Matthias Wessel

Name: Matthias Wessel Company: E
Birth Date: about 1824-1830 Place: Hanover (Germany)	Mustered In Date: September 1, 1864 Rank: Private Age: 34-40 Residence prior to military service: St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota Vocation prior to military service: Day Laborer
Death Date: about April 1, 1899 Place: Waconia, Carver County, Minnesota	Mustered Out Date: September 6, 1865 Rank: Private Age: about 35-41 Residence following military service: Waconia Township (Section 8), Carver County, Minnesota Vocation following military service: Farmer

Matthias Wessel Biography and Civil War Narrative

Matthias Wessel was born about 1830 in Hanover (Germany). He married Sophia, born about 1831, also in Hanover. By 1857, Matthias and Sophia had migrated to America. In 1860 they lived in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, along with two sons: Henry (age 3) and William (age 9 months).

Mathias enlisted in Company E of the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment on September 1, 1864. He was one of 24 new recruits added to the Company in late summer that year. While Mathias was in the 5th Minnesota, they participated in the Battle of Nashville (December 15-16, 1864), the Campaign against Mobile, Alabama and its Defenses (March 7-April 12, 1865), and Garrison Duty at Montgomery, Selma, and Demopolis, Alabama (April 26 - August, 1865). Wessel was mustered out with the regiment on September 6, 1865.

Following the war, Mathias remained in Minnesota. By 1870, Mathias and Sophia had moved to Carver County, Minnesota, settling in Waconia Township (this move may have taken place before Mathias enlisted). The 1870 U.S. Census shows Mathias and Sophia farming with six children: son Henry (age 13), son Willie (age 11), son Louis (age 9), daughter Sophie (age 6), daughter Anna (age 3), and son Johnny (age 2).

The 1880 Carver County Plat Map shows the Wessel residence in Section 8 of Waconia Township on 40 acres of farm land. Matthias Wessel owned an additional 102 acres in Section 5 on the west side of Goose Lake. The census that year shows Mathias and Sophia living with six children in their household: Sophia (age 16), Ana (age 13), John (age 11), daughter Mary (age 9), daughter Theresia (age 6), and son Joseph (age 5).

Sophia Wessel died in July 1888, with the news of her death published in the Weekly Valley Herald on July 26 and August 2. A little more than two years later, Mathias married 42-year-old Cecelia Locher about October 1890. Cecelia had been born September 1848 in Germany, and had come to America that same year.

Matthias Wessel died around the beginning of April 1899. In the summer of 1900, a report was published that Cecelia had committed suicide by drowning in Clearwater Lake (now known as Lake Waconia).

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