Mystery Solved? (the 2-Truths-and-a-Lie version)

After years of searching & speculating, I think we've (two cousins and I) have finally cracked what might be considered a brick wall. Whether you want to call it a brick wall could certainly be debatable, as the information that we lacked never kept us from researching generations further back, but certainly kept us in the dark about the eternal "why?". 

Why the load of philosophical rambling? Well, as it has been for as long as I can remember, the easy part was defining the problem. In this case: why did my great-grandfather, who was born David West Wolfe in Lewes, DE, change his name to Charles Everett Clinton?

As with any 'why' question there are quite a number of facts that have to be examined, which I have done extensively here, here, and . . . here

A summary of those examinations you ask? Certainly . . . while using his birth name, David W. Wolfe married Rebecca Belle Crenshaw (Belle) in 1898 in Bonita, Montague Co, TX. Belle was 20 years his junior. Between 1898 and David's death in 1942 in Los Angeles, they moved no fewer than 13 times (and those are the ones we know about), living in states as far apart as California, Arkansas, and Kansas, and many in between. The moves were not easy, 1) because they were often cross-country--think multiple moves to & from CA; 2) because between 1899 and 1920, they had 13 children, 9 of whom lived to adulthood. Sometime in or slightly before 1904, David most likely changed the name as Charles Everett Clinton, Jr. was born and you can't very well have a 'Jr.' without a 'Sr.' as an eponym. Great-grandpa David/Charles was a butcher.

Thus the 'why?'

The possible explanations that I grew up hearing started with (from earliest to latest): Explanation 1) Great-grandpa changed his name because there was a criminal with his same name and he didn't want the authorities bothering him again. Explanation 2) Great-grandpa was trying to evade an ex-wife - courtesy of his son, Uncle Howard. And Explanation 3) Great-grandpa was in fact a criminal himself--my supposition, but in my mind, being creative as I am, I saw him as 'the butcher' rather than simply 'a butcher', gallivanting across country to cover up a string of serial killings and never actually getting caught (I was about 18 when I came up with the murder part), but the thought that he might have been another type of criminal was always the more likely scenario as a part of the third explanation.

However, life seldom presents anything as grand as we imagine, and ironically enough, it turns out that 2 of the 3 explanations were, at least in part, true. Almost as if Great-grandpa were playing a version of 2 truths and a lie or more appropriately, we were creating one for him.

1) False

2) True. Great-grandpa, as David W. Wolfe, married a woman named Fannie Johnson (of Delaware). With her he had 2 children, William & Margaret, both of whom married and had children, so there may be cousins through David/Charles who still have the Wolfe name. (Ironically, William and his family, followed by Fannie had relocated to Montana by 1920 and William's wife and 2 of their children were in San Diego, California by 1930, perhaps in search of our elusive progenitor).

3) True . . . ish. Great-grandpa was a criminal, more appropriately a debtor (which in England would have landed him in debtors prison, so true after a fashion), and I'm waiting on more details on this from my cousins with whom I'm working. But one of them has found newspaper articles showing that the courts in Delaware repossessed his property in payment of his debt.

So . . . there you have it. Not an answer for why he chose Clinton, which we probably will never know. Not nearly as glamorous as 20+ years of searching (yes, I actually remember talking about this as a 5 year old when we visited Uncle Howard) would have led you to believe it might be. But an answer nonetheless and one that I'm elated to have found.

The funny thing is, now that I've found out 'why' . . . what do I do next?

As long as this is, please know that I can go into much more detail if you want, or if you want to see some of the details of the documents.

Now, about those Delaware Wolfes . . . all those Reeces (and I don't mean the candy).

Happy Hunting!

AFN

DCC

19 May 2010

Athens, Georgia

Nicholas Diehl 1811-c1890

Looking for Dead People
Dad & I took a trip up to Jefferson & Burke Counties yesterday to do a little digging and preservation. Here's some of the 'found' material. We've known a good bit of this for a while and had the picture below for 10+ years, but here it is . . .

Nicholas Diehl's first signature in Jefferson County records as court ordinary, July 1, 1850.

Nicholas Diehl was the grandson of an immigrant to the US, Johann Nicolaus Diehl (also was a captain in the Revolutionary War and served in the Long Island Campaign), as such in all of my records, I've noted him as Nicholas Diehl, III as his father is also Nicholas Diehl. The Diehl family lived in and around the Philadelphia area and owned land on Tinicum Island, on which now sits the Philadelphia International Airport. He moved with his sister Margaretta to Savannah, GA.

By 1839 he was living in Jefferson County, GA's 82nd Militia District, said more succinctly, Louisville, GA and listed in the tax digest of 1839. The last official record that I've found for him was a land record that he signed in 1888. His will is unprobated, but dated 1889 (what that means is that there is a record of the will, but it was not administered or entered into the official record in the books in Jefferson County). As confusing as that might be, his will exists, but is in the drawers of documents in the Probate vault in Jefferson County, GA in Box #13 (1/2 De-Ey, Fa-1/2 Fl).

Aside from that he was also, as indicated by the signature above, the Court Ordinary (in today's terms Clerk of Courts) for Jefferson County and served in that capacity from 1850 until at least 1888. Unfortunately we have no pictures of him, but his writing and signatures are well preserved throughout the records of Jefferson County during that time.

"Marriage Licenses Granted since the Surrender to White Persons": Also in the hand of Nicholas Diehl. As I'm sure you can guess the records in this particular section started in 1864-5, with a few coming before the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. Ironically, his son Robert A. Diehl, who would later be county coroner, is part of the fourth marriage on this list, marrying Sarah A. Thomas on Jan. 1, 1865.

He also served as a photography as there is an add in the Louisville paper for him making Daguerreotypes in the upper floor of the courthouse. Also, though we do not have proof of it, it's likely that he took this picture which is of Jefferson County Civil War soldiers who were home from the war. One of them is Pvt. John Jesse Thompson whose son Seabron Augustus would marry Nicholas' granddaughter Lela Eleanor Diehl.

Civil War soldiers in Jefferson Co, Georgia during the war. The private standing on the right is John Jesse Thompson, my great-great-great grandfather. John Jesse had his left arm amputated from the shoulder down as a result of injuries in the Battle of Fredericksburg. In this picture, you can see that his left shoulder is essentially missing and that his left sleeve is apparently pinned where his elbow would have been.

Nicholas Diehl is my 4th-great grandfather and one of only two family lines (on both Mom's & Dad's sides) that I've found that originate north of Virginia/the Mason-Dixon line.

AFN
DCC
Vidalia, GA 29 December 2009