This last or your heritage is the one of which we know the least and have to start it in the eleventh generation. The earliest names we know are Wagner and Herte. Like the Gremmells, the Herte family was also one of consequence in Germany; but unlike Jeremiah G., those of the Herte family who came over to America were able to bring a certain amount of their wealth with them. Two of the family who came over was:
11. -- John and Catherine
11. -- John Herte -- upon coming to America, he settled in New Jersey where his descendants still live.
12. -- A girl -- daughter of John Herte
13. -- Carrie -- we don't know her name because we don't know whom her mother married. But, Carrie married Jacob Strimple of Pedricktown, New Jersey, where Carrie still lives. Carrie was a trained nurse and served in a Camden, New Jersey Hospital.
11. -- Catherine, -- married Leonard Wagner in Germany. - He came to America before his wife did in order to find place to live. Other than their daughter Mary being born in a log cabin on the Snipery road, we know little of their earlier homes in America. After a few years they purchased the farm joining the Hills homestead on the west and lived in a large house which at that time was a part of a farmstead then standing on the extreme west end of what you call the "Lane Road" on the south edge of your grandfather's west farm. You can find the farm and its buildings in the 1876 map of Darien Township. After the older five children had married, they moved with the youngest child, into Corfu and lived on the southwest corner of Main Street and Prospect Avenue.
During her later years Catherine became a semi-invalid and after 1882 when she separated from her husband, she lived in turn with her several children, dying around 1900 at the home of her daughter Mary. She is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery of Buffalo and Leonard Wagner is burled in the Indian Falls German Cemetery on your boyhood home. The six children they had were:
12. -- Leonard, Mary, John, Eva, George, and Susan
12. -- Leonard -- the younger Leonard Wagner married Mary (Minnie) Hums in Corfu and taking over the farm at the end of the Lane road, continued its operation by renting it to tenants while he and Mr. Cyrus Palmer owned and operated the only hardware at that time in Corfu. He also owned a meat market in the village. When Minnie died in 1924, she had a collection of historical documents about the Corfu area, which now belong to her granddaughter Evelyn Smith Schurr and will probably be given to your mother as the township Historian. Leonard died at the home of his daughter Renie in Buffalo in 1928. They had two children:
13. -- May and Renie
13. -- May -- married Frank Smith of Corfu.
He operated his father's farm just west of the village for years and later they moved into the village. May Wagner and Frank Smith had eleven children:
14. - Avola, Evelyn, Marian, Claude, Neva, Isabelle, Beatrice, Lola, Lillian, Alton, Catherine
14. -- Avola -- married Clifford Wilson, lives in California and has three children -- one of them named Jane. All three of these children have children of their own for the sixteenth generation.
14. -- Evelyn -- married Erwin Schurr, who died in 1960, and she lives in Corfu. Her children:
15. -- Phyllis -- married a Schwarze, lives in Rochester and has three children.
15. -- Paul Schurr -- married Audery Stakel (daughter of the lawyer in Batavia) and has no children yet.
14. -- Marian -- is a nurse, married Charles Jordan, lives in Saratoga Springs, New York and has no children.
14. -- Claude -- the only boy left of the family, lives in Alden, New York, married a Tooti and has 3 children.
14. -- Neva -- married Arthur Hardy, lives in Perry, New York, has five children and several grandchildren for the sixteenth generation.
14. -- Isabelle -- married Charles Green, lives also in Alden, and her daughter Kay is the same age as you are, LaVerne, Junior and attends Alden high school.
14. -- Beatrice -- married Frank Sloat (the tire dealer) of Batavia.
14. -- Lola -- married Joseph Hertriter, lives in Clarence Center and has four children.
14. -- Lillian -- married Charles Ibsen, lives in Fort Worth, Texas and has two children -- Karen and Jan.
14. -- Catherine -- married Perry Coate, lived at first in Pembroke and now in Buffalo and has three children.
14. -- Alton -- born about the same time as your uncle Byron, he was killed in an automobile accident when he was eight years old.
13. -- Renie -- the youngest of Leonard's children and the one with whom your grandmother Hills live when she had the store in Corfu; married Grover Mayne of Corfu and they lived in later years in Buffalo. Renie and Grover had no children.
12. --Mary Wagner -- (April 7. l856-Apr. 19, 1925) -- This is the same Mary Wagner of whom we wrote earlier that another of your ancestors, Charles Stang, was interested in as the only "girl friend" he ever had. Probably he met her as a result of the Wagner's attending the German Church in Indian Falls. You will notice that your mother's name of Mariem is the combination of the two words Mary and Emma, the first names of her two grandmothers.
It was on March 4, 1876 that Mary married Jeremiah Philip Grimmell (Jan 17, 1855-0ct 12, 1897). Although there was insurance after Jeremiah's death at the early age of 42 and although she did leave her heirs a certain amount of money at her own death, Mary was forced to take boarders into her home to support her six children:
13. -- Hattie, Mabel, Grace, Chester, Eleanor, and Linda
13. -- We have described something of the lives of Hattie, Mabel, Chester, Eleanor and Linda under the division Grimmell.
13. -- Grace -- (born May 10, 1883 - Aug. 15 1973) -- Grace Margarette became acquainted with Roy Eugene Hills while she was living in the Corfu home of the before mentioned Renie Wagner Mayne. Grace married Roy Hills (d. Dec. 29, 1979) on March 21, 1912 and they had two children:
14. -- Ruth Mariem Hills and Byron Eugene Hills
14. -- Ruth Mariem Hills -- married LaVerne Stang Lamkin and had:
15. -- LaVerne Stang Lamkin Jr. and Davis Hills Lamkin
12. -- John Wagner -- brother of Mary, married Minnie Rohr and later they moved to the Dakotas where Minnie died leaving two little girls:
13. -- Ruth and Clara
John Wagner later returned east and married his sister-in-law, Carrie Rohr who still survives at age 89. John owned and operated a dairy in Buffalo until he died during a Spanish flu epidemic during World War 1. Carrie later married Herman Guhl who is now deceased. John and Carrie had three children:
13. -- Ethel, Glenn, and Raymond
13. -- Ruth Wagner -- married Herbert Froelich (now deceased), lived in Buffalo and had two children.
13. -- Clara -- married Harry Conger, also in Buffalo and has two daughters.
13. -- Ethel -- married Carl Williamson (deceased), lived in Orchard Park and has two daughters.
13. -- Glenn -- married Nellie (?) and he and Nellie adopted two children.
13. -- Raymond -- the youngest of the family, lives in New York City, is a graduate of Columbia University and he has no family.
12. -- Eva -- called Effie, married Fred Riener, who owned and operated another Buffalo dairy. They later moved to Maxilla, New York, but later back to Buffalo, N. Y. where he died. Effie lived several years longer. They had four:
13. -- Mabel, Fred, Elmer, and Milford
13. -- Mabel -- never married and did secretarial work in a Buffalo insurance office.
13. -- Fred -- married Florence Pierce and was an electrician. Both are now deceased. They had five children.
13. -- Elmer -- married Mildred Mooch (deceased), became an electrician in Mildred's father's factory, and had four children. One a girl Elvin and another a boy who with his wife is a missionary in Brazil today.
13. -- Milford -- married Ethel Hughes. Formerly in Buffalo, they live now on the south side of route 5, west of the Boyce road. Milford is on the Board of Directors of the Buffalo Forge Company and is treasure of the firm. Have:
14. -- Virginia, Dorothea, and Marian
14. -- Virginia -- married Donald Ensmenger, her second cousin, your mother's own cousin (Virginia is your mother's second cousin) to make another double relationship of your genealogy. They have:
15. -- Philip, Steven, girl who died in infancy, and in 1961 (?).
14. -- Dorothea -- married William Pohle (also relation), lives in Buffalo and has three children.
14. -- Marian -- married John Heintz in Buffalo, but they now live in Rochester and have two children.
12. -- John Wagner -- as a very young man, went out to the Dakotas. Your grandmother isn't sure if he and his brother John went out at the same time, or if John went later to locate George. No other information concerning him.
12. -- Susan -- the youngest of the family, married Fred Rohr in Buffalo where Fred was a streetcar conductor. She had:
13. -- Harold Rohr -- married Mary Malone (deceased) in 1938 and they had no family. Harold was a Postal Clerk in the Buffalo railroad terminal and later did the same work in Rochester.
13. -- Helen Rohr -- married Joseph Zuber (also deceased) in Buffalo and she has four children