Wiggers, Herman H., abt. 1874-1935

WIGGERS, ENGLES, HESTER

Posted By: Lydia Lucas - Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 20:33:35

From the Alton Democrat, December 27, 1935:

Herman Wiggers, Traveler, Gone

Herman Wiggers, of Camillus, New York, somewhat celebrated here in the early days because of his traveling to various parts of the world, died December 13 at his home at Camillus after an illness of six months. Funeral services were held December 14 at St. Joseph’s church at Camillus and burial was made at Newark, New Jersey. News of his death will be received with sorrow by many old-time Sioux county friends.

Herman H. Wiggers was a native of Holland and came to the United States at the age of seven. He was a member of the Camillus Grange and of the Holy Name society of St. Joseph’s church. Besides his wife, Mrs. Margaret Engles Wiggers, he is survived by a son, Herman J. Wiggers, and a brother, Henry Wiggers, of Germany. He had farmed at Camillus for the past 17 years.

Herman made his headquarters, when at Alton, at the Jonas farm. He was a large, strapping young man in those days and could make his way anywhere. Friends here would hear from him at various times and each time from a different part of the country or the world. In our “Sioux County History” this week is an item telling of his accompanying a load of horses to Japan from San Francisco. He visited many other parts of the world, and for a time lived in Canada. Wherever he went, the Alton Democrat followed him. Mr. Wiggers kept up his [continuation is blurred out].

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RESEARCH NOTES

The New York Death Index on Ancestry.com shows his death date as 11 Dec 1935, in Marcy, New York.

The 1930 U.S. census for Camillus Township, Onondaga County, New York, has Herman H. Wiggers, age 56, widowed, born in Holland, immigrated in 1881, naturalized, a farmer, owner of his farm; his son Herman J., age 17, born in New Jersey, attending school; and sister-in-law Nellie Hester, age 65, born in Ireland, immigrated 1881, an alien.

He shows up from time to time in news notes in the Alton Democrat. In 1888 he was working as a farm hand near Granville. At the time of his mother’s death in May 1899, he was living at Hawarden (her obituary is posted separately). In December of that year, having lived most of the past 19 years in Sioux County, he went to Holland to visit a brother and uncle living at Woolde-by-Hengelo. By October 1903, after having worked in several states and traveled all over the world, he was working for the Link Belt Machine Company of Chicago. He continued to work for the company for the next few years, assigned to construction projects in numerous places. He was reported as having married a widow (unnamed) in Chicago in August 1907. A note from October 29, 1910, reports his upcoming marriage to Miss Katie M. Hester on November 23 at Newark, New Jersey. Early in 1913 he, his wife and baby, and Francis Hester moved back to Alton, looking for a farm to rent, and that season he worked the Schnee farm near Hospers; he had been employed as a motorman in New Jersey. He was still living in Sioux County (Granville) in 1917, farming the Jacob Dietering farm. In December 1919 he sold his (rather extensive) holdings of livestock and farm machinery (the sale notice, December 6, lists them). He returned to New Jersey in January 1920.