Chasing Our Tales, August 2003, The Seibert Family, formerly of Frankfort on Main

A serendipitous email which I just receive convinced me that my husband's family, the Seibert family, should be the next subject of this column. We have recently returned from a family reunion which took place in Brookings, Oregon. This was not because Brookings is the Seibert home town, but it is because my husband's last remaining aunt lives close by and cannot travel long distances. First cousins attended this reunion from as far away as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. Many of these cousins had not seen each other in over 25 years.

Now, at this point you may be asking yourself what this has to do with Palo Pinto County...as this appears to be a very selfish column, but in fact, when my husband Ralph S. Seibert III, and I, moved back to Mineral Wells in 1979, there were Seiberts already living here. Those Seiberts, like us, were in the teaching business, and we met them, a sister and brother, when we were doing graduate work at Tarleton. They are no longer in the county, but I have found an obit about George Frederick "Bud" Seibert, 74, of Graford, a civil engineer, who died 12 Dec 1998. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His survivors included daughters, Carol Seibert-Vaughn of Lubbock, Margie Seibert of Abilene and Virginia Lee Seibert of El Paso; sons, George Frederick Seibert Jr. of El Paso, Henry Earl Seibert of Lubbock and John Seibert of Lampasas; sisters, Helen Reilly and Naomi Hayes, both of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Then, I checked my email and found this query from Shirley Pollard < rapollard@msn.com > of Boston: "My 3x great grandmother was Christina Seibert, who married Johann Jager in November of 1848 at St Matthews Evangelical Lutheran Church in New York City. There were both from Seckbach, Hesse-Darmstadt Germany, a small town about 2 miles northeast of Frankfurt. They lived briefly in Rhinebick, Dutchess City, New York, and in 1849 my 2x grandfather John Jager was born. From there they traveled to Northampton, Massachusetts, and bought a fairly large dairy farm in the small town of Florence. John's oldest son was Charles, my great-grandfather, who married Isabel E. Noble, whose parents emigrated from Enniskillen Fermanagh, Ireland in 1870."

Well, that did it for me, so here is some more on my husband's Seiberts. His father, Ralph Spurgeon Seibert Jr., was born in Oakdale, Pennsylvania, 16 Sep 1917, to Ralph

Spurgeon and Ethel Pauline Haugh Seibert. He married Anna Margaret Clifford 30 Aug 1940, in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. Ralph Sr. was the son of William Penn Seibert, who was the son of John A. Seibert Jr., the son of John A. Seibert Sr. who was born in Frankfort on Main in 1771. The same Frankfort from which the above Christina Seibert came.

There are, as with all families, many related names. My father-in-law's first cousin, Bill Seibert, told this story about one Joseph Sturgis. In about 1750, as a lad of 18, Joseph was on his way to a certain log-built meeting house, in New Jersey, not far from New York City, on a Sunday afternoon. At this meeting house there was to be a meeting to take measures to protect the people from the depredations by the Indians. The house was full of people, and as Joseph came to a rise in the road, where he was not himself observed, he saw the Indians setting fire to the house at different places and preparing to keep the people from coming out. All the Indians were armed and were in considerable force. The lad took in the situation at once, and unseen, he turned and ran as swiftly as possible and aroused the neighborhood, who rallied around the meeting house, beat off the Indians, and although the building burned to the ground, none of the people inside were injured.

Coincidentally, about ten years before the above incident, Joseph's family crossed the Atlantic on a ship with another family who had a daughter about Joseph's age. They continued the acquaintance made aboard ship and when they had grown, after the above incident, they were married. These two people had a daughter who, when grown, married John A. Seibert, an immigrant from Frankfort on Main in Germany.

My father-in-law, Ralph S. Seibert Jr., told many wonderful stories about his life as a boy and young man in Pennsylvania. One of my favorites is a Christmas story, and although Christmas seems far away in August in Texas, perhaps you will enjoy it just the same:

"I was about six months old when my family moved to the Bell Farm. It was a large farm of approximately 1100 acres. The farm was a hobby of a wealthy man known as John A. Bell. Mr. Bell was the owner of a coalmine in the Pittsburgh area. Only certified milk was produced on the Bell Farm, and it was in high demand. That was before the time of cholesterol.

"My dad was the office manager for the farm. One of his responsibilities was to keep the records of the product as it left the farm.

"My dad would come home about noon time on Christmas Eve, and he would start preparing the Buick touring car for the trip to Coraopolis which was approximately 8 miles from the farm. Mainly that consisted of putting the Isinglass curtains on the side of the car. Mother would be in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Pumpkin pies were our standard deserts on Christmas. After dinner that evening we would all commence the trip to church. Loading the Buick was always a monumental task. My dad was an accomplished cellist. He was called upon to play at most social occasions which he attended, and church services at Christmas were no exception.

"First into the car was the cello. Then the kids, all five of us. We would get in and move our legs so we had room around the cello, and we were not allowed to kick it. Then Mother would tuck us in with a warm blanket, and with that we were off to church.

"Now that I am older, I am starting to realize what a task that was. In those days the tires on the cars were undependable. But I can not remember a delay of getting to church or coming home from church on Christmas.

"When we arrived at church we would take our place in a pew about half way down. My mother didn't like to sit too far up front. Then we would sit through the service, which seemed interminably long. Finally we would hear bells ringing in the rear of the church. Santa would come strolling down the aisle with a sack over his shoulder. He would take his place by the podium at the front of the church, and all the kids would line up and take turns sitting on his lap and telling him what they wanted for Christmas. Then he would give each child a box of candy in a cardboard box shaped like a church, and it would be filled with hard candy.

"Naturally that was the conclusion of the service, and we had to prepare for the trip home. We would be winding our way through the hills of Pennsylvania, and the kids would be on the lookout for Santa. Periodically we would ask Mother if she had seen Santa. The answer would be, "Oh, yes, he was at the Boyd's house."

"It was always at some place behind us. Needless to say, we weren't coaxed to go to bed. When we came down stairs in the morning, we would go into the sitting room, and there would be the tree. Dad would always wait for all the people to show up, and then he would light the candles on the tree. We would all sit and admire them for about 5 minutes, and he would put them out to relight them that evening.

"We always had a large crowd at the dinner table, and the food was always ample to feed everyone."

At our reunion in Oregon, we shared many of these stories, and we interviewed Aunt Polly Seibert Kohl on mini-DVD so that we can make DVDs for all the family. We shared recipes, laughter, and tears, and most of all I watched first cousins get to know each other as adults. I would wish that all families would have such a reunion, a questioning of the older generations, and a bonding for the younger.

Now on to correspondence.

"Albert T. Smith married Edna Stevens. I think in Fayette County, TX. They moved to Palo Pinto County in the early1900s. Edna's parents were James Henry Stevens and Synthia G. Wisdom. Edna and Albert (Tony) Smith are buried at Lone Camp in the New Hope Cemetery. They were living in Arkansas sometime between 1925 and 1935. Their children were Mildred Smith, Furman Smith, Mamie Smith, Marynell Smith, Alfreda Smith, and Lois Smith. I think this is their children, but some could be grandchildren, you know how mixed up people can get when they are in their 70's and older and don't remember the people but tell you what someone told them. If this family fits any of yours I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. Ruby Marsden Eberhardt < rme01@cox-internet.com >"

If you have information regarding the Seibert family or if you have family reunions or other information you would like to share, please contact me at P. O. Box 61, Mineral Wells TX 76068-0061 or email at siouxcitysue@cox-internet.com . See ya!