|
|
|
Wife of CHRISTIAN WULTZEN DIED APR. 23, 1867 "AGED 78 YEARS" |
| Author's note: I had originally captioned the above stone as Christian Wultzen because that's clearly the name engraved upon it. A Wultzen descendant informed me that the occupant of this grave is actually Christian's wife, Christiana Wultzen. The dates and age given on the stone support this. There is no marker on Christian's grave and the family believes that there may never have been one. It was pointed out to me that a possible explanation for the disparity between the name and the occupant is that the faint markings visible near the top of the stone that I had originally ignored as random damage spell out "Wife of". When I examined that part of the picture closely, the "Wi" is unmistakeable, the other letters can be made out with a little study (and imagination). Digital manipulaton of the image indicates this part of the stone was framed by a raised area-- further indication that there was writing there. Closer examination on a subsequent visit to the cemetery confirms that the characters are indeed engraved in the stone. Noting that wife of and his wife are common on other stones in the cemetery and considering the chattel status that wives were accorded in that era, this makes sense. |
| Other information received from a Wultzen descendant:
Page W-66 of the Livingston County Burials from Lexington Genealogical & Historical Society. Notations for her are: "Wife of Christian - Christian is buried beside her - per interview with Mrs. Jerry Wultzen." (Jerry Wultzen was the grandson of Christian and Christiana) Notation for him: "Served in Battle of Waterloo from city of Bremen. Buried beside wife Christiana - per interview with Mrs. Jerry Wultzen" Christian Wultzen's 1881 obituary: "Christian Wultzen, an old resident of Riverside, died last night in the 94th year of his age. Mr. Wultzen was a kind old gentleman whose memory will be cherished by all who have ever known him. There are many particulars of his life that would go toward making an interesting biography if they could be properly collected. He is one of the very few survivors who engaged in the historical Battle of Waterloo, and fought under Wellington. He was a soldier of the Free City of Bremen, enlisting of his own accord at the age of twenty-one and receiving an honorable discharge after serving six years and eight months, in November, 1815. His discharge, a torn and time-stained document, was shown us this morning and was translated by Mr. Robert Scharfenberg. The funeral will take place at the house of his son on Riverside, tomorrow at 10 o'clock." The "son on Riverside" they refer to is Edward Wultzen. By the time Edward died in 1911, some of his family had dropped the "t" from the name. Edward married Angeline Defenbaugh, daughter of Samuel Defenbaugh who gave the land for the Defenbaugh Cemetery and he and Angeline are buried there. Mr. Wultzen fought in the Battle of Ligny and the Battle of Waterloo as a Voluntary Jager in a detachment of the city of Bremen with the 1st Army Corps of the Prussians. While he didn't actually serve under a British flag, it was the arrival of Blucher's Prussian forces on the field that turned the tide of the battle against the French and resulted in the historic defeat that spelled the end of the Napoleonic Wars. |
