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In 1752, the same year the Wildermuths came to this country, the Wagners also came. But, they stopped off in Chester County for about 5 years after which they too went to Bern Township, Berks County Pa. Jacob Wagner was but a small boy when he arrived in this country with his parents in 1752. He died in 1786, while still a young man, leaving a widow, Catherine Wagner and 8 minor children, whose names were Phillip, Esther (who was the wife of Michael Fisher), Daniel, Elisabeth, Jacob Jr., John, Catherine and Margaret.
On the trip from Berks County, Pa. to Ohio in 1805, were William Wildermuth and family; Catherine Wagner and sons Daniel and Jacob and Elisabeth. Daniel Wagner was married and with him was his wife, Magdaline Groh Wagner and two daughters, Catherine and Mary Wagner. David Wildermuth, William Wildermuths eldest son was also married and with him were his wife and four children (His wife was Elisabeth Wagner, the daughter of Jacob and Catherine Wagner and the children that t ey had with them were Catherine, Elizabeth and Mary Ann Wildermuth, their oldest child, Samuel Wildermuth, having died in Pennsylvania.); the Bachers, formerly of Berks County Pa., but later of Fairfield County Ohio, must have come to Ohio with the Wagners and Wildermuths. For, just a couple years later Daniel Wildermuth was married to Catherine Bacher and Jacob Wagner was married to Barbara Bacher.
From here on the greater part of this sketch will be about David Wildermuth (who was the eldest son of William and Maria Barbara Ebeling Wildermuth) and his children. David Wildermuth and Elizabeth Wagner had two more children born in Ohio, David C and Rebecca Wildermuth. Elizabeth died in 1808, and in 1810 David Wildermuth married a widow with a couple of small children. She was Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, and she and David were the parents of five children, Matilda, Henry, Eli, John, and Isaac. Elizabeth Cooper Wildermuth, died in 1834 and one year later, David Wildermuth married Miss Christina Havens. There were the parents of one child, Louisa Ann Wildermuth. David Wildermuth died in 1846, when Louisa Ann was but 10 years of age, and Christina Havens Wildermuth died 9 years later.
David Wildermuth was born March 27, 1774, in Bern township, Berks County, Pa; married to Elizabeth Wagner November 29, 1796. Their children were: Samuel, born November 23, 1797, died August 22,1799: Catherine, born October 17, 1799, married to Cyrus Newkirk. Have been told that she was the mother of 16 children, but we have the names of only 8 of them. Cyrus Newkirk and family emigrated from Ohio to Blanchardville, Wisconsin, where they were lead miners. Later they went to Lloyd County, Wisconsin, where they homesteaded. Their descendants are mostly in Wisconsin and California. Catherine Wildermuth Newkirk died November 8, 1882, and both she and Cyrus and some of their family are buried in the Wildermuth Family Cemetary on the old David C. Wildermuth farm near Lloyd, Wisconsin.
Elizabeth Wildermuth was born in Berks County, Pa., Aug. 28, 1801, came to Ohio with parents in 1805. Was married to William Cline, and had one son Samuel Cline.
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After marriage he settled on a small farm near his fathers where he remained for a few years (1835) when he moved to Illinois which was a territory then. He settled in what is now Coles country on the Embarass river. From there he moved to Wisconsin which was a territory and this time (1845). He settled in the lead mining region which is now La Fayette county. He remained here a number of years, mining and farming. Francis A (1850 age 17 yrs 11Mo. 22 days) and David G-11 months in 1849 died here and were buried on the farm, as there was no cemetery nearby. Louisa Olive was born here.
The only arms the old settler in those days had was a flintlock rifle and an ax. The rifle was always carried by the man where ever he went to protect himself against wild animals. The ax was kept close to the door and at night the latch string was pulled inside.
Later, the son with his family and his two brothers moved to Ohio, while it was yet territory. They bought land in what is now Fairfield county. There he followed farming and horse raising as his father had done. Although his education was perhaps not as good as his father's yet it was far above the usual, for that time. He had the gifts of his fathers in doing things unlawful for man to do. [?] He spent his life there loved and respected by all who knew him.
After the war was over and peace declared, William settled in Pennsylvania, in what was afterward known as Berks county. He married and raised a family, following farming and horse raising. He was noted for his fine education and ability to do what other men could not do. He was also noted for his fine singing. He had a library of books in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. He was also noted for his fine marksmanship with the rifle. It is said that he never missed and what more peculiar never shot anything unless it was moving. [Continued on page 2.]
Just one other tho't: have you ever tho't of the trip that William Wildermuth and his party made from Eastern Penna, to Ohio in 1805? at that time there were no roads or bridges and they had to cross 4 or 5 ranges in Penna. Likely, they came in covered wagons and brought quite a lot of their goods with them and the trip must have taken some time. That trip would be an interesting story if we knew the details and facts.
The dates in this short sketch of mother's life I had father verify when I was asked to write the sketch for the Wildermuth family history which has never been published. I still have father's letter where he filled in the dates and facts for me.
The subject of this sketch was born July 9, 1851, in the township of Fayette, LaFayette County, Wisconsin, being the ninth child and third daughter of David Clinton And Anna Newkirk Wildermuth. As is usual the history of her childhood and early youth is one with the history of her family - the life of a pioneer's child in the wilderness was hers in company with the rest of the children and each shared in the prosperity or lack as the year brought forth. The privations were many and seasons of pro[s]perity few but with a disposition to make the best of everything, in all her stories of childhood the good times seemed to have predominated in her view of life. 
She was married Dec. 24, 1868, to Dryden Henderson Carpenter, at the home of his parents, Halsey and Sarah Ann Carpenter, near Rockbridge, Richland Co. Wisconsin, by justice of the peace Richard Pratt. The young couple took up housekeeping with his parents, renting the farm for the coming season. The next fall-1869 they moved to her father's home about 3 miles from Loyd, and remained there until the fall of 1871-during which time her parents and younger brother were in Iowa. Here their first boy Claude Irving and first girl, Constance Ivy, were born. In the fall of 1871 late in September the family which now consisted of father, mother and two small children, one nearly two years old, the other a tiny bebe of eight weeks, started overland in "prairie schooners" for Kansas which was the pioneer's Mecca at that time. They drove 1 Yoke of milk cows-one yoke oxen-Milked the cows on the way. They were accompanied by [L]Ou's sister Cordelia and her husband, Jott Stout also her brother Daniel who drove a horse team. On the way to Kansas they stopped at Anamosa, Iowa to visit Polly Alspach, who was Lou's aunt, being a sister of her father David.-Some time between their marriage and this trip to Kansas, I think during their first summer Lou and Dryden made a trip to Bertram, Lynn Co. Iowa, to visit Lou's Clarissa Berry and her family. It was during this visit that the small photo of her was taken-the one with curls and a striped dress.-The family remained in Kansas until the fall of 1874 during which time they entered a homestead and lived on it for some time, until the drouth and grasshoppers drove them out. While here the second son and third child, Oscar Melburn, was born. Their post office while here was Matfield Green Chase Co., Kansas. - The crops utterly destroyed by the drouth and grasshoppers they decided to give up the homestead and drove back to Richland Co., Wis., spending part of the winter with his parents and part with her parents. The summer of 1875 was spent operating his fathers farm. That fall they purchased a 40 near her folks and lived here for a while. The place had but little cleared and only a tiny log cabin for buildings. Here Clinton Shipman, was born. In the fall of 1876 they moved to Plum Valley, south of Wonemoc, Juneau Co., Wis. where he hauled logs for a mill all winter and in the spring of 1877 moved to Union Center, [see page 2]
