The Real Thing

This is my 2nd great grandfather's commission in the Confederate Army, where he served in the 45th Virginia Regiment with the rank of Major, and later served with other regiments as a Colonel, during the Civil War (1861-1865).

Painted on wood in about 1861 by an anonymous artist, this is the only portrait our family has of William Harrison Werth (1829-1872), who was born and died in Virginia. The portrait and the commission are here at my cousin W's home, and it was an honor to see and photograph them both. She plans to have both artifacts restored and then give them to her nephew, who has a keen interest in military history, particularly that which involved his ancestors.

William's childhood was not easy. A week after his ninth birthday, his mother died of "consumption" (tuberculosis) at age 30, leaving behind William, his sisters Margaret, nearly 3, and Victoria, age 2, and baby Edward, eight months old, who died a few months after his mother.

William's father, John Jacob Werth, Jr., remarried three years later, just three days after his son's 12th birthday. His new wife, a widow, brought to the marriage a son by her first marriage, who was older than William, causing him to lose his place as the oldest child. Four more children joined the family between 1844 and 1852.

In 1849, at age 20, William Harrison Werth joined the Gold Rush to California. When he married Susan Jane Watkins (1839-1931) in 1861, the wedding ring he gave her was made from a nugget he panned in California. They had five children, three boys and two girls. The youngest was not yet three and the oldest -- my great grandfather -- had just turned 10 when William died at age 42 of injuries sustained during his war service.

His wife, Susan, never remarried, and died at age 91. Her own mother had died just before Susan was ten months old; she was raised by her maternal grandparents.

So many significant losses in these young lives!

(We had another successful ancestor search at a nearby cemetery today with my cousin and her husband, and a pleasant lunch at The Log House 1776 Restaurant in Wytheville -- see us around the table here on Phil's journal.)