Elizabeth Wellman was born on Jun 27, 1884 in Aslage, Germany. She is Walt’s 1st cousin twice removed. Her father and Walt’s grandfather were brothers.
Elizabeth Wellman was born to Herman and Mary Brinker Wellman. The family had 6 children while living in Germany and came to the United States in 1897. They arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 18. In 1902, Elizabeth became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
The 1900 census finds Lizzie, as she was commonly known, living with the Odiorne family in West Point, working as a housekeeper at the age of 15.
On October 17, 1905, Elisabeth married Henry Merschbrock in West Point, Iowa. They were married at St Mary’s by Father Jacoby. That’s a familiar name amongst the family for weddings and baptisms! The registry is somewhat hard to read. It does note that they had difficulty reading the original certificate and so Henry’s father is listed as Herberd instead of Edward and it simply says “can not read it” where his mother’s name should go. Her name was Elizabeth Umthum.
Henry and Elizabeth lived in Franklin township in Lee County, Iowa. They had a farm. By 1910, their first two children had been born. Elizabeth and Henry went on to have 3 more children. Through the 1920s, ’30s and early ’40s, they farmed in same area.
Henry Merschbrock died on April 13, 1947. Elizabeth moved in with her daughter Mildred Scharpman’s family in West Point. Mildred’s husband James worked at Scheaffer Pen in Fort Madison at that time.
Elizabeth Wellman Merschbrock died on August 13, 1966 in West Point. She is buried in Calvary Cemetery there.
I wrote about Elizabeth’s Sister Catherine in this post and her brother Henry in this one.
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