George Michael & Sidney Wolfe

Saturday, September 26, 2009

My great-grandmother Sidney is a West. The West are traced back to Sir Thomas West (1577-1618). He was educated at Queen's College and elected to Parliament in 1597. He was knighted for bravery fighting battles in Holland & Ireland under the Earl of Essex. In 1610, he became Baron de la Warr, Governor and Captain General of Virginia. Sailing in March 1610, with three ships, 150 settlers, and supplies. He himself carried a major part of the expense of the expedition. Governor West arrived at Jamestown on June 10th in time to intercept colonists trying abandon the enterprise and to return to England. In 1611, West returned to England. By May 1618, he tried to sail back to Jamestown, but never made it. He died and was buried at sea. Poisoning was suspected.

Sidney is also descended from Temperance Flowerdew and her husband, Governor George Yeardley. Their first born, Elizabeth (1619-1666), married Major Joseph Croshaw (1610-1667).
Elizabeth & Joseph Croshaw's daughter, Unity (1636-1669) married Colonel John West (1632-1689). Our line follows their 3rd child, Thomas West (1670-1714).

Sidney's family is traced to Jamestown Colony, Flowerdew Hundred Plantation, West & Sherley Plantation, Westover Plantation, West Point Plantation, and the House of Tudor.

The West & Wolfe families migrated from Carolinas & Virginia around 1770 - 1776. They settled in the northern section of Christian County, known as the 'Fruit District'.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

George Michael & Sidney Wolfe

George Michael & Sidney West Wolfe

married: February 9, 1871

career: George Michael was a farmer & furniture maker. Sidney was a homemaker.
children: Phil, Ira, Joe, Jerome "Rome", James "Jim" (my maternal grandfather), Clyde, Eliza, and Beth
World War I, Clyde & Rome were foot soldiers in Europe serving in the U. S. Army. They both fought in Germany. Jim wasn't called up because he had a small child.

The grandchildren called George Michael & Sidney "Grandpaw" and Grandmaw".

family gatherings: Whenever the Wolfe clan gathered, there was always a big meal. Sidney was an excellent cook and never used a cookbook. Her potato salad was extra special. There were usually several buckets of homemade ice cream (peach & banana). Jim Wolfe liked to supervise the ice cream. The children played games like hide-n-seek and tag.

George Michael Wolfe

born: September 1845 in Todd County, Kentucky
George Michael was a tall, dignified, quiet man. He wore a Kentucky Colonel type hat and walked with a staff type cane. George Michael (like his father, grandfather & great grandfather) was a farmer. After he retired from farming, he moved his family to town. He would walk to the courthouse most days to sit in on court cases. A devoted Methodist, he always said blessings at every meal.
died: August 31, 1927, he just wore out
parents:
Issac Tucker Wolfe (1820-1900) & Adellia Ann Tucker (Wolfe) (1824, VA-1907, KY) Issac T. Wolfe owned two female slaves. reference: 1860 census

paternal grandparents:

George Wolf (about 1750 in Germany-died 1824 in Kentucky) & Elizabeth Flemming (Wolf) (1794, Virginia-1850)

paternal great grandfather:
Jacob Wolf Sr. (a Jewish boy immigrated with his young family from 1751 Germany to escape persecution/started in Pennsylvania/migrated to Virginia, 1821/converted to Christianity). Jacob's name is on the passenger list of "Palatine Ship, Queen of Denmark". He migrated from Ratterdam County, Germany to Pennsylvania, October 4, 1751. From Pennsylvania he migrated to Washington County, Virginia. Jacob added an "e" to Wolf.
reference: rootsweb.com - Jacob Wolf purchased 90 acres of land (and another tract of 50 acres) fro 90 pounds from Joseph Hoskins and wife Anne on 14 August 1799 in Washington County, VA, both of Washington County. Land on branch of Spruce Creek, the waters of the middle fork of the Holstein River, granted to John Anderson by patent date of 5 July 1786. (Washington County VA Deed Book 2, page 54) .....
Famous lawman, Wyatt Earp
(1848-1929)

Sidney Elizabeth West (Wolfe)

Sidney was a quiet woman with a tall frame. She was an excellent cook. She always had a jar full of fresh homemade cookies. Every Sunday, her children knew there would be a hot meal waiting for them & her grandchildren. She was also wonderful with house plants & flowers, had a real 'green thumb'. There were stunning flowerbeds in the summer & plush houseplants in the winter. When George Michael passed, her sons hired a companion to live with Sidney during her widow years. George Michael & Sidney had always taken their children to the Methodist Church. When she lost George Michael she started attending a Church of Christ in her neighborhood that she could walk to.

born: March 14, 1851
siblings: Hue, Alsie, Minnie, and Ben

career: housewife

died: November 19, 1930 of cancer
parents:
Philip Edgar West (1811-?) & Eliza A. Johnson (West) (1818, NC-?, KY)
Their farm was in northern Christian County.
maternal grandfather: Benjamin Johnson (born: 1777, Penn)

My great-grandmother, Sidney Elizabeth West Wolfe, is a direct descendant of Jamestown pilgrims. Following the West line on ancestry.com/a Temperance Flowerdew is found in the second group to arrive in Jamestown. Temperance had a scary crossing in 1609, but she made it, married Colony Governor George Yeardley and had children. She died in 1628, Jamestown Colony.

www.libertyletters.com/resources/jamestown/temperance-flowerdew.php

George Michael & Sidney rest side by side in Riverside Cemetery, Hopkinsville, KY

Sidney the cook and gardener!

Sidney always kept pies & cakes. Her children and grandchildren came by most every Sunday. Jim Wolfe went over during the week to see want grocerys were needed. Grandmaw Wolfe made lots of special decorated cookies for the grandchildren. She kept a cookie jar full at all times. Her potato salad were really something special. She made her own dressing.

She always had beautiful flowers. Her children were always amazed when she could get something to grow they couldn't. Magnificent flowerbeds during the summer. Plush house plants during the winter. Lots of begonias and ferns.

Tough Times at Jamestown

The beginning of the American form of government was fraught with suffering. That revelation about 17th-century settlers in Jamestown, Virginia has slowly surfaced as a team led by archaeologist William Kelso excavates James Fort. Evidence at the fort, which existed from 1607 into the 1620s, indicates that arriving colonists were almost immediately thrust into severe hardships in the form of drought, disease, battles with Indians, starvation, and death. Of the 6,000 English settlers who survived the trip across the Atlantic between 1607 and 1625, more than half perished. But those who survived forged a path toward unimaginable opportunity.

Genealogy Information on the West family

Philip E. West married Eliza A Johnson in 1837. Philip (1811-1895) and Eliza (1813-1895) were both born in North Carolina. At some time before 1850, this West line moved to the Fruit Hill precinct of Christian County, KY. They had seven children. Five were living in 1884:

1st: "Hue" Henry M

2nd: "Alsie" Cornelia C

3rd: "Ben" Benjamin H (born 3-2-1848) adopted one child

4th: Sidney E. West Wolfe (my great grandmother)

5th: "Minnie" Margaret Eva West Nixon (d: 1890) bore the following children - Eva Nixon McPherson, Evan, Clarence, & Harvey

Three generations before Philip West the family lived in North Carolina. In the 1700s, Sidney's ancestors owned a plantation named "West Point". Her West ancestors married Croshaw & Yeardley girls of 17th C Jamestown Colony. In 15th & 16th C England, the Wests were well educated, titled and connected with the House of Tudor. One of the West men married Sir Francis Knollys' daughter.