"This I Remember" was a pamphlet written by Jefferson Davis Hilterbrand and recorded by Jack Hilterbrand in 1954 and given to Anna Sartori about 1960. The information below was taken from this as well as family records submitted to Ancestral File by Robert & Marjorie Fletcher and Lois Walker Hilterbrand. We are posting this record so that others may view it and help us document the contents. We welcome your comments and records. We wish to thank those who have worked on this record in the past.
Abraham Hilterbrand was born in Ohio about 1820. His parentage is unknown at this time. It
is likely they were of the Pennsylvania Hilderbrands/Hilterbrands as Ohio was a natural
migration pattern for Pennsylvanians. Abraham had three brothers: Daniel, William and John.
The parents moved the family from Ohio to Tennessee to a community called McGinnville
(McMinnville?). In this community they made alliances with the Johnson and Martin families.
While in Tennessee, the father of the Hiltebrand family died. When the family migrated to
Missouri from there, they came by oxen train with the mother driving the Hilterbrand wagon.
Tom Johnson drove one of the wagons, his parents came in another. His mother was a Martin.
The Martin family had a couple of wagons as they had a large family they had reared in
Tennessee.
It was a difficult trip. Some of the young men rode their horses so they could ride ahead
and surveil the roads and streams for passage. They traveled by day with only one compass
in the group for guidance. At times roads had to be hacked open. What they must have
beheld when they came upon the mightly Mississippi River! They probably crossed it at
Cape Girardeau where the Daniel Hilterbrand family had settled a generation earlier.
J.D. reports, "Some mothers with their tiny babes in their arms drove the wagons while
their husbands walked along by the side carrying rifles and axes, one for protection in
case of need, the other to help blaze the trail. When they became short of food, they
would stop by the stream for a day, the men to bring in game and the women to cook for the
days ahead and do washings. Three or four cows were brought along to furnish milk for the
children.
At the close of each day this group would kneel and thank God
for his care in delivering them thus far and a prayer for the hardships ahead. Once they
were forced to stop and have a silent funeral in the forests.
When the creaking wagons were stilled, they had all found a
place that seemed most desireable to them, the land around where the Union Church now stands
in southeast Texas County . . ."
Abraham married Nancy Martin after arriving in the new area and putting up cabins. She was
born 1825/6 in Warren County, Tennessee whose county seat is McMinnville. Abraham and Nancy
lived for a while in the Union community and then moved to the area that became Prescott,
MO.
Samuel M. Hilterbrand was born 2 June 1846 at Prescott, Texas Co., MO. He grew up in the
Piney River/Houston community. Their son, John, was born 30 Sep 1838 in the same place.
Alexander was b. 1850; Mary Jane b. 9 Jan 1853; James H. was b. 1856; Mahalia C. b. Nov.
1857. The family then moved to the Oak Hill area, near Houston, still in Texas County,
where Laura Bell was born in 1860 and Jefferson Davis was born 22 Nov 1862. Jonathan
Deiss, researcher, has info on Sam
During the civil war, Sam, the 16 year old, joined the confederate forces. Sam later
left and joined the Union side and later drew a pension from that service. It must have
been a very difficult time for this alliance to change. We wonder if he suffered for the
name of Samuel the Bushwacker, Hilderbrand.
Their father, Abraham, worked for Dr. John Hubbaard during the war. He was the first
practicing qualified doctor in the county. Abraham also worked for Valentine Sutton. He
moved the family down to the Piney River homestead that later was called the John Bell
place.
Abraham and his wife both died before 1900 and are buried in the older part of the Houston
Cemetery located just east of that town.
1. Samuel M. who md. America Angelina Upton b. 23 Dec 1852 in Houston, MO. They had:
Thomas J. (1873); William O. (1875); Oscar Charles (1881); Martin Luther (1885); Lizzie
Jane (1888); Jessie Belle (1891).
2. John who married Mary E. (Bishop or Miller), b. 1858 in
Union, Texas, MO. Their children were: William H. (1881); Anna B. (1885); Callie M. (1887);
Sam (1889); Elizabeth (1891); Ella (1893); George (1895); Charles (1897).
8. Jefferson Davis who md Clarissa Belle Watson (b. 10 June 1864 at Prescott, MO). Their children were: John Virgel (1886); Otto (1888); Earl Everett (1890); Roy (1891); Ralph Edward (1894); Guy Jefferson (1896); Jess Watson (1898); Andrew Winifred (1900); Jack Paul (1903); and one other.
Note: The ancestry of this Abraham is unknown at this time. The family thought that they
were related to the John Hildebrand family of Jefferson County. It is interesting that they
named many of their children the same names. We note that the Benjamin Hilterbrand family
of Madison County, MO lived not far from Texas County and they also assumed connection to
the family in St. Francois County.
We do not know what happened to Abraham's brothers, Daniel, William (Bill), and John.
They are not the same generation as the Daniel who settled in Cape Girardeau. They may
have remained in Tennessee. A check of records in Warren Co., TN is needed. Warren
County is in the center of TN and was cut from White Co. in 1807. Since Abraham was born
in Ohio in 1820, we would assume that they went to Tennessee in the 1830s. The records of
this family can be obtained from census records of Tennessee and Missouri. Perhaps from
them we can find the father of Abraham, Daniel, William and John.
If you locate records on this family, please send them to: [email protected]; so that we
can post them here to support the above record.