| Notes |
- HISTORY OF THE WETZEL FAMILY
Compiled by
W. R. WETZEL
Seattle , Washington
1908
This name in the present generation is spelled in several different ways, viz : Wetsel , Wetzel and Whetzel , but we find from investigation that each of these three people come from the original emigrants who came to this country from Germany, and spelled the name Wetzel.
The first record we have of this family is that of three brothers :
- Nicholas,
- Henry and
- Martin Whetzel, respectively .
These men were Germans and came to America in the early part of the eighteenth century. First we hear of them is about 1730.
The only one of these brothers we can trace down to the present generation is that of Nicholas. This brother had a son whom he calls Henry, after his brother Henry. Coming on down we find Henry Whetzel, Jr., married and was father of a
- George,
- Lewis,
- John and some other children, of which we can find no definite record.
Coming down later we'find George has children of which
- Jacob,
- Abraham and
- David are named,
then from - Jacob, whom we learn was a Lutheran preacher, we find three sons:
- Lewis,
- Josiah, and
- Silas, the others of whom we have no record.
•From Lewis we find three sons,
- John F.,
- Daniel,
- Charles and others, of whom we have no record .
This information of this line of the Wetzels was given us by John F. Wetzel, M.D., and I will quote from him the following, which will make the above seem clearer : "The history of Nicholas, Henry and Martin is lost in the obscurity of early American history, or rather unwritten history of Virginia, Pennsylvania, etc.
"To commence with myself and go backwards, I was born June 13, 1853, at Weston, Lewis county, Western Virginia, My wife was Elizabeth Fishback of the valley of Virginia. Attended Medical College at Louisville, Kentucky, two different schools. I taught school in different states. I graduated from Medical College, " Portland, Oregon in 1889. Was assistant surgeon in Polyclinic, San Francisco, California. Post graduate course, Medical Dept., University of California in '84 and '86
"My father, Lewis Smith Wetzel, was born in same county and state as myself in 1820, so he is well toward 80 years old and is as good a worker today as most men at 50 years . The only sickness either of us ever have is headaches.
"Father was contracting and building when eighteen years of age.
"He worked two or three weeks carving a mantle in the first house he built for a judge in Weston. Later he built turnpike bridges on Stantor Pike as far west as Parkersburg, West Virginia; also a section of the BSO R.R. when it paralleled the pike. He built this pike and bridges.
" In 1859 the oil discoveries took him to Burning Springs, Wirt County, West Virginia, where he is now drilling and pumping oil wells.
"My mother was Anastasia Murphy, who was born in Cork, Ireland in 18__ of Irish parents who removed to Western Virginia when she was six years old. Grandfather Jacob Wetzel was a Lutheran preacher of Weston, the county seat of the county. His father, George, was a farmer and George's father, Henry, the son of Nicholas, was a settler, hunter and trapper and was named for his uncle Henry, one of the three brothers, the original emigrants from Germany."
This John F. Wetzel is a practicing doctor in San Francisco at the present time, and the following are his children, whom we suppose also reside there :
- Benton Gaillard,
- Lewis Asbury,
- Pearley Poe,
- Anacortis and
- May Gertrude : "These are the seventh generation along our branch."
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