Jacob and Elizabeth Wildermuth Family Group Portrait — c. 1885–1895

Formal sepia cabinet-card studio portrait of the Jacob and Elizabeth Wildermuth family, c. 1885–1895. Eleven figures arranged in three rows, with Chuck Eesley’s June 2026 identification by left-to-right order.

The cast

Wildermuth Family.

Back Men — LtoR — Charles E, John “Leb”, Harry J, Jesse W.

Women Middle LtoR — Maude B, Lucy, Zella M, “Lanessa” Louise.

Jacob and Elizabeth sitting. Troy B middle.

Eleven figures across three rows:

• Back row: Four adult sons — Charles E (far left, in pinstriped suit), John “Leb” (with mustache), Harry J, and Jesse W (in dark suits and bow ties).
• Middle row: Four adult daughters — Maude B, Lucy, Zella M, and “Lanessa” Louise (the eldest-looking woman at the right edge, wearing a striking checked/plaid skirt).
• Front row seated: The patriarch Jacob Wildermuth (with substantial mustache, three-piece dark suit, watch chain visible) at center; their young son Troy B in a dark child’s dress with a bow at his neck between his parents; the matriarch Elizabeth Wildermuth (in a long dark dress with high collar) at the right.

Why this is an open case in the archive

This family is not in Dale Eesley’s FamilySearch tree — none of the nine documented children’s given names matches anyone in the structured record of Robert Earl Wildermuth’s Marietta-Ohio Wildermuth line. The artifact stands as the central case of the Wildermuths possibly related research thread, which lays out the three plausible readings: (1) a genuinely separate Wildermuth-surname family of German-American immigrants, (2) a distant-cousin branch sharing a deep common Württemberg ancestor, or (3) a photograph Robert Earl collected during his 1971–1989 genealogy research from a fellow Wildermuth-surname correspondent.

The c. 1885–1895 dating (cabinet card style, women’s clothing, Jacob’s apparent age) suggests Jacob himself was born c. 1835–1845 — the same generation as Catharina Boeshar Wildermuth (b. 1840), Robert Earl’s actual great-grandmother.

Identification: Chuck Eesley, 2026. See Jacob Wildermuth’s page, Elizabeth Wildermuth’s page, and the Wildermuths possibly related research document for the full open-question framing.