Report of the Society for the History of Germans in Maryland

GENEALOGICAL NOTES ON CHARLES FREDERICK

WIESENTHAL

The Society for the History of the

Germans in Maryland recently re-

ceived new material on Charles Fred-

erick Wiesenthal (1726-1789), the

most prominent Baltimore German in

the eighteenth century.* Up to the

present the only facts concerning his

early life were place and year of birth:

Prussia, 1726. Eugene F. Cordell, an

authority on medical history in Mary-

land, said "we possess no further de-

tails of his life in his native land."

Now we can say a little more about

the first twenty-five years of his life,

i. e. before he emigrated to America.

The father, Johann Mattheus Wie-

senthal, was a barber in the city of

Pasewalk in Pomerania, a Prussian

province. Through a new Medical

Regulation, issued in 1729, he was

confirmed as a surgeon. Barber-sur-

geon was not an unusual professional

combination in the eighteenth cen-

tury. In this dual capacity, J. M.

Wiesenthal was associated for several

years with the Prussian regiment of

the Ansbach-Bayreuth lancers. Due

to this connection he was privileged

to send his two sons Johann Christoph

and Karl Friedrich (Charles Fred-

erick) to the "regimental school"

which was on a considerably higher

level than the ordinary schools.

Johann Mattheus Wiesenthal proba-

bly took part in the first and second

Silesian campaigns of Frederick the

* Eugene F. Cordell, "Charles Frederick Wiesenthal, Medicinae Practicus, the Father of the Medical

Profession in Baltimore," Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, nos. 112/113, 170-174. T. W. Griffith, Annals

of Baltimore, (Baltimore, 1824), 59. J. R. Quinan, Medical Annals of Baltimore, (Baltimore 1884), 12 ff.

E. F. Cordell, Medical Annals of Baltimore, (Baltimore, 1903), 13-18, 652, 656, 658, 659, 660, 662-665.

Dieter Cunz, The Maryland German, (Princeton, 1948), 98, 106, 108-111, 120-121, 142-145, 181.

[82]

Great (1740/45). He met his death

some time before 1747. His widow

died in Pasewalk, in October 1767.

Johann Mattheus Wiesenthal had

four children: Johann Christoph

(born 1724);; Karl Friedrich (bap-

tized August 12, 1726); Samuel Gott-

lieb (baptized September 11, 1729);

Euphemia (baptized November 12,

1732). [See genealogy below.]

No material is available on Karl

Friedrich Wiesenthal's schooling and

medical training. Neither he nor his

brother are mentioned in the roster

of the Prussian Collegium Medico-

Chirurgicum of Berlin, founded by

Frederick the Great for the training

of military surgeons. Thus it is not

impossible that Wiesenthal never

completed the official medical curricu-

lum, in which case he would deserve

all the more credit for his subsequent

medical accomplishments in Balti-

more. On July 4, 1747, he married

Christina Regina Talcho, the daughter

of a Berlin brewer. (Excerpt of the

marriage register of the Protestant

Jerusalem Church of Berlin, Procl.

and Copul. 1747, Dom. 3, 4 and 5 p.

Trin.). After the wedding the couple

went briefly to Pasewalk where the

wedding was recorded in the register

of the Lutheran Church (July 27,

1747).

Some time before 1747, Wiesenthal

must have moved to Strasburg in the

Uckermark. Here he practiced sur-

gery for a number of years, probably

up to the time of his emigration. The

scroll of citizens of Strasburg (Ucker-

mark) records that on October 2,

1747 the surgeon Carl Friedrich Wie-

senthal, after having paid one Taler

and six Groschen, became a citizen of

Strasburg. Seven months after the

wedding, with inappropriate haste,

the first child arrived: Carolina Fried-

erica, born August 27, 1747 and bap-

tized four days later in the Evangeli-

cal Church of St. Mary's at Strasburg.

(Register of baptisms 1747, no. 49).

A second daughter followed Novem-

ber 26, 1748: Florentine Amalie

Louise. (Reg. of bapt. 1748, no. 70).

However, the little girl died from

small pox a few months later, as re-

corded in the death register of St.

Mary's Church (1749, July 22, no.

33). The first son was born in 1750:

Johann Matthias Wiesenthal, whose

baptism was recorded in the register

of the Lutheran Church of Pasewalk.

A second son followed two years

later: Christian Friedrich Carl, born

March 12, 1752 and baptized in Stras-

burg, March 16, 1752. The register of

baptisms (1752, no. 12) added the

revealing note that the boy was bap-

tized in the absence of his father. It

is possible that at that time the

father had already left for the Ameri-

can colonies, however, there is no in-

dication as to whether, when and why

the father departed and why he may

have left the family behind. Among

the godparents of all the Wiesenthal

children we find the names of people

of considerable social standing:

mayors, high officials, physicians and

members of the aristocracy, which

may justify some conclusions as to

the social prestige of the Wiesenthals.

All this material has been collected

by one of the descendents of Charles

Frederick Wiesenthal's older brother,

Mr. Karl Wiesenthal of Stuttgart-

Vaihingen, Germany, who kindly put

it at the disposal of our Society. The

material was gathered long before the

war and the present division of Ger-

many and came from church and

state archives which now are either

destroyed or inaccessible to genealo-

gists and researchers, such as the

Prussian State Archives, the City Ar-

chives of Strasburg, Church archives

of Pasewalk (Pomerania), Strasburg

(Uckermark) and Berlin. All the

more we appreciate Mr. Karl Wiesen-

thal's help. The copies of the various

documents which were received from

him in 1950/51 were deposited in the

archives of Zion Church in Baltimore,

since this is the congregation in whose

early history Charles Frederick Wie-

senthal played such a distinguished

role.

Unfortunately, we cannot with cer-

tainty put down the Wiesenthal fam-

ily history after the doctor's arrival

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WIESENTHAL GENEALOGY

(This chart was compiled by Mr. Karl Wiesenthal of Stuttgart-Vaihingen)

in Baltimore. Zion Church, the Ger-

man Lutheran congregation with

which he associated himself, kept no

records before 1786; its records after

that date are extremely brief and un-

informative. Charles Frederick Wie-

senthal's death is recorded on June 1,

1789, the death of a "Frau Wiesen-

thal" (without first name) on July 3,

1805.

We never hear of the Wiesenthal

children born in Germany between

1747 and 1752. There is a great deal

of information about a son, Dr. An-

drew Wiesenthal, evidently born in

Baltimore in 1762. He studied medi-

cine in Philadelphia and London

(1786-1789). After his return to

Baltimore he regularly delivered lec-

tures on anatomy, pathology and

surgery. His return from England,

says Cordell, "infused new life into

the profession of Baltimore." (Cor-

dell, Medical Annals, 17, 18, 171, 173,

664, 665, 668, 669; Maryland Gazette,

March 16, 19, 30, 1790). When in

November 1789 the Medical Society

was reorganized Andrew Wiesenthal

became secretary-treasurer and libra-

rian. In the same year he was ap-

pointed attending physician at the

almhouse, in 1796 he became Judge of

the Orphans' Court. He also figured

prominently in the history of the Ma-

sonic lodge. A British periodical re-

ported his discovery of the parasite of

trachero-bronchitis in fowls. (London

Medical and Physical Journal, Octo-

ber 1799).

Andrew Wiesenthal's family his-

tory is very scanty. Cordell says that

after his return from Europe he mar-

ried (1789) Sarah Van Dyke of the

Eastern Shore. Their offspring appar-

ently was Thomas Van Dyke Wiesen-

thal, who was born in Chestertown,

Maryland in 1790, became a surgeon

in the United States Navy and died

in Portsmouth, Virginia, March 21,

1833. (Cordell, Annals, 621.)

The records of Zion Church report

that two sons were born to Andrew

Wiesenthal: Carl Frederic on January

3, 1797 and Andrew Haworth on

January 25, 1798. Since a Mr. An-

drew Haworth appears occasionally

on the pages of the Zion records it is

not impossible that Andrew Wiesen-

thal married a second time, this time

the daughter of Andrew Haworth.

The two children did not live long:

"Dr. Wiesenthal's Kind" (no name)

died June 20, 1797; little Andreas

(Andrew) Wiesenthal, 15 months old,

passed away on April 27, 1799. A few

months before that date, December

2, 1798, Zion Church recorded the

death of their father, Dr. Andrew

Wiesenthal. The church record gives

his age as 27 years instead of 36, ob-

viously an error since this is incom-

patible with Cordell's remark about

his return from England and its effect

on the medical profession in Balti-

more. The fact that during the con-

cluding years of the century yellow

fever raged in Baltimore may account

for the fact that within three years

there were three crosses in the family

history.

The Wiesenthal family history is

one of the stories which becomes more

contradictory and confused the more

material we get. Cordell mentions (p.

171) a young medical student Fred-

erick Dalcho, born in London 1770,

according to Cordell the son of Eliza-

beth Wiesenthal, a sister of Charles

Frederick Wiesenthal. The Wiesen-

thal genealogy shows no sister Eliza-

beth. However, C. F. Wiesenthal's

wife (first wife?) was Christina Regina

Talcho, a name which also appears as

Dalcho and Telchow. Frederick Dal-

cho came to Baltimore in 1789 at the

invitation of his uncle, yet it may be

that the family relationship was not

as simple as Cordell thought. He may

have been a nephew of Charles Fred-

erick Wiesenthal, not a son of Wie-

senthal's sister, but probably a son of

a brother-in-law through his marriage

to Christina Regina Dalcho (Talcho).

Whether there are still descendants

with the name of Wiesenthal we do

not know. Eugene Cordell, almost

fifty years ago, mentioned a "late

Miss Wiesenthal of Boston." (Johns

Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, 1905, XVI,

no. 177). If our readers know of Wie-

senthal descendants, we would appre-

ciate information.

D. C.

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