Minnie and Martin Sessler

"Minnie" (Arminta Wright) and Martin Ullus Sessler

Minnie (Arminta Wright) and Martin Ulus Sessler were my Great Grandparents. They lived in Barton, Kansas where Martin was a Veterinarian  and Minnie was a full-time, stay-at-home mom to Ernest, Warren (my grandfather), and Cedric. 

Martin's father, Jacob Robert Sessler, immigrated from Mannheim, Baden, Germany with his parents, Adam and Johanna (Brandenburger) Sessler and his brothers and sisters. Jacob married Martin's mother, Mary Kuhn, in Lake, County, Illinois. Martin had 4 sisters and 5 brothers.

Minnie is a bit of a mystery. She was born in Missouri in 1872. The 1900 Census lists her parents as born in Pennsylvania. In 1876 in Davis County, Iowa, John Wright married Nancy J. Harrel, widow of William Harrel. Nancy was born in Indiana. If the Census information is correct, we can assume that Minnie's mother died sometime before 1876 and Nancy Harrel was not Minnie's mother, but was her stepmother. 


Some family members speculate that Minnie was part American Indian. I have not been able to confirm or dispute this claim. And I have not been able to determine who Minnie Wright's mother was.

A Love Story

My Great Grandmother - Jenny Morgan Helfrich Wessels

How I'm related: Connie Sessler - JoAnn Forward - Ann Helfrich - Jenny Morgan

ODESSA JANE MARY GENOFEVE MORGAN HELFRICH WESSELS
Such a long name for such a little lady. 

Odessa Jane Morgan was born on 4 Nov 1871 in Bronson, Bourbon, Kansas. She was the first of the eight children that were born to Levi George and Mary Ann (Turley) Morgan.


In the spring of 1886, when Odessa was 14 years old she went with her father, Levi and three of the older children, Jessie (12), Catherine (9) and Willie (8) to Morton County. They traveled in a wagon train with several neighbors.  It took them three weeks of traveling through rain, snow, hard winds and other discomforts of the cold weather to make it from Bourbon County in the eastern part of Kansas all the way to Morton County in the extreme south-western corner of the state.

Levi filed on a pre-emption claim close to the town of Frisco in Morton County and with the help of his children built a 12' x 20' soddy. They dug and cut the sods for the walls and used curved wood planks for the roof, covering them with sod and dirt.

When the house was built and ready, Odessa's mother and two brothers boarded a train and arrived in Hartland on May 1,1886 where Levi met them and took them to their new home.

The Morgans gathered cow chips for fuel to heat and cook with and hauled their water all the way from Frisco. The sod house was as cozy as necessary until a large rain washed away the dirt and sod on the roof. Their solution to this problem was to build a dugout. It was larger, two rooms, and had wooden sides and a shingle roof.

To make a living, Levi hauled freight from Syracuse, Hartland and Lakin for stores in Richfield and Frisco.  Odessa got a job at the T. B. Porter ranch on the Cimarron River and the whole family picked up dry bones, scattered over the prairie, which they sold for $10 per wagon load.  By autumn 1886 they had managed to save enough to buy a cow so they could have their own milk.

Things were looking good for the Morgans.  They had rented land  and houses all their married lives but now, at last, they owned their own home along with the land beneath it.  Plentiful rain gave a promise of a good yield from crops in the Spring of 1887.  And then one day while Levi was traveling to a nearby town to buy trees for planting to improve the claim, a tornado blew through the Morgan farm, destroying all the improvements on the place, including the family home.  Mary (mother) and the children were unable to save any of their belongings except for those they wore as they fled to a neighbor's house for shelter.  The next day Mary (mother) moved the family to an empty house on the Will Robinson claim. It wasn't long before Levi moved his family to the Vangundy farm on the Cimarron River where they stayed through the years of 1888-1890.

On March 13, 1892, Odessa (20) married George Nickolas Helfrich (age 32), the son of German Catholic Immigrants, Georg and Anna Maria (Scherer) Helfrich. She changed her name to Mary Genofeve, presumably for religious reasons, but throughout life family and friends called her "Jenny." George N. took his young bride to Ellinwood, Barton, Kansas where the Helfrich Family had lived for many years.

On Dec. 1, 1892 their first child was born. George William Helfrich lived 5 days and died on Dec. 6, 1892.  George buried the little baby in the St.s Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery in Ellinwood, Barton, Kansas on Dec. 7, 1892.

In 1893 Jenny and George N. moved to Richfield, Morton, Kansas where George N. farmed and also served 2 terms as Morton County Sheriff, 1898-1899.  While in Richfield, five children were born to Jenny and George N.; Barbara Katherine, December 10, 1893; Henry Cornelius, May 10, 1895; Mary Gertrude, April 6, 1897; Anna Helena, December 8, 1898 and Teresa Francesca, June 19, 1900.

On Sunday, May 6, 1900 a terrible cylcone sweeped through the farm of William Helfrich, brother of George Nickolas, near Ellinwood, Kansas. The following is an excerpt from the "Barton County Beacon" printed May 7, 1900: "A half mile north of St. Peter and St. Paul Church stood the house of William Helfrich. There had been a meeting at the church in the afternoon and the aged father (George Helfrich) and mother (Anna Maria Scherer Helfrich) of William Helfrich and some other parties had just driven into his yard when the storm came upon them. The women had started for the house and the men were unhitching their teams when they were scattered in all directions.  Their horses and buggies were torn apart, the vehicles demolished and the harness torn from the horses. Mr. and Mrs. George Helfrich were picked up and thrown out on the prairie. The old lady died about 2 o'clock that night and the old gentleman is considered bery dangerously hurt.  Four of his ribs are broken and he is bruised up considerably. Mrs. William Helfrich had her hip bruised and a large piece of flesh torn from her thigh.  Her little girl had an arm broken. Their house, barn and other buildings were blown entirely away and everything in it."

The George Nickolas Helfrich family moved back to Ellinwood in 1900. Three more children were born: Sophia Christena, February 24, 1901; Anthony George, May 5, 1904; and John Engelbert, February 25, 1906.

A great sadness occurred in the Helfrich household when baby John died in August 1906 at age six months. Tragedy struck again less than two months later when on October 3, 1906 George Nickolas Helfrich was killed, reportedly in a train accident.

The following is an excerpt from the "Barton County Beacon" printed October 5, 1906: "Early Wednesday morning George Helfrich, a man about 50 years old, was killed by being run over by a train east of Ellinwood, his home. From the evidence before the coroner's jury it seems he had gone out east of town where he was running a threshing engine.  He had been drinking heavily and had created a distrubance with the crew. They got him quieted down but about 3 a.m. he got up and said he was going to fire up the engine. Instead, he must have started for Ellinwood down the railroad track and was run over by some passing train."

The family of George Nickolas Helfrich had the opinion that George met with foul play rather than being accidently killed by a passing train. George had just started a much sought after job as a threshing engineer early in the week that he was killed.  The family also believed that the company circulated the story that George had been drinking heavily to avoid paying the insurance money to the widow and seven small children.

Shortly after the death of her husband, Jenny (age 35) learned that she was pregnant with her tenth child.  The family lived in Ellinwood until the birth of Georgia Elnora, June 6, 1907.  Shortly thereafter, Jenny moved her family to Stevens county and proved up a claim in 1913.

Life on a prairie farm was hard, especially for a widow and eight children. Things were further complicated by Jenny's failing eyesight.  Jenny hired a man to help her with the farm maintainence and chores.  When he took advantage of the situation and of Mary, she fired him.  Jenny's 11th child, Dorothy Irene, was born January 10, 1913.

Jenny's father, Levi G. Morgan died in October 1916 and her mother, Mary Ann (Turley) Morgan died 3 months later, January 1917.

Jenny moved to Ellinwood in 1920 where she later met and married Henry Wessels on June 9, 1924.  Their marriage was cut short when Henry died of a heart attack on September 14, 1929.

Jenny lost two more of her children: Georgia Elnora died June 3, 1928, just three days short of her 21st birthday; and Henry Cornelius drowned March 14, 1935, after saving a child from the river.

Mary Genofeve Morgan Helfrich Wessels died Friday, May 12, 1950 at Tulsa, Oklahoma, the home of her daughter, Christena Marshall.  She was 78 years and 6 months old at the time of her death.  Jenny was buried in the Ellinwood Catholic Cemetery, by the side of her husband, George Nickolas Helfrich.

Moscow House in 1942

This is the house near Moscow, Kansas where my grandparents, Ann and Glen Forward and some of their children moved to in 1942. Wayne and Mary Ann Forward moved here after they married in 1951. Ann, Glen and JoAnn had moved into town (Hugoton) some years before.

(I love the chickens running around in the yard, and the rocking chair on the front porch.)

This is the West side of the Moscow house. Wayne is in the basement window.

The Forward Seven