Charles Gottlieb Weise, Sr. was born April 11, 1829 in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony.  "My Grandfather, Charles Gottlieb Weise, Sr. and his brother Herman, both bachelors then, came to America, and landed in Baltimore Maryland about 1847, when Grandfather was 20.  Uncle Herman brought over his fiancee on the same ship, married her in Baltimore, and then moved to Cincinnati.  However, Grandfather roamed about the country, learning the language (he was a teacher by profession, but could not teach here as he spoke no English when he came) and moved around for his first 10 years in America.  He learned the wood-working trade, and went as far North and West as Racine, Wisconsin.  Then he came to Chicago, which was a small place then before the Big Fire.  He used to tell his children stories of the deer, bear, snakes, that roamed Illinois and Pennsylvania and Ohio.  Then he came to St. Louis, and finally spent all the money he had earned, and came on to Cincinnati where his brother Herman was now well established in the bookbinding trade. ... Grandfather lived with Uncle Herman until he met my grandmother (Mary Ahrens), whom he married about 1860.  They had 7 children: Hannah Weise Burwell, Minnie Weise Hood, Louise Weise Zaeh, Emma Weise, who died while they were on a visit in West Union, Charles Gottlieb, Jr. my father, and William Augustus Weise and Albert the baby.


Martial law was declared in Cincinnati during the Civil War, and as Grandfather was married and had several children, he was not enlisted into the army, but was enlisted to drive a Powder Wagon to deliver gunpowder to a point on Bank Lick Creek, five miles south of Covington, Kentuckey, considered a dangerous occupation.  Having lived in Germany, under forced conscription, my Grandfather did not believe in Slavery, so in addition to driving the Powder Wagon, he helped smuggle slaves from Kentucky to Missouri through the famous Underground Railway.  Grandpa said they would be hidden by day, fed, and then passed on nights where there was no moon to the next "station" in the railway.  He figured he had helped more than 150 Negroes to freedom, a crime he could have been punished for, but he used to tell us a "crime" he was very proud of.  He and Grandma live with us several years when we lived on Close Court, once called Bingham Court in Mt. Lookout in the house you know as the one the Kellers lived in. ... This was a priceless thing for me for I learned so much about the family during those years.  Grandpa died in 1924 at our home, and Grandma went to visit Aunt Louisa Zaeh (Howard Zaeh's mother) about six months after his death, took a cold, pneumonia, and followed him in death by nine months, in 1925."

John Dennis
History of Wayne County, Indiana. Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884.
Volume 2. Pages 775 and 776.
Transcribed by Tina Hursh

John Dennis, was born in Wayne County, Ind., March 3, 1821, the eldest son of Benjamin and Clarkey (Pool) Dennis.   Benjamin Dennis was born near the Allegheny Mountains, in Pennsylvania, in 1795, and at an early age removed with his  parents to Ohio, and resided several years near Cincinnati.  He then lived
with his parents in Warren County, Ohio,  till he was eighteen years old, when he went to Cincinnati, and enlisted in the war of 1812, serving one year.  In 1815
he came to Milton, Wayne Co., Ind., and worked on a farm till 1819.  He was married in 1819 to Clarkey Pool, who was  born in 1801, and the eldest daughter of John Pool, who came from North Carolina in an early day.  They were the  parents of eleven children – John; Gulielma, wife of John Reese, of Hancock
County, Ind.; Priscilla, wife of William Butler, of Henry County, Ind.; Elizabeth and Emmie, deceased; William; Jethro, of Henry County, Ind.; Sarah A. and Benjamin S., deceased; Thomas P., died while in the war near Vicksburg, Miss., Feb. 5, 1864, aged twenty-two years;  and Albert, of Clinton County, Ind.  Benjamin Dennis removed to Henry County, Ind., when our subject was a year old,  where he opened a farm and followed agricultural pursuits till his death in
1844.  He was a member of the Society of  Friends.  His wife is a member of the same society, and still resides in Henry County.  Our subject grew to maturity on
his father’s farm in Henry County, where he was educated in the log cabin schools.  May 5, 1845, he was married to Mary  Ratliff, born in 1827, in Henry County, Ind., and daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Bogue) Ratliff.  They have had eight  children – Sarah A., wife of Theodore Webb, engineer in oil-mill near Richmond; William H., a painter in Richmond;  Elizabeth E., wife of James Akin, of Richmond; Thomas P., farming in Wayne County; Ida M., wife of Eliza Williams, of
Wayne County; Harry S.; Albert, deceased, and John F.  In 1847 Mr. Dennis engaged in the mercantile business in Dublin,  Wayne Co., Ind., which he followed successfully till 1855.  He then engaged in painting in Richmond till 1861, and in  August of that year he enlisted in Company F., Thirty-Sixth Indiana Infantry
for three years.  In 1862 he became  unfitted for duty, owing to his age and exposure of camp life.  He was furloughed home where he remained nearly a year,
when he reported to his command at Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he was discharged in April, 1863.  He then carried on the  mercantile business in Richmond till 1876, when he purchased and removed to the farm, where he is still engaged in  farming and horticulture.  He and wife and five youngest children belong to
the Society of Friends.  Mrs. Dennis’s  father died in Henry County, Ind., in 1855. Her mother is living in Henry County, aged seventy-seven years.  They were
the parents of thirteen children – Mary (wife of our subject), Samuel (deceased), Sarah, Marian, Jonathan, Henry (a  soldier in the late war, died of measles, at Memphis, Tenn., in 1864), Hannah and Nancy (deceased), Huldah, Margaret,  Asa, Cornelius and Amos.