Michael Celestine Waltz was born on March 24, 1860, the first-born son of Michael J. Waltz and Elizabeth Eichenlaub.  Michael Celestine was baptized at St. Augustine Church on 3/27/1860. His godparents were Jacob & Catherine E. Faber and the priest was John Burns.

In 1860, the family moved to Chest Springs, Cambria County.  Michael J. & Elizabeth bought a 97 acre farm just outside of Chest Springs Borough.   Michael Celestine's father was a  prominent builder and contractor throughout the area. 

When the 1860 census for Chest Springs Borough was enumerated, it showed that Michael Celestine was 5 months old.  It also showed that two of his uncles, Jacob Waltz and George Waltz (both of them carpenters) were living with them.  (see "Waltz Documents" for a copy of this census document)

Michael Celestine followed the family tradition and became a farmer and a carpenter, living in Cresson, PA.

Michael married Mary Madeline Feighter (St. Augustine's church register has her last name as "Fechter") on September 23, 1884 in Loretto, Cambria County, PA.  Mary was born in Pennsylvania on January of 1861, and was the daughter of Sebastian Feighter and Martha Haid.  

I have been researching my family history for a few years now, and for the past year, I have been hearing conflicting stories concerning the death of Michael Celestine Waltz.  One story had him committing suicide over a woman, and the other had him being shot and hung by his second wife.  I think that the reason for these conflicting stories is that the children (who are now the elders in the family) were never allowed to hear what really happened--they were not even allowed to read the newspapers after the "incident."  

Although I do not yet know the whole story concerning Michael Celestine's death, I do have in my possession several old newspaper articles on the subject, which present a very chilling tale.  These articles are from the first days after Michael's death--so the case has not yet been resolved, and the articles contain a lot of speculation. Here is a synopsis of the information presented:

On July 1, 1931, 70 year old  Michael married 49 year old Mary Alice--he met her while visiting a friend in jail.  Mary Alice was incarcerated for bootlegging at the time.  Mary Alice had at least one child, Rose Miller, before she married Michael.  Rose was 18 years old and living with a 28 year old man (I think!).  Michael did not know it, by Mary Alice was a two-time bigamist.  Mary Alice was also having an affair with Michael's 16-year old grandson (Elvoid Waltz), from the beginning of her marriage to Michael.  Mary Alice was heard bragging at least a week before the murder that she "would have the title to Mike's car, the deed to his property, and all of his insurance inside of a week or know why."

One July 19th, 1931, just a few short weeks after he married Mary Alice, Michael Celestine was beaten and shot in the head, transported in his own car to a nearby orchard and tied in a sitting position to an apple tree, where he was discovered about 3 hours later by a local artist. (the car was discovered at his home, not in the orchard.)  The police were holding in custody Mary Alice, her daughter Rose Miller, Rose's "paramour" Ted Jenkins, and Michael's grandson--Elvoid Waltz.

After reviewing the remaining rolls of newspaper microfilm from the State Library of Pennsylvania, I am still not sure what really happened to Michael Celestine Waltz.  There were NO more mentions of Mike in this film.  I have posted copies of the articles in the Waltz documents section of this site, and will certainly update the site if I ever find proof of what really happened on July 19th, 1931.  However, at this point in time I have expended all of my leads on this story.  I'm even beginning to think that maybe someone covered something up--the autopsy report has disappeared, there is no record in the court docket, the police station could not help me, etc. - we may never know what really happened!