THE LUTHER FAMILY
OF
© Joseph
Neal Luther
(Complete
book available at the LDS Family History Library in
as “The Family Chronicles: A Genealogy: Book 1 - The Luther Family
And Related
Lines.” by Joseph Neal Luther
929.273 L977Lj v.1 - JSMB US/CAN Book)
(Excerpts on the
used by permission of the author)
(**** designates a skip from the original text)
LUTHER
John Michael Luther married Mary
Kindle
1751-1834 ca1760 -
1844
|
George Luther married Mary Bowden
1790 - 1858 1792 - 1862
|
John Luther married Laura Anderson
1824- 1820- ??
|
Aris Bowden Luther married Eudora
Thompson
1858-1926 1858-1935
|
Horace Norman Luther Sr married Nellie
B. Jordan
1889-1960 1890-1983
|
Horace Norman Luther, Jr. Married Marjorie Elizabeth Neal
1913-1989 1916-1984
|
Joseph Neal Luther
1943-
INTRODUCTION
Our Luther family came to America in
1759. Official records say this family
had lived in Strasbourg. These records
say Strasbourg, Germany. But the only
Strasbourg is in France - although earlier it had been in Germany. Perhaps the family had lived on the German
side of the Rhine, opposite Strasbourg, France.
That part of the city on the German side would have been Strasbourg,
Germany.
The family probably left Strasbourg in
1758. They most likely traveled down the
Rhine to Amsterdam, then to Cowles in England and then on to America. Our family landed in the vicinity of
Alexandria, Virginia in 1759. The
Luthers lived in Alexandria for six years.
This indicates they probably served a bonded indenture in return for
their ship's passage.
From various documents, we know the
family consisted of the mother and father and at least three sons. The names of
the parents are unknown. The three
Luther sons were:
1.
John Michael Luther. Known as Michael
Luther. Born 17 March 1751 in
Strasbourg. He was known as Michael
Luther. He arrived in America at the age
of eight. As with his forefathers, he
became a blacksmith.
(Notes: Michael Luther served in the Revolutionary
War in the Frederick County Militia.
For this service he received Pension # 920. His Grandson, John Luther, son of George
Luther, served in the Civil War in Company H, 7th Tennessee Infantry,
and also 8th Tennessee Infantry of the Union Army which, according
to army records, he joined in December 1862 for a period of 3 years.
Prior to his service in the Tennessee
Infantry of the Union Army, John Luther had been sentenced to four years in
prison for “harboring runaway slaves”.
He was prisoner #1553 at the Tennessee State Penitentiary. He was received at the prison on
*****************
Michael Luther married first a woman
named Elizabeth, about 1774. By his
first wife, he had four children:
1.
John Michael Luther, Jr. Born
circa 1775 in Frederick County, Maryland. Married on 15 October 1807 in Randolph County,
North Carolina to Polly Vinson. Died
circa 1830 in Randolph County. Issue:
George Luther, Godfrey Luther, Abraham Luther, Elizabeth Luther,
Margaret Luther, and Rebecca Luther.
2.
Godfrey Luther. Born 15 January
1778 in Frederick County, Maryland.
Married Elizabeth -----. Died 3
July 1855 in Randolph County, North Carolina.
Issue: Martin Luther, Jacob
Luther, 3 daughters and another son, names unknown.
3.
Abraham Luther. Born 2 December
1778 in Frederick County. Married Mary
Ann Charles. Died 4 December 1846 in
Buncombe County, North Carolina. Issue: George Michael Luther, John Peter Luther,
Mary Luther, Henry Britton Luther, David Luther, Jesse William Luther, Solomon
Luther, Massolina Luther, Andrew Allen Luther, Elizabeth Luther, and Ally
Luther.
4.
Jonathan Luther. Born in
John Michael Luther, Sr. married secondly,
on
5. George Luther. Born October 1790 in
6. Deborah Luther. Born 1790 in Randolph County. Married
7. Barbara Luther. Born 1791 in Randolph
County. Married Henry Woolever. Issue:
Mary Woolever, Michael Woolever,
Deborah Woolever, Nancy Woolever, Elizabeth Woolever, Aaron Woolever, and Disza
Woolever.
8. Salome "Sara" Luther born 18
January 1839 in Randolph County. Married
9. Ann Luther.
Did not marry. Died circa 1836.
10. Daniel Luther. Born 28 December 1797 in Randolph
County. Married 14 December 1823 in
Randolph County to Catherine
Strider. Issue: Mary Luther, Margaret Luther, Sarah Luther, Dolly
Luther, Allen Luther, Elizabeth
Luther, Dorothy Luther, Rebecca Luther, William Henry Luther, and Ransom
Sherford Luther.
2.
George Luther, born 1 March 1754 in Strasbourg. Married 16 June 1779 to Elizabeth Auman in
Frederick County, Maryland. Was a tanner and shoemaker.
3. Jacob Luther, born
1757 in
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HORACE NORMAN LUTHER, SR.
1889 -1960
HORACE NORMAN LUTHER, SR.
son of Aris Bowden Luther and Mary Eudora Thompson, was
born on
This family is shown on the 1910 Census
of Dickson County, Tennessee. At that
time, they lived in the 12th District, House # 138.
In 1923, this family was forced to move
from Tennessee to Texas because of the mother's health. They decided to move to Comfort, Texas. They traveled to Memphis on the Nashville,
Chattanooga and St. Louis RR. In Memphis
they boarded the Missouri Pacific for San Antonio, Texas. From there they took the San Antonio and
Aransas Pass RR to Comfort. At that
point they decided to go all the way to the end of the line - Kerrville,
Texas. They arrived in Kerrville, Texas
on 3 September 1923.
They rented a house at 817 Sidney Baker
Street while the boys built their first home at 209 Guadalupe Street. This home they called the "camp
house" and they lived in it for a number of years. They then moved to 208 Palmer Street where
Leland lived until his death in 1993.
Horace Norman Luther, Sr. is described
by his son as " a jack of all trades and good at all of them." Like his forefathers dating back to Germany,
H.N. Luther was a blacksmith. As Norman
Luther, Jr. describes him, "He has been many things in many trades and the
earliest memory of mine is playing around his blacksmith shop. I well remember the process of shoeing
horses, making wagons, buggies, the blacksmith's ability to work hot iron, to
make horse shoes from a straight piece of iron, to put tires on wagon wheels,
etc. He was also a mechanic. He repaired cars and in those days it was
something to be able to repair most of them."
In his later years, H.N. Luther Sr.
worked as a carpenter and building contractor.
He built his son's house at 509 West Main Street.
H.N. Luther, Sr. died on 2 February
1960, at age 70, in Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas. He had lived in Kerrville for 37 years. He was buried at the Garden of Memories
Cemetery in Kerrville on 4 February 1960.
His wife, Nell, survived him. She
later died on 13 March 1983 in Kerrville, Texas.
Norman and Nell Luther had the
following children:
1.
Leland Freddie Luther. Born 8 July
1909 in Whitebluff, Dickson County, Tennessee.
Did not marry. No issue. Lived at 208 Palmer Street in Kerrville,
Texas. Died 10 May 1993. Buried in Garden of Memories Cemetery,
Kerrville.
2.
Horace Norman Luther, Jr.
Born 18 September 1913. Married
25 April 1936 in Kerrville, Texas to Marjorie Elizabeth Neal. See the Neal group.
3.
Doyle Sidney Luther. Born 23
April 1919 in Whitebluff, Dickson County, Tennessee. Married on 8 March 1941 in Houston, Harris
County, Texas to Margaret Garland Woodruff.
He was an office manager for Codera Inc., a subsidiary of the Sperry
Gyroscope Company in California. He died
2 January 1956 in Menlo Park, San Mateo County, California. Buried in Garden of Memories Cemetery in
Kerrville, Texas on 5 January 1956.
Issue:
3a. Martha Nell Luther. Born 21 September 1942 in Houston, Harris
County, Texas. Married 24 May 1964 in
Houston to Jay Byron Nichols.
3b. Mildred Paulette Luther. Born 25 April 1946 in Houston, Texas. Married 6 August 1973 in Houston, Texas to
Francis Jesse Williams.
***************************
HORACE NORMAN LUTHER, JR.
1913-1989
HORACE NORMAN LUTHER, JR.
was born in White Bluff, Dickson County, Tennessee on 18 September 1913. Norman Luther, Jr. was married 25 April 1936
in Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas to Marjorie Elizabeth Neal, daughter of
Benjamin C. and Marjorie (Ramsey) Neal of Kerrville. See the Neal group.
He was a World War II veteran, serving
in the Pacific theater aboard the U.S.S. McGowan, a destroyer.
He worked for the U.S. Post Office for
32 years where he advanced from letter carrier to Superintendent of Mails
before retiring on 1 July 1970.
He had been a ham radio operator most
of his adult life and was proud to have a very early call sign: W5TH.
They lived at 311 Washington Street in
Kerrville in 1943. In 1947, Norman
Luther and his father built a new home at 509 West Main Street. Father and son did most of the construction. About 1956, the family bought a new home at
1142 Jackson Road. They lived here until about 1960. The family bought another new home at 421
Bluebonnet Lane where they lived until about 1970 when they moved into a new
home 513 Tomahawk Trail. They lastly
moved into a home in the country at 414 Indian Creek Road near Ingram, Texas,
around 1977. At the time of Marjorie
Luther's death, the family had just bought and were in the process of moving
into a new lakeside home at Trinity, Texas. She died in a hospital in San
Antonio, Texas on 12 March 1984.
Norman Luther, Jr. died, at age 75, on
15 March 1989 at Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas.
At that time he was living with his daughter, Beverly, at 105 Highway 27
West in Ingram, Texas. He was buried at
Fairmont Cemetery on 20 March 1989, beside his wife, in San Angelo, Texas.
Also see “The
1931 Earthquake in Kerrville” found in another section of Kerr Photos & More
****************************************
THE NEAL FAMILY
OF
© Joseph
Neal Luther
(Complete
book available at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City
as “The Family Chronicles: A Genealogy: Book 1 - The Luther Family
And Related
Lines.” by Joseph Neal Luther
929.273 L977Lj v.1 - JSMB US/CAN Book)
(Excerpts on the Kerr County TxGenWeb
page
used by permission of the author)
(**** designates a skip from the original text)
NEAL
Robert Neal of
|
Henry Neal married Ann O'Mooney
ca 1710-1790 ??????
|
Benjamin Neal married Elizabeth Looney
1748-1823 1755- ca 1840
|
Thomas Neal
married Nancy Flippen
1773-1859 1780-????
|
William F. Neal
married Permelia Moody
1802-1877
1803-1885
|
Thomas B. Neal
married Amanda Counts
1830-1902
1830-1885
|
James Thomas Neal
married Mary Elizabeth Fuller
1859-1933
1864-1908
|
Benjamin C. Neal
married Marjorie Fern Ramsey
1895-1936
1897-1954
|
Horace Norman Luther, Jr.
married Marjorie Elizabeth Neal
1913-1989 1916-1984
|
Joseph Neal Luther
1943-
***********************************
The
Neal family had been Quakers since their traditional ancestor, William Neal,
joined the Society of Friends in Leicestershire, England in the mid 1600s. This family was forced from England by
religious persecution and moved to Ireland with many of their fellow
Quakers. In Ireland, the Neal family lived
in Rosenallis in Queen's County.
Later,
this Neal family and their relations moved from Ireland to Chester County,
Pennsylvania with other Quakers. William
Penn, who joined the Religious Society of Friends in 1666, obtained the Charter
of Pennsylvania from Charles II in 1681 in payment of a debt of £16,000 owed to
his father. Pennsylvania was established
in 1682 as a "holy experiment" on religious principles. Each congregation is known as a Monthly
Meeting, from the practice of holding business meetings one a month. The first Friends Meeting in Pennsylvania was
in Chester County. The nearby Meeting
House at New Garden was built in 1713.
West of there was the Meeting House at Sadsbury. This is the area where Henry Neal was
located.
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BENJAMIN NEAL
1748-1823
Benjamin
Neal was born circa 1748 in Sadsbury,
Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of Henry and Sarah (O'Mooney) Neal. Family tradition states that Benjamin Neal
was a Captain in the Revolutionary War, but no documentation can be found to
prove this tradition.
Benjamin
Neal apparently married Elizabeth Looney around 1772 in Virginia. Elizabeth Looney was born in 1753 in
Hagerstown, Maryland and died after 1840
in Jefferson County, Tennessee. She is
traditionally described as the daughter of Absolam and Margaret Looney of
Jefferson County, Tennessee. (See Families
of Jefferson County, Tennessee., 1992)
Benjamin
Neal moved to Hawkins County, United States Territory South of the Ohio River
in November 1791. He had a land grant
for 640 acres near Mossy Creek, adjacent to Adam Peck's Mill, and by the old
road leading from Mossy Creek, now the area of Jefferson City, Tennessee, to
Nance's Ferry on the Holston River…….Benjamin Neal is noted as being a Captain
of the 3rd Regiment of Green County, Tennessee on 3 October 1807.
**********************************
Benjamin
Culberson “Cub” Neal was born 31 August
1895 in Sherman, Grayson County, Texas, the son of James Thomas and Mary
Elizabeth (Fuller) Neal…..He was married on Wednesday, 2 June 1915,
in Paris, Lamar County, Texas to Marjorie Fern Ramsey, the daughter of Frank
Whitelaw and Ada Belle (McCoy) Ramsey.
They were married at the Ramsey home, 525 Culberson, in Paris.
At
the time of their marriage, Ben Neal was the proprietor of a bicycle repair and
supply shop. He and Marjorie lived at
the corner of Magnolia and Sherman Streets in Paris at the time of their 1915
wedding.
Ben
and Marjorie Neal had only one child, Marjorie Elizabeth Neal, born 20
March 1916 in Paris, Lamar County, Texas.
The city of Paris, Texas caught fire and burned the night my mother was
born. She and her mother had to be
evacuated to the countryside to escape the flames.
**********************************
Ben
C. Neal is on the 1920 Census in El Paso, Texas. He was living on Brown
Street. Living with him was his wife,
Marjorie, at age 22,; his daughter Marjorie, at age 3 9/12; and his
brother-in-law, Frank M. Ramsey, at age 17.
At this time, Ben Neal was the owner and operator of a garage. Frank Ramsey was his bookkeeper. (55-ED 72- Sheet 4- Line 37)
His
United States identity card for use on the Mexican border gives his 1921
address as 1014 Pirdras, El Paso, Texas.
It notes he was 5 ft 10 in with brown eyes and blond hair.
In
1923, Ben Neal filed a number of mining claims in Arizona….In Miami, Arizona,
he was the proprietor of the Universal Garage.
He also owned stock in the Intermountain Building and Loan Association
of Arizona. In 1924 through 1927, Ben
Neal was a member of Rotary International of Miami, Arizona, as well as the
YMCA and B.P.O. Elks Lodge No. 1410 in Miami, Arizona.
************
In 1936, he was proprietor of the Kerrville Motor Parts Co. at Clay and Water
Street in Kerrville. His driver's
license issued 6 March 1936, gives his address as 363 Junction Road in
Kerrville. This was his address at the
time of his death.
************
Ben Neal died, at age 41, 24 October 1936 in Kerrville, Kerr County, Texas and was buried on 26 October at Fairmont Cemetery in San Angelo, Texas. He is buried in the Neal family plot.
Marjorie
Fern Ramsey Neal died 21 October 1954 at her home at 511 West Main Street in
Kerrville, Texas. This was next door to
her daughter. She was buried with her
first husband, Ben C. Neal, at Fairmont Cemetery in San Angelo, Texas. She had married secondly, George Snelgrove,
who died 21 March 1945 at the age of 48.
There were no children from this second marriage.
Marjorie
Elizabeth Neal, daughter of Ben C. and Marjorie (Ramsey) Neal married H. Norman Luther, Jr.
**********************
I trust you may find this
genealogical information of value to Kerr County Researchers.
Joseph Luther, Ph.D.
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