Family tradition: "William Klees, born July 2, 1804, went west in the gold rush and was never heard from again".

William Klees was born July 2, 1804, at 3552 Quakake Rd Weatherly, PA, to George Klees, a Hessian mercenary from the village of Eckenheim north of Frankfurt-am-Main, and his wife Elizabeth Roth, who might be Anna Elizabeth, born on September, 1768, to Joh. Jacob and Anna Elizabetha Roth, and baptized at the First Reformed Church of Philadelphia.

William's father George Klees is assessed in Lausanne Twp., Northampton Co., PA, as late as 1819, and appears in Madison Twp., Columbia Co., PA, in the 1820 federal census. "William Kleese" appears in the 1830 federal census in Muncy Twp., Lycoming Co., PA, with a female age 15-20, probably his wife, although it could be his younger sister Phebe, born September 25, 1810.

Lycoming Co., PA, deed books show William Klees as late as 1836.

California records for his children show that William Klees apparently lived in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Also: "Tioga Eagle" newspaper, Wellsborough [Wellsboro], Pennsylvania, Wesneday, January 6, 1841, page 3: under various legal notices, "Causes for 2nd week. Issue to try the right to Money of Asa Mann", "William Klees" appears on a lengthy list of names under this notice.

William's daughter "Elenor", age 5 in 1850, was born in Ohio.

William's son, Nebraska Klees, was born in Nebraska in June 1849.

George F. Wright, ed., "History of Sacramento County, California" (Oakland: Thompson & West, 1880), page 287: John Klees (1832-1903) "was born in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, in 1832, and in 1845 he moved with his parents to Ohio, and soon after to Wisconsin. In 1849, he came overland to California, arriving at Weaverville, October 2, 1849, where he mined for a while, and then moved to Sacramento" [there is no other evidence for the family's having been in Wisconsin]

Please see the 1881 obituary on his wife Margaret Seymour's page (Find A Grave Memorial# 171216074): ". . . having arrived in Sacramento with her husband, William Klees, in the fall of 1849. Her husband died in 1850, in this city, of cholera."

I assume, but do not know for certain, that the following three references to "Mrs. Allen" are to the Elizabeth Klees, age 15 years, who is in the 1850 federal census with her widowed mother Margaret Klees and her six siblings:
"The Sacramento Evening Bee", April 23, 1903, obituary of John Klees (1832-1903) "brother of . . . Mrs. Lizzie ALLEN"
"Sacramento Daily Union", November 24, 1897, obituary of Eugene Seymour (1855-1897), "brother of . . . Mrs. John F. Allen of Tulare"
"Sacramento Daily Record-Union" , August 23, 1881, obituary of Margaret Seymour (1815-1881), "Her daughters . . Mrs. John Allen, of Butte Mountain"

Apparently, William Klees' widow and seven children never communicated with William's relatives back in Pennsylvania, that they had arrived in California and William was dead.

David L. Klees