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Family History
Jan. 22nd, 2008 10:43 pmMy aunt and cousin spent the weekend transcribing my great-great-grandfather's memoirs. In reading them, I learned a lot about him that my Granny (his daughter) never told me. He was a convert to Catholicism and twice a widower, with 12 children. I found the following passages, written about 1900 (when he was well into middle age), touching and beautiful.
"October 5th 1886
"This day came upon me a very great bereavement. This day my beloved wife Matilda and our two darling little daughters 'Daisy' 9 years old, and 'Lily' 5 years old, perished in the great and terrible accident – the burning of the Steamer 'La Mascotti' – about 15 miles North of Cape Girardeau Mo. They had left home at 10 am happy in the thought of a pleasant visit to relations in St. Louis Mo – and in two short hours afterwards they were summoned to appear before our God – our Merciful God, to whom I ever pray to grant them eternal rest in heaven and to grant that I may join them there when I shall be called to my eternal life, beyond the grave.
"Had my beloved wife Tillie lived 6 months longer, she would have become a mother the 7th time, but God willed it otherwise, God’s will be done."
"July 22nd 1898 (Born Jan 1864 or 65?)
"This day, our Heavenly Father in his infinite wisdom, called from her earthly labors, my dearly beloved wife Jennie Wheeler and summoned her, I shall ever hope and pray, to a life of eternal rest in Heaven. She died in giving birth to my twelfth and her sixth child – a little boy, stillborn, which I was not permitted to see. My dear wife received absolution from venerable Father Doyle, of St Mary’s Church in Boyle Heights – and extreme unction from Rev Father Maloney of the St Vibiana Cathedral. She was unconscious when Father Maloney came. – May God be merciful to me, and help me to raise my motherless children properly, that they – and I, may serve him in this life, in such a manner as shall entitle us to immunity from eternal punishment in the life to come, Amen."
The second wife, Louisa Jane Sheridan Wheeler, was my great-great grandmother.
"October 5th 1886
"This day came upon me a very great bereavement. This day my beloved wife Matilda and our two darling little daughters 'Daisy' 9 years old, and 'Lily' 5 years old, perished in the great and terrible accident – the burning of the Steamer 'La Mascotti' – about 15 miles North of Cape Girardeau Mo. They had left home at 10 am happy in the thought of a pleasant visit to relations in St. Louis Mo – and in two short hours afterwards they were summoned to appear before our God – our Merciful God, to whom I ever pray to grant them eternal rest in heaven and to grant that I may join them there when I shall be called to my eternal life, beyond the grave.
"Had my beloved wife Tillie lived 6 months longer, she would have become a mother the 7th time, but God willed it otherwise, God’s will be done."
"July 22nd 1898 (Born Jan 1864 or 65?)
"This day, our Heavenly Father in his infinite wisdom, called from her earthly labors, my dearly beloved wife Jennie Wheeler and summoned her, I shall ever hope and pray, to a life of eternal rest in Heaven. She died in giving birth to my twelfth and her sixth child – a little boy, stillborn, which I was not permitted to see. My dear wife received absolution from venerable Father Doyle, of St Mary’s Church in Boyle Heights – and extreme unction from Rev Father Maloney of the St Vibiana Cathedral. She was unconscious when Father Maloney came. – May God be merciful to me, and help me to raise my motherless children properly, that they – and I, may serve him in this life, in such a manner as shall entitle us to immunity from eternal punishment in the life to come, Amen."
The second wife, Louisa Jane Sheridan Wheeler, was my great-great grandmother.
