Jacob Wildermuth

A parallel Wildermuth branch

This Jacob Wildermuth and his wife Elizabeth lead a family that does not appear in Dale Eesley’s FamilySearch tree. None of their nine documented children’s given names — Charles E, John “Leb”, Harry J, Jesse W, Maude B, Lucy, Zella M, “Lanessa” Louise, or Troy B — match anyone in the structured record of Robert Earl Wildermuth’s Marietta-Ohio Wildermuth line.

Three readings are plausible:

1. A genuinely separate Wildermuth-surname family of German-American immigrants, parallel to Robert Earl’s Johann Michael Wildermuth branch but not descended from him. The Wildermuth surname appears in multiple Württemberg villages of the 17th–19th centuries; multiple emigration waves brought separate Wildermuth families to America. Jacob’s branch may be one of those.

2. A more distant cousin branch — possibly descending from a Württemberg Wildermuth from a different village (Großaspach was Johann Michael’s; Rielingshausen produced many earlier-documented Wildermuths) and emigrating separately. The common ancestor would lie deep enough that Dale’s research hasn’t yet bridged the two trees.

3. A photo Robert Earl collected during his 1971–1989 genealogy research — exchanged with a fellow Wildermuth-surname genealogist, retained without a documented family-tree connection, and now part of the Wildermuth archive image set without being part of the Wildermuth direct lineage.

The 1911 obituary — Jacob C. Wildermuth of Columbus

A Columbus newspaper obituary dated 25 October 1911 identifies him and closes several of the open questions above. Jacob C. Wildermuth, aged 71 (so born about 1840), of 269 East Eleventh Avenue, died of pneumonia after an eight-day illness. He was superintendent of the Wildermuth Bending Co. at Eighth and Fields avenues — a Columbus wood-bending manufacturer — and “active in business until two weeks ago.” He was born in Carroll, Ohio (Fairfield County, southeast of Columbus) and had lived in Columbus for twelve years (so from about 1899).

He was survived by his wife and seven children: J. L. (John “Leb”), H. J. (Harry J.), C. E. (Charles E.), and T. B. (Troy B.) Wildermuth, all of Columbus; Mrs. H. K. Lybrand and Mrs. F. S. Haggart, both of Pasadena, California; and Mrs. A. W. Bercaw of Prescott, Arkansas. (The three married daughters correspond to three of the four daughters named in the family portrait; Jesse W. and one daughter had evidently predeceased him.)

Jacob and Elizabeth Wildermuth in later life, c. 1905–1911 — near the end of Jacob’s life (he died in 1911). The source of both of their page portraits.

What the obituary settles: Jacob was American-born (Carroll, Ohio, c. 1840), not a German immigrant himself, and made his life as a Columbus manufacturer — a Fairfield-County/Franklin-County Ohio Wildermuth family, distinct from Robert Earl’s Marietta (Washington County) line 100 miles southeast. It confirms the earlier estimate that Jacob was a contemporary of Johann Michael Wildermuth (b. 1830), not a descendant. Whether the two Ohio Wildermuth families share a common Württemberg ancestor remains open, but they are clearly separate American branches.

The c. 1885–1895 family group portrait

The photograph is a formal sepia cabinet-card studio portrait showing eleven figures:

• Seated front center: Jacob Wildermuth, with a substantial mustache, in a three-piece dark suit with a watch chain visible, hands relaxed.
• Seated front center right: Elizabeth Wildermuth, in a long dark high-collared dress with a fitted bodice, her hair pulled back, hands folded in her lap.
• Between Jacob and Elizabeth at the front: Troy B Wildermuth — a small boy of about 4–6, in a dark child’s dress with a large bow tie at the neck (children’s clothing of the 1880s–90s included unisex dark dresses for very young children).
• Back row, men, left to right: Charles E, John “Leb” (the second-eldest looking man; “Leb” presumably short for Lebrecht or a similar German given name carried into English use), Harry J, Jesse W.
• Middle row, women, left to right: Maude B, Lucy, Zella M, “Lanessa” Louise (the eldest-looking woman at right edge, wearing a striking checked/plaid skirt).

The composition is the canonical late-Victorian American family portrait of a large household: parents seated with the youngest child between them; the older children arranged by gender and age behind.

The dating

The clothing style — the women’s high-collared dark dresses with fitted bodices and the men’s narrow lapels and bow ties — points to c. 1885–1895. If Jacob is in his late 40s to early 50s in the photograph, he would have been born c. 1835–1845, putting him in the same generation as Johann Michael Wildermuth (b. 1830) — a contemporary Wildermuth, not a descendant.

Open research questions

• Where did the photograph come from? If Robert Earl’s 1989 memoir and 1990 Heritage acknowledge an exchange with another Wildermuth-surname family, the connection might be traceable through his research correspondence.
• Are Jacob and Elizabeth Wildermuth in any U.S. Wildermuth census records? A late-19th-century Jacob Wildermuth with eight named children in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, or another midwestern state would be searchable through Ancestry.com census records.
• Does the Württemberg side of Dale’s tree, deepening backward, eventually connect Jacob to Robert Earl through a common 18th-century ancestor? Possible — the Rielingshausen and Großaspach Wildermuths intermarried over generations, and a Jacob Wildermuth surname-bearer of the right age would likely fall within the broader Württemberg family network.

Source: Family-archived photograph transmitted by Chuck Eesley 2026. Cast identification by Chuck Eesley: “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.”