The name Wärber is Swiss. Johanne was born between 1710 and 1720 in Germany or Switzerland. He signed his will in German in Augusta County, Virginia July 1767 (WB-7-173). One can assume his ancestors were Swiss, but that Johanne was educated in Germany. It can also be assumed that he immigrated for a better life in America. It is believed that he arrived in Philidelphia in1752 (the same year George Washington inherits his brother Lawrence's Mount Vernon plantation). At that time the state of Virginia encompassed Kentucky, West Virginia, and parts of Pennsylvania. Johanne built a farm from from rugged land in the Shenandoah Valley (http://www.shenandoahvalley.com/home/) of the Blue Ridge Mountains. What is now Staunton, Virginia in in that time was "Indian territory". Many descendants of Johanne still live in the Staunton area. There is a monument to mark the graves of the first four generations in America at the St. Johns German Lutheran Reformed Church in Middlebrook, Virginia. A ceremony was held at the setting of the monument by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to honor the grave of John Peter Weaver, my Revolutionary soldier ancestor.
Generations in America
1. Johanne Georg Wärber b. 1715 Germany d. 1784 m. 1740 Christiana, b. 1718
2. Johan Peter Werber (John Weaver) b. 1745 d. 1815 m. 1765 Elizabeth
3. Samuel Weaver b. 1769 d. 4/1824 m. 9/1803 Phoebe Hopping
4. Samuel Bolton Weaver b. 9/1808 d. 10/1878 m. 2/1835 Rosanna Bryant
5. Samuel Hamilton Weaver b. 3/1842 d. 9/1896 m. 12/1873 Mary Francis Mourbray
6. Lewis Franklin Weaver b. 3/1881 d. 3/1951 m. 10/1898 Annie Belle Anderson
7. Thomas Franklin Weaver b. 3/1900 d. 12/1974 m. 6/1926 Thelma Mildred Linkous
8. Carolyn Ruth Weaver b. 2/1942 m. 2/1961 Ronald Zelman Lewis
9. David Franklin Lewis b. 4/1964 m. 6/27 Janet Lyn Cassidy
10. Steven Franklin and Serina Cassidy
Annie Belle Anderson and Lewis Franklin Weaver, 1898[99]
My great-grandfather, Lewis Franklin Weaver was a carpenter living in Stauton, Va. He was described as gentle and kind and always had a smile. He lived through the depression while raising six children. My great grandmother, Annie was described as thrifty and funny. She raised sheep, chicken and other livestock. She rode her horse everyday. Their children are: Harry Oliver b. 2/1899 d. 7/1921 in WWI; Thomas Franklin b. 3/1900 d. 12/1974; Carter Tazwell b. 1/1904 d. 8/1946; Josephine Agnes b. 8/1905; May Anderson b. 11/1907; Katie Lee b. 4/1009 d. 12/1946.
Top: Katie; Carter; Josephine (Agnes), Thomas (Frank), May. Bottom: Annie Belle and Lewis
By the early 1920's woman were gaining more rights and more independence. My great-grandmother, Annie Belle, was one who excersized this freedom and divorced Lewis in 1918. She remarried to John Brackston Coffey and had two more sons. Lewis remarried to Florence Tinsley Brookman, they had no children.
My grandfather standing next to a picture of his father, Lewis.
My grandfather, Thomas Franklin Weaver, was known to all as "Frank," but to his grandchildren he was, "Papaw." He was born in Stauton, Va. on March 23, 1900. He only attended school for six years. The rest of his life he worked all over the United States. He did a year enlistment in the Army between July 1920 and 1921 as a mechanic in the 2nd Infantry. He met my grandmother, Thelma Linkous at Westmorland Babptist Church in Huntington, W. Virginia on Oct. 25, 1925. They married June 20, 1926 in Huntington and lived there for eight years before moving to Alexandria, Va. Began working at Ft. Belvior (then called Ft. Humphries) in 1934. He helped built many of the buildings there. At the beginning of WWII was the head inspector of the new 800 housing units, where they built one house a day. My family has had a long history with Ft. Belvoir. When I was young my step-father kept his boat on the Potomac at Belvoir and we spent many, many days there. It was one of my favorite places. When I was in the Army I went through a three month school at Belvoir. The first morning there I went on a run with my class that took us down to the Basin. I hadn't been there in eight years, but I knew where we where going and once I saw the dock where we kept the boat I almost cried.
The Potomac River from Fort Belvior
I was thankful I got to spend three months in Alexandria with my grandmother because I never saw her again after that.
From 1959 to 1960 my grandfather was the lead inspector for the two tombs of the Unknown Soldiers at Arlington Cemetery. This was quite an honor.
He received many honors and citations from the Corps of Engineering. He is registered with The Sons of the American Revolution and he was a Mason at the George Washington National Masonic Temple which was down the street from his house in Alexandria.
Thomas and Thelma had four children:
Betty Jean; Arvin Franklin ("Frank"); Mildred Agnes ("Milly"); Carolyn Ruth
While the other siblings spread their wings and left the Alexandria area, Carolyn, my mother, stayed in Arlington after her divorce. This gave my sister and I access to our grandparents on an almost daily basis as we lived just a few blocks away. This is another important fact about my life that I'll always cherish.
212 E. Oxford, Alexandria, VA
The home of my grand-parents, where my sister and I spent most of our childhood, is registered as a historical site.
