Her mother is Anna Sophie Lange. Her father is not known at this time.

JOHN HENRY WESSELS. Of the men whose,participation in business activities and agricultural operations has lent encouragement to the growth of various industries in Fayette County, few are held in higher esteem than is John Henry Wessels, of Halsted, leading farmer, merchant and public-spirited citizen. He has been a resident of this county since 1872, coming to America as a lad of eight years from Oldenburg, Germany, where he was born April 8, 1864, and where his father, George Wessels, had died shortly before. The mother, then Sophie Wessels, brought her family to the United States, sailing from Bremen on one of the vessels of the North German Lloyd line, Frankfort, bound for Galveston, at which place she arrived in due course of time. From Galveston she took her children to. Fayette County, where she had relatives, and during her first year in this country she accomplished something in the way of farming. In the meantime she became acquainted with William Hancord, a farmer and sheepman of Fayette County, whom she married during her second year in America. He finally identified himself, with the Wessels children, with farming exclusively, near Rutersville, in Fayette County, and in this line continued to be engaged until the time of his death. Mrs. Hancord still survives in advanced years and makes her home near Rutersville on the old homestead place. The Wessels children were as follows: John H., of this review; George D., of Rutersville; Fred, who died at LaGrange, Texas, and left a family. One child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Hancord, Willie, who died young. Before Mrs. Hancord's first marriage she was Sophie Lange, and she has one sister, Mrs. Dietrich Niemeyer, of Moulton, Texas. Mrs. von Lienen, the wife of Bernard von Lienan, of Moulton, is a sister of George Wessels; Mrs. Annie Lucke, who died at Rutersville, was a half-sister.