THE CIVIL WAR

THE CIVIL WAR

and our ancestors…

First… The Confederate Soldiers:
James V Willman
William Cheek Willman
John M Willman

Did you know that we had ancestors fighting on both sides of the Civil War?? Our ancestors joined the service of their country for things they believed important at that time... Union soldiers and Confederate soldiers…

The Confederates in our family… Yes, more than one… three in fact. James V Willman and his two sons, John M Willman and William Cheek Willman.

William Cheek Willman was the father of Susan Lenore Willman who married Charles F Sipple. They were the parents of Joy F Sipple.

I wonder if the fact that they were in the Confederacy was a family secret or were they embarrassed by the fact and just didn’t mention it. The reason I wonder is that in 1975 Joy’s sister, Ethel Sipple Chandler, wrote a little family history for her nieces and nephews. Ethel was 90 at the time she wrote the history which is 12 double spaced, type written pages long. While this history is mostly names and dates, there are a few stories also… yet there are only two mentions of any connection to the Civil War… as follows:

“Your Great-Grandfather, William Cheek Willman, was a carpenter and contractor by trade. When first married, he had a store at Rockport, Missouri. They told that during the Civil War they lived over the store and one night the “Bush Wackers” or “Carpet Baggers” set the store on fire. That was during Civil War time and those gangs went around doing damage. My Aunt Laura and my Mother Susan were tiny children. They were asleep on a feather bed. Their father grabbed them up in the feather bed and threw them out the window and saved their lives. “

“”I have often heard it told that during the Civil War, James V Willman, for safety sake, deeded all his propertyto the youngest son, John M Willman. When the war ended he refused to deed it back and so caused very hard feelings and although John M Willman resided on a farm west of Nebraska City and Eliza J Willman and William Cheek Willman also resided at Nebraska City theyhad nothing to do with John M Willman, who was very wealthy, nor no members of his family.” (Eliza and William were siblings of John)

When I was doing a lot of searching for family records in the 1980’s, before the internet, I found a simple, type written history, “Otoe County Pioneers – A Biographical Dictionary” by Raymond E. Dale – Lincoln, Nebraska 1965. It seemed to be put together from newspaper articles, census records, obituaries and cemetery records. This is where I discovered that these Great-Grandfathers of ours fought for the Confederacy.

I quote, in part…
“James V Willman - ….. Apparently they removed to Missouri in the 1850’s and there is a tradition that J.V. Willman owned considerable property there including slaves. He was living in Atchison County when the war broke out and he and his son William joined the Conferderate Army….”
“John M Willman - ….. He served in the Confederate Army under General Price…”
“William C Willman - ….. By 1856 and perhaps earlier he removed to Missouri where he was living during the Civil War. He served in the Confederate Army. ..”

I have their obituaries and another newspaper article written by William Cheek’s sister Eliza in 1906… all mention the Confederate service and yet I can find no official records anywhere myself.

I have not been able to find out as much as I would like to find…
This is what I know about our Confederate ancestors during the war.
Next I will tell you about our Union ancestor… and also some background information I’ve found about the Civil War.

Leticia and James V Willman
(father of William Cheek Willman)

James V Willman
(son of William Cheek Willman)

sadly, I have no photo of William C Willman

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