Ira Wolfe's Biological Father? Unknown.

Ira's last name first appeared as Wolfe in documents sometime between the 1860 and 1880 censuses. Ira ran away from his mother Anna [Brenizer] and step-father Joseph Chronister to go to the home of aunt Caroline [Brenizer] and uncle Joseph Eichelberger in Union City, Ohio, before the 1870 census. Ira used the name Wolfe when he first married in Kansas. We don't know what he knew about his biological father. Was it clarified by his step-father, Joseph Chronister, after Joseph returned from the Civil War in 1863? It is possible that Ira took the name Wolfe from his biological father. In the Hampton area, two men named Jacob Wolfe are potential candidates to have been Ira's biological father.

One part of this mystery has been resolved. The dated notes below record the known facts about the two Jacob Wolfe's in the Hampton area at the time. One is named below as Jacob Sr. The other is named as Jacob (1826).

A Jacob Wolfe, born 1826, son of James Wolfe, married Mary Ann Conner. A biographical sketch is given in the History of Cumberland and Adams Counties by Beers, 1886. A DNA comparison of direct male descendants of this Jacob Wolfe and of Ira Wolfe show that they do not share a direct male ancestor.

That leaves Jacob Wolfe Senior (or a relative of his) as a possible candidate. Since the biography names James as the father of Jacob (1826), it is possible that Jacob Senior and Jacob (1826) are unrelated. The notes below may help to disentagle the facts about these two Wolfe's.

• 1853 May. A Jacob Wolf purchased items at Mary Brenizer's estate sale. Lewis and Levi Chronister came too. Lewis was a cousin of Joseph and Levi Chronister. Mary's daughter Joanna Brenizer was unmarried.
• 1853 December. Ira was born.
• 1859 Town election: John L Brenizer (Joanna's brother) and Jacob Wolf were elected school directors for Hampton. Levi Chronister was Justice of the Peace.
• 1860 census Joseph and Annie (Brenizer) Chronister lived in Hampton with son Ira (age 6).
• 1860 census widowed Jacob Wolf Senior, age 55, lived in Hampton with E Chronister, a 17 year old boy who works as a servant.
• 1860 census Jacob Wolf (1826), age 33, lived next door with a growing family.
• 1860 census Lewis Chronister, who married Abigail Wolf (Jacob Senior's daughter?), lived next door.
• 1860 census both Jacob Wolf's and Lewis Chronister were chairmakers, possibly in a joint business venture.
• 1861 Gettysburg Compiler newspaper announcement of estate of Jacob Senior.
• 186x Jacob Wolf (1826) was drafted at Reading and granted exemption for physical/mental condition.
• 1870 census Jacob Wolff (1826) lived in Straban, Adams County, PA with a growing family.
• 1880 census Jacob Wolf (1826) lived in Straban, Adams County, PA with a grown family.
• 1889 Gettysburg Compiler newspaper announcement of estate of Jacob Wolfe (1826).
• 1889 Jacob Wolfe (1826) was buried in the Hampton cemetery with wife Mary.

My Y-DNA results suggest that Ira's father was of Scottish or Irish ancestry. A modest number of surnames, none of them Wolf, match nearly all of my Y-DNA. Perhaps Ira chose the name Wolf for reasons completely unrelated to his biological father.

Here is a fictional speculative story:

"Ira Chronister hopped on board the 5:53 train to Harrisburg, which would get him to Union City the very next morning, if he could make the connections in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh and avoid getting caught while he climbed onto the trains. The recently opened Mount Wolf Station on the North Central Railroad gave him easy access to Harrisburg and the Pennsylvania railroad. Ira settled between some pallets in the freight car and realized that there was no looking back now. The life that his Brenizer relatives described in their letters from Ohio had seemed irresistible to him, and now seemed very close. As the train started to leave, he could see the train station sign with the name Wolf Summit. What a great place to start from on a new life. Maybe he could get his mother to convince the family to move to Ohio. Hmm ... for now, he just needed to get some sleep. He drifted off to the sound of the rails."

Copyright © Robert Wolfe 2013

Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy