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Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. Maria Barbara "Babette" WIDENMANN: Birth: 28 NOV 1823 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 3 DEC 1903 in Stuttgart, Ger.

  2. August WIDENMANN: Birth: 14 DEC 1824 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 24 DEC 1824 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg

  3. Karl AUGUST WIDENMANN: Birth: 21 AUG 1826 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 22 JUN 1884 in Whitmore Lake MI, USA

  4. Karl Friedrich WIDENMANN: Birth: 25 FEB 1828 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 14 JUN 1828 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg

  5. Karl Friederich "Fritz" WIDENMANN: Birth: 20 JAN 1829 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 9 JAN 1910 in Ann Arbor MI

  6. Karl Johannes WIDENMANN: Birth: 14 JAN 1830 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 17 MAR 1830 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg

  7. Friederike Louise WIDENMANN: Birth: 11 JUL 1831 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 24 JUL 1905 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg

  8. Johann Karl (Charles) WIDENMANN: Birth: 22 JAN 1833 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 9 DEC 1919 in Vallejo CA

  9. Carl Wilhelm WIDENMANN: Birth: 1 FEB 1834 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 12 MAR 1871 in London, England

  10. Karoline Luise Friederike WIDENMANN: Birth: 5 MAR 1835 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 17 MAR 1835 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg

  11. Karl Heinrich WIDENMANN: Birth: 23 NOV 1838 in Blaubeuren, W�rttemberg. Death: 3 JUN 1920 in Stuttgart, Ger.

  12. Wilhelmina "Mina" WIDENMANN: Birth: 14 MAR 1840 in Prob. in Blaubeuren but possibly in Reutlingen. Death: 2 FEB 1919 in Stuttgart, Ger.


Notes
a. Note:   Johann Jakob was proprietor of the Hirsch and mail contractor, having assumed possession of his parents' properties on 1�September 1822; from 1822 to 1840 he was also postmaster in Blaubeuren. He was the last member of the family to operate the Post and Hirsch. The cost of his mail contractor's uniform, together with a silver-plated post horn, a sabre, and a horse-rug, amounted to 25 florins. The horn served to announce mail coach departures and arrivals. Johann Jakob was ever active, and although belonging to the aristocracy he had a democratic outlook. Documents dating from 1817 in Stuttgart describe him as a Mail Assistant (Postassistent), and in 1822 he is called a "Postal Secretary" in the marriage register. Clearly, he was thoroughly familiar with the postal business and not merely a keeper of post horses. In 1840 he left Blaubeuren to assume the responsibility of postmaster in Reutlingen, and in so doing started a tradition for emigration that has thus far been upheld by four successive generations (see below, no. 187). On 8�October 1845, he was appointed postal stage-coach master (Fahrtpostmeister) in Stuttgart. He was at this phase of his life an affluent man possessing about 51 to 64 acres (80-100 Morgen) of land above Geislingen, including the Degel Mansion (Degelhofes) and large herds of sheep. On 3 May 1852 he was given the title and position of Head Postmaster (Oberpostmeister) and transferred to the post office in Calw in the Black Forest in W�rttemberg. According to Dr. Ulla Wagener (in a letter dated 15�Jan 1984), he regarded this transfer as a serious reversal, despite the title and position. A little more than three weeks later, on 27�May, he therefore applied for retirement, giving physical pain as the reason and requesting that provision be made for reinstatement in the event of recovery. He was then only 55 years old He began to lapse into melancholy, regretting that he had ever left Blaubeuren, where he had been so highly regarded. His wife's death in 1855 intensified his dejection, and the last five years of his life were thus both lonesome and sad. His death by drowning in the Lake of Geneva is by Dr. Ulla Wagner regarded as attributable to suicide rather than an accident, but the police report in connection with his death has disappeared, making it impossible to clarify this point. Interestingly, he had purchased real estate in Ann Arbor, Michigan, perhaps with the intention of emigrating. His son August (no. 80) bought the property from Johann's son-in-law Dr. Friedrich Bitzer (see no. 78), the executor of his estate, on 5�Jun 1861, for $2400. I own a sketch of Johann Jakob made by G. Schacher, and there are several other copies in circulation.


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