Submitted Julia Rees Hart and Karen Longley
Martha Thecla Kilian Wolf (1880-1954)
Martha Thecla Kilian was born in Serbin, Texas on September 28, 1880. Her parents were John Gerhardt August Kilian (1852 Germany–1916 Austin) and Anna Hohle (1856- 1880 Lee County, Texas).
Martha’s father came to Texas as a young boy with his family. His father, Reverend Johann “Jan” Kilian studied theology in Germany. Johann was a scholar and was pastor of the Lutheran church in Weigersdorf, Prussia. In 1854 a ship, was chartered and Rev. Kilian led 600 Wendish settlers to Texas. Many were lost due to sickness, but the survivors landed in Galveston and walked to Bastrop and Lee County. There they eventually founded the Wend settlement of Serbin, Texas. Rev. Kilian taught and ministered to Serbin’s St. Paul’s Lutheran community for thirty years.
By age 18 Gerhardt had taken over his father’s teaching duties in Serbin and he continued teaching in the Wend tradition for the rest of his life. At age 21, Gerhardt married Hanna “Anna” Hohle, the daughter of one of the Wend immigrants. Three months after Martha was born, her mother Anna died at age 24 and is buried in Serbin’s St. Paul’s Cemetery.
Several months after his first wife died, Gerhardt married Anna Luise Gersch., She was 17 when they married and gave birth to eight more children by her 38th birthday. She raised Martha and her two older sisters as well as her own children while her husband worked teaching in the Serbin schools.
After Gerhardt death in 1916. Anna left Serbin and moved into Austin where she lived at 1606 East First Street. She died in 1937. Martha’s first census was in 1900 when she was nineteen. She lived in the Austin home of Charles E. Wolf. At that time, Charles was married to his wife of nine years, Josephine, and they lived with their children. Their home was on 505 East 4th in Austin. Charles was a prosperous Austin merchant. He needed a domestic aide as his wife was ill. He made inquiries for a young lady to help in his home. Martha Kilian’s father was very particular about placing his daughter in an upstanding home and the situation suited both families. Josephine died of tuberculosis in March, 1902. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Charles married Martha in April, 1903. They had two more children—Oswald Gerhardt Wolf (1905–1971) and Margarete Louise Wolf (1911–1997).
Charles Wolf (1847 Germany—1913 Austin) left Germany and came to Austin in 1865. In the 1870 and 1880 Austin census he lived alone and worked as a merchant. His occupation was listed as merchant, and the 1881 city directory described his business as a merchant of dry goods, clothing and grocery and real estate. Charles married his first wife Josephine Hopfner in 1891. They had two children, Josephine in 1892 and Charles Eberhardt Wolf in 1895. Both were born in Austin.
Martha Wolf
Martha Kilian was 24 when she married the 57-year-old Charles Wolf. Martha raised her two step children and she and Charles had two more children, Oswald Gerhardt Wolf in 1905 and Margarete Louise Wolf in 1911. The 1910 Census showed the family lived at 1602 East 1st, then a rural property with a large home (still stands today.) Charles was retired. Charles died in 1913 making Martha a widow at age 32 and responsible for four children. Charles is buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Three years after her husband's death in 1916. Martha's stepson Charles E. Wolf, 23, was a merchant at a retail grocery store.
Martha died October 28, 1954 at the age of 74. She is buried in the Wolf plot at Oakwood Cemetery with her husband Charles Wolf. Their son Oswald married Jewell East in 1930. Their daughter Margarete married S.H. Hart in 1937. Margarete died at age 86. Both Oswald and Margarete are buried with their parents in the Wolf plot at Oakwood Cemetery.
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