BURIAL: Inurnment was at Chapel of the Pines in Los Angeles, California (Memorial Card of Otto E. Knight)
FRIENDS/ASSOCIATES: Claire Banth - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knigh
Joe Banth - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
P. J. Biesee - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Frank R. Brunner - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Dale Bullard - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Eddie Burton - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
Phil & Frances Carrell - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Jean Carson - Relative attending Otto's funeral
Pearl Carson - Relative attending Otto's funeral
L. Castilla - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Helen Clement - Friend attending Otto's funeral
J. B. Cook - Friend attending Otto's funeral
C. Orville Courtney - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Mary Dougherty - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Dorothy Erickson - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Bob Giffin - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Lou Giffin - Friend attending Otto's funeral
P. (Jack) Goddard - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Bob Greiner - Friend attending Otto's funeral
William Hale - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
James Hornbeck - Relative attending Otto's funeral
Lena Hornbeck - Relative attending Otto's funeral
Charles Hum - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
Frances Hurley - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Ruth Jacobson - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Mary Knight - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Norman - Miller - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Edith Millspaugh - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
Otis Millspaugh - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Ernest Mitchell - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Joyce Mitchell - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Pamela Mitchell - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Ruth Mitchell - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Dorthea Neel - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Jim Neel - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Otto Ploetz - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
Augustine Ploetz - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
Meloin P. Randall - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Lee E. Stradley - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Carl Sutton - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Frank Thompson - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
Verne K. Tucker - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Joe Wiley - Friend attending Otto's funeral
Betty Wolfe - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
Wally Wolfe - Made floral offering at funeral of Otto E. Knight
Walter Zurich - Friend attending Otto's funeralRESEARCHED: Requested Birth Certificate for Otto E. Knight from County Recorder, Madison County, Madison, Nebraska 68748. They referred me to Bureau of Vital Statistics at Lincoln, Nebraska, but stated that since Nebraska had been registering births only since 1904 that it was unlikely that his birth was recorded.
The following information was told to me by Robert E. Knight. I record it here as accurately as I am able to from memory. Gertrude Alice Biggs was a divorcee. She was planning to remarry which created quite a scandal (Divorce was not very common at that time) She went to a doctor for some sedatives to settle her nerves. Evidently, at that time, stricnine was a common ingredient used in medications. Gertrude died of stricnine poisening on her wedding night. According to family tradition, the doctor was charged with murder. It is said that the doctor was in love with her and did not want her to marry someone else so he poisened her. He was acquitted. This story should be easy to document as there should be records of the criminal trial.
RESEARCHED: Requested birth record of Gertrude Alice Biggs from Iowa State Department of Health, Lucas State Office Building, Des Moines, Iowa 50319. They did not locate record, but kept fee anyway.
TODO: Need to Request copy of death certificate from Bureau of Records and Vital Statistics, 744 P. Street, Sacramento, CA 95814.
TODO: Need to request copy of Margaret's death certificate from Bureau of Records and Vital Statistics, 744 P. Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
During most of his life, Ezra W. Wolfe was an accomplished teacher of instrumental music, with band his specialty. At the age of sixteen he had his first band at Tarlton, Ohio. When the Civil War broke out he was teaching music at Indianapolis, and enlisted for three months period under Gen. Lew Wallace, as it was thought at that time that the rebellion would be crushed within that length of time. Gen. Lew Wallace commissioned him a captain and charged him with organizing a band. In a letter to President Lincoln, Gen. Wallace said that if the government could not afford to pay the band he would do so himself. The band served with the 61st O. V. I. as the Regimental Band. In May 1862, by order of the War Department, it was mustered in Gen. Hugh Ewing's Brigade as Brigade Band. During the operations about Vicksburg, Miss., the band became disabled by death and sickness, and it was again discharged by special order from the War Department in May 1863. After that the band was reorganized as Post Band at Camp Chase, where it remained until the close of the war, and it was finally mustered out on the 4th of February 1865. His brother, John Wolfe, also served in his bands.
Among other campaigns, he was with Sherman on his March to the Sea. For three nights he lay out in the snow in the Battle of the Wilderness. Twice he was invalidated with bursted ear drums from cannon fire; but in later years it was his practice to go out on the porch during heavy thunder storms and listen to the thunder as it reminded him of cannon fire. His band was in the guard of honor when Lincoln's body was taken to the rotunda of the State House in Columbus where it lay in state for a day. As an officer, his side arm was a sword; but in later years he had the sword made into a corn cutter for he feared that his sons might injure themselves with it.
He was considered on the the finest buglers in the Union Army, but when his home burned in Lancaster, the fine silver bugle that his Tarlton band had given him at the biginning of the war was destroyed. Practically all the music for his bands was written by him by hand. there are on display in the Mormon Museum at Salt Lake City, two little music books that were written by him. He was personally acquainted with Gen. sherman and gen. Ewing, both of Lancaster, Gen. Sheridan, who lived twenty miles away at Somerset, and Gen. Grant, all native Ohioans.
After the war, he taught band music in various towns in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. At Napoleon, Ohio, where h had a band, he met Frances Ritter and married her in 1866.
Ezra inherited his land in south Lancaster, and there the family lived for many years. ("A History of the Wolfe Family," Page 13 & 14, by Herbert M. Turner)
BURIAL: Ezra is buried at Forrest Rose Cemetery.
Frances Ritter... started to school when she was three years old in the little school houe that was built on land given by her father, Joseph Ritter, and which adjoined the Ritter farm. Until she was about seven or eight years old she spoke nothing but German, which language was then as prevalent in Fairfield County as was English. About the year 1851 she moved with her family to Henry County, and settled near Napolean, Ohio. There her father took possession of a section and a half of virgin forest land situated along the banks of the Maumee River. He built a log cabin and the family entered into a pioneer life. (A History of the Wolfe Family, Page 24, by Herbert M. Turner)
Frances Ritter was a remarkable woman. She was of an unusually kindly and friendly disposition, but of strong character. Her convictions were strong and with these she never temporized but was very positive. And when the occasion required she was uncompromisingly immovable and stern. But her mind was open and she was well informed.
She also took great pleasure in her grandchildren and was genuinely and deeply interested in them. On their visits with her she saw to it that they enjoyed themselves. While the children no doubt thought they had the run of the place, she had an unintrusive way of knowing where they were and what they were doing. Many times during the day she made her appearance, and in her kindly manner, inquired as to their fun. She was not unmindful of childish appetites either, and so from time to time between meals there were handouts of cookies adn delicious cherry pie made dry so it would not drip and soil their clothing. Whenever any of them were ill she most always came to sit by the bedside to ease the burden of illness with songs and stories. Her songs were usually of a Civil War vintage.
A great source of pleasure to her was her garden. She loved nothing better than to work in it all day long, and this she continued to do until she was almost 85 years old. She seldom missed going to church every Sunday, and until the last several years of her life, she always attended the Methodist Camp Meetings near Lancaster, for two or three weeks each summer.
In a very interesting and informative way she told many stories of things that happened a long time ago - of her childhhod, of the Civil War, of Lincoln, of pioneer days. It is from her that the writer first became interested in these things. Many items of information we have about the Ritters, the Hoys, the Wolfes came from her or resulted from things she said. Her information has been found to be very accurate. Her mind was always strong and keen and remained so up to the very last. It is to be regretted that with her passing many things of great interest pertaining to the old families from which she sprang were lost. ("A History of the Wolfe Family," Page 14, by Herbert M. Turner)
BURIAL: Frances is buried at Forrest Rose Cemetery
CHURCH: Frances Ritter was of the Evangelical Association and adamantly refused to become a Presbyterian when she came to Lancaster with her husband. Thus is was that they became members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lancaster.