. This happened south of the equator in Santiago, Chile, where the seasons are reversed. My Methodist missionary parents had been sent to my first…… Continue reading Santiago

My Grandma

Himmelright House c. 2003 seen from across the road. It is located on SR 302 a few hundred feet west of where I-71 crosses SR 302. Its present (2003) owners are Amish. Almost all the identifying architectural features of this house have been destroyed by "improvements" such as vinyl siding. The front doorway had simple but stylish Early Republican features that recent "remuddlers", who fancied themselves to be remodelers, have destroyed. Photo credit: cedial.

Events circa 1906-1916. Written June 1995. Mary Fuhrman Himmelright was born around 18381 on a farm in Ashland County, Ohio, near the village of Redhaw. The county seat, Ashland, was eight miles away. Mary’s grandparents homesteaded the farm but were killed in the wilderness on their way to Pittsburgh to buy supplies. Her story of their…… Continue reading My Grandma

My Hometown

Berea College Chapel Tower

Events circa 1914-1926. Written January 1995. One morning in late August of 1914, I woke up in a new place, a new house, a new town, and a new state. Here I was, destined to spend most of the next two decades of my life. As I walked outside and looked around, I was delighted. So…… Continue reading My Hometown

The Porch

Wertenberger - Himmelright wedding, 1899. Himmelright family just before MWD’s mother and father were married. The women in the front row are Ada, Mellie, and their grandmother. The women in the back row are Dillie [the bride], her mother, and Alice. [Grandpa Fuhrman’s rocking chair, on the left side of the porch, is in my bedroom today (2023). CED ed.] Photo credit: Lloyd Sechrist, Sechrist family archives.

Events circa 1905-1914.  Written June 1994. During the late 1800s, architects in this part of the country designed front porches for homes that were ostentatious luxuries. The porches they built had ornately turned spindles in the banisters and fancily shaped pillars supporting the roof. There was always a narrow panel of gingerbread lacework in the…… Continue reading The Porch

Mississippi

Dilla Himmelright Wertenberger c.1953.

Events circa 1905-1913. Written May 1993 – January 1994. During the 1907-1911 period, the Methodist Home Mission Society employed my father and mother as “Home Missionaries” in the backwoods of Mississippi. Those woods were predominantly primeval pines — huge, tall trees with most of the growth up high. The forest floor was a thick carpet of…… Continue reading Mississippi

Springcrest Farm

Judy, Gladys, and John Sechrist at Sechrist farm c. 1948. Judy and Gladys are holding two leghorn hens. The hens were not very happy. Photo by Charles E Dial. Farm life in 1948 required long hours of hard work. When the workday was over the Sechrists found time to be a cohesive and happy family.

Events circa 1905-1979. Written February 1994. Springcrest Farm had been in the Sechrist family for generations, having John Quincy Adams’ signature on its deed. Its big, white 14-room farmhouse dominated the quadrangle of small buildings surrounding it, expanding from a pioneer colonial to meet the needs of later generations by adding an apartment on either side.…… Continue reading Springcrest Farm

World War I

CH Wertenberger, probably precedes 1917.

Events circa 1917-1919. Unfinished draft written [date unknown]. The events that happened during the last two years of World War I affected my family ???, so they were burned in my memory. We were living in Berea, Ky., dominated by Berea College. All four of us were engaged in some college-managed activity — my father was…… Continue reading World War I

The Passport

Wertenberger - Himmelright wedding, 1899. Himmelright family just before MWD’s mother and father were married. The women in the front row are Ada, Mellie, and their grandmother. The women in the back row are Dillie [the bride], her mother, and Alice. [Grandpa Fuhrman’s rocking chair, on the left side of the porch, is in my bedroom today (2020). CED ed.] Photo credit: Lloyd Sechrist, Sechrist family archives.

September 1965 trip to Wayne and Ashland counties (Ohio) to locate birth and citizenship documents.