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Note: Julia was an only child raised by her mother and stepfather. She was named after her two grandmothers, Julia Wills and Catherine Diepes Opdenweyer. She always had a twinkle in her one eye for she was blind in the other. The family story was that she lost the sight of the eye while cutting fishing line in Galveston where she lived until she was 8. She was a fine pianist; but also loved to read murder mysteries. She and Hubert raised six outstanding children. Julia's mother (Alzada Davidson) lived with the family and tutored the children until her death on April 16, 1915 in Temple, TX. Julia's father was Otto Matthias Opdenweyer, a cotton broker who died of tuberculosis at age 38 on June 30, 1876. His family was in the lumber mill business in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. His father, Joachim Opdenweyer, a cabinet maker, moved to America from Willich, Germany about 1838. He completed the Naturalization process in 1846. Julia lived in Louisiana until about 1888 when she and her mother moved to San Antonio to escape asthmatic conditions in New Orleans. She was an organist at the Methodist Church where she met the young minister, Hubert D. Knickerbocker. They were married for 60 years. ******** Julia applied for the United Daughters of the Confederacy when she was living in Little Rock, AR, in 1928. She had obtained the National Archives record of her father's service with the Confederacy during the Civil War. She was admitted to the organization on scant details about her father. She stated that the family Bible had been stolen! So she listed two of her mother's brothers who were also in the Civil War. Her handwriting is difficult to read. She gave her birthdate as July 20, 1869, and the place of birth as Bayou Barbary, Livingston Parish, Louisiana, which I have. However, in the 1870 Census, she was listed as 11/12 old when the enumeration was taken in June. Therefore, she would have turned 1 on July 20, 1870. And her state of birth was listed as Texas! Maybe she didn't know where she was born. She gave her father's name as Otto Matthias and his date of death as 1875, although it was a year later. It is clear to me that she knew very little about her father, but the fact that she obtained his military service record helped her to join the UDC, which provided me with a copy on Sept. 17, 2001.
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