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Weisinger Family

Jacob Johann Weisinger

The Weisingers of Burke descend from Johann Jacob Weisinger, who was born probably at Neuenburg, Germany, and arrived at Philadelphia in 1753 aboard the ship "Edinburgh", which had sailed from Rotterdam, Holland via Portsmouth, England. He settled at Charleston, South Carolina, where he his son John Jacob Weisinger was born in 1775.

John Jacob Weisinger

John Jacob Weisinger moved to Dallas County, Alabama and established a home on Talladega Creek between Berneston and Allison's Mill. Jacob and his wife Mary Elizabeth eventually moved to Union County, Arkansas with son John, Jr.

Mattias Weisinger

Their oldest son Matthias was born in South Carolina in 1796. In 1814 he married Leah Caroline Hornsby, and by 1830 they had moved to Dallas County, Alabama along with Matthias' parents. Just after 1850 Matthias and Caroline moved to Antrim, Houston County, Texas.

Robert E. (Uncle Bob) Weisinger

Mattias and Caroline's son Robert was born in 1874 in Houston County, probably in the Antrim community. In 1880 Robert was still living with his parents,John Matthias and Nancy Weisinger, and brothers James, John, Foster and Monroe and sisters Eudora and Ellen in Houston County. Some time between 1880 and 1900, the Weisingers moved to Ryan Chapel. It is believed that most of the family moved to to Angelina County, and it is known that Robert's brother Jim and sister Emma, who married Ira A. Ryan, moved to the area. Why the Weisingers moved to Burke is unknown, but perhaps it was to enjoy the prosperity created by the railroad and commercial activity in Burke and Diboll.

In 1900 Robert E. Weisinger, lived at Ryan Chapel area and had married Fannie Crager, who was a daughter of Francis and Mary Crager. Robert and Fannie had a daughter Thelma and a son Homer. It appears that his brother Jim, sister Emma, who married Ira A. Ryan, and perhaps brother John also came to Angelina County. Some say that Fannie and Robert separated and Robert moved to Burke and lived in living quarters he built onto the garage bought from Paul Kellow. After Fannie died Robert was a bacherlor living at the filling station.

In his later years he married a woman name May from Pampa, Texas, whom he met it is said by correspondence. She left after Robert's death but returned in a few years to live in the old station until her death.

Sources:

  1. 1880 Census, Houston County, Texas
  2. 1900 Census, Angelina County, Texas
  3. Joe Allen Ryan, Personal Recollections