It is remarkable that this meeting ever took place - just pure coincidence. It's not like they had any social media to help them!
"AFTER MANY YEARS
A Father and Daughter Reunited in this City.
TALE OF AMERICA AND GERMANY
Rev. William Wilsdorf Visits His Daughter, Mrs. E. E. Root, Whom He Had Not Seen for Over a Quarter of a Century.
Mrs. E. E. Root, who resides on Jefferson street, has for her guest her father, whom she has not seen for 37 years. The father, Rev. William Wilsdorf, is now a resident of Fairfield, Jefferson county, Ia. and is 77 years old. The story is one of the most strange ones in history and would furnish material for an interesting book or a realistic drama.
Thirty-seven years ago William Wilsdorf resided with his wife and two children in Mahoning county, this state. Mr. Wilsdorf came from Germany and previous to the time mentioned, he had made two trips to the land of his birth. At the time the opening chapters of this story were (? ) , Mr. Wilsdorf was afflicted with a swelling on one of his legs. He was a tanner and had steady employment.
His ways were German of a pronounced order, and as he could get no relief from the physicians in this country, he was impressed with a belief that the doctors of his native land could effect a cure. He accordingly disposed of his business and informed his wife he was going to Germany. The partner of his joys did not wish to accompany him and he told her he would go alone.
One bright, spring moring in 1857, he sailed for Liverpool to revisit his fatherland, leaving his wife and two children, girls, in America. That parting was the last. The wife never saw him again. One of the girls soon sickened and died, leaving Mrs. Wilsdorf and the oldest child, Hattie, alone in the world.
We will first follow the tortures of the father. When he arrived in Germany, he was taken violently ill and was an inmate of a hospital where he remained for three years, hovering between life and death. He did not write to his family, for he was unable to write and among strangers. After he recovered somewhat, he addressed a letter to his old home in Mahoning county, and told his wife he would sail for home. He told her the steamer he would sail on and what time he expected to reach New York. This was the turning point in his life for his health, which had balked his designs for many years, failed him and he was again obliged to go to a hospital where he remained for a long time.
When he was better, he again wrote to America, but could get no trace of his wife or children. The matter was put into the hands of the German consul, but the search was of no avail. He mourned his wife and children as dead. He remained in Germany and subsequently married, as the law in Germany frees a man after a stipulated number of years. A few years after his marriage, he realized that he could do better in this country, so he again started for America and settled in Iowa.
He prospered, became converted, and, as he was an educated man, he soon became a minister in the church of God. He accumulated property and now owns a large farm and tannery at Fairfield.
A few days ago, he received a letter from Mrs. Root, in which she announced herself as his daughter and expressed a desire to meet him. He was overjoyed to learn his daughter was among the living, and upon the receipt of her message, he immediately wrote back he would see her just as soon as the railroad connections would bring him here.
Last Saturday evening he arrived in the city and was met by his daughter and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Kidney, who were at the depot to meet him. He met the ladies and immediately embraced Mrs. Root, exclaiming, 'This is my daughter, my little Hattie.' There was a reunion that moved the bystanders to tears.
Mr. Wilsdorf is a kindly old gentleman and Mrs. Root is the only child he has. To return to the wife and children, Mrs. Wilsdorf when she could hear no further tidings of her husband, came to the conclusion he was dead. The tidings that he would come to America raised her hopes, but when he did not put in an appearance, she thought him dead. In those days, ocean travel was slow and tedious, and information regarding the arrival and departure of vessels was not as easily obtained as it is now.
She made inquiries in Germany by letters, but could get no trace of her husband. Her letters were unopened. He was dead to her and after many years of anxious waiting, she was finely impressed with the idea that he was dead. Soon after his departure, she moved from Mahoning county to Cleveland and being a frugal and industrious woman, providing for herself and little girl.
The daughter grew to womanhood and married Eugene E. Root, who at that time lived at North Ridgeville, Lorain county. He learned Mrs. Wilsdorf's story and prosecuted a search for the father, even going so far as to enlist the services of the U. S. Consul in Germany, but the search was a fruitless one for the father was then in America.
Several years ago, Mrs. Wilsdorf, who had, to make assurance doubly sure, secured a divorce from her husband and married a gentleman in Cleveland by the name of Judkins and had children by him. She died about two years ago. Mrs. Root has been a resident of this city for several years.
The reuniting of the father and daughter was the result of a visit of a resident of Fairfield, Iowa to Mahoning county. This man in visiting friends near Wilsdorf's old home, became acquainted with a brother of his Iowa neighbor. A conversation explained the matter satisfactorily to the Ohio man that he had found his long lost brother and a letter confirmed his belief. This brother, who lives in Harlin Center, Mahoning county, has two sons in the jewelry business in Cleveland.
In conversation one day with a traveling man, Mr. Root learned of the brothers, and as their names were the same as his wife's maiden name, he resolved to ascertain if they could tell him anything about the father of his wife. He went to Cleveland and saw them. They had recently returned from a visit to their father, and he had told them of finding his long lost brother who had a girl named Hattie. They said he lived in Jefferson county, Ia., but they had forgotten the address.
Mr. Root has a brother, Alanson Root, living near Fairfield, and he wrote him to ascertain if he knew a man by the name of Wilsdorf. The Iowa brother lives within two miles of the gentleman sought, and thus a means of communication was brought about.
The Iowa brother had resided in the same neighborhood with Rev. Wilsdorf for about twenty years and was intimately acquainted with him, but neither of the gentlemen knew he could impart information that would cause two hearts to beat with rapture.
Mr. Wilsdorf will return to his home next Wednesday and says his trip here had made him the happiest man in America, while Mrs. Root is overjoyed to see her father she has mourned as dead for 37 years."
Rev. Wilsdorf lived only four more years, passing away on April 13, 1898. I wonder if he was able to see his daughter again after this meeting in 1894. William Wilsdorf is buried with his second wife, Emilia Ellener Wilsdorf, in the Bethesda Cemetery, Fairfield County, Iowa in an unmarked grave.
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