Edward Frederick Wildermuth
also known as Edward F. Wildermuth
b. 1873-02-17, Marietta, Washington County, Ohio
d. 1964-07-07, Marietta, Washington County, Ohio
He was the youngest of three brothers — the sons of Johann Michael Wildermuth the 1847 emigrant from Großaspach and Catharina Boeshar of Breitenbach, Pfalz. His older brothers were John Charles (b. September 1865) and William Clifford (b. 17 September 1866 — Robert Earl Wildermuth’s paternal grandfather). Edward Frederick was born 17 February 1873 in Marietta and died there 91 years later, on 7 July 1964 — outliving William Clifford by twenty-one years and almost certainly outliving John Charles.
In the 1896 family group portrait
He is visible in the c. 1896 William Clifford Wildermuth family group portrait as the mustachioed young man standing at the back-right of the family group, identified by Chuck Eesley 2026. At 23 he was an adult, photographed alongside his older brother William (age 30) and his mother Catharina (age 56). The portrait places three generations of the immediate Johann Michael Wildermuth household — Catharina the matriarch, William Clifford and Edward Frederick the adult sons, and William’s young family — in one frame.
The c. early-1920s family snapshot
The clearest likeness of Edward Frederick in the archive is an outdoor family snapshot, c. early 1920s, identified by Chuck Eesley’s July 2026 face-tagging. He stands at the left; his wife Arminda Jane Hayes at the right; his aged mother Catharina Boeshar is seated at center as the matriarch; and their young son William is on a tricycle in front. The picture postdates his 1918 marriage and, from the boy’s age, dates to the early 1920s.
The Marietta life
He lived his entire 91-year life in Marietta. His marriage (FAMS in Dale’s tree not yet pulled), children, and the trade or profession he worked at across nine decades of Marietta history are the queued research follow-ups. His extreme longevity — to 1964 — means he was alive for the entire span of his nephew Robert Earl’s pre-Vietnam years (Robert Earl was born 1924, Edward Frederick was 51 at the time; when Edward Frederick died in 1964, Robert Earl was 40, with three children of his own). Robert Earl’s 1989 memoir’s reference to “basket-dinner Sunday visits to a Wildermuth sister’s family” might have included visits to his Uncle Edward along with his Wildermuth aunts.
He is Chuck’s great-great-uncle on the maternal Wildermuth side.
Sources: Dale Eesley / FamilySearch — Edward Frederick Wildermuth (LTBL-62R); the c. 1896 William Clifford Wildermuth family group portrait — the back-row right mustachioed figure.
