Sunday, November 9, 2008

William Wesley Clepper 1905-1978


Wesley Clepper was born in Hockley, Texas on 27 Oct 1905 and was the son of William Wesley Morris Clepper and Maggie Lee (Forehand) Clepper.
Wesley and Clara Ada Johnson were married on 15 Oct 1932 in Waller County, Texas. Ada was born on 11 Apr 1912 in Montgomery County, Texas and was the daughter of John Wesley Johnson and Bell Zora (Quinn) Johnson.
During the Johnson Family Reunion on 13 Nov1999, a few of Ada's sisters described Wesley as a handsome, upbeat, joking, and hard-working man that was liked by almost everyone.
Since there was no work in Waller and the farming was poor, Wesley went to work in Galveston, Texas. One of their projects was the sea wall in Galveston.
"Daddy worked all up and down the Gulf Coast. He did work on the seawall at times. He supervised the causeway building in Galveston that is currently being replaced. I believe that was in the early 50's." - Ethylene.

 Wesley's second wife was Erma Lee Autrey (SSN# 460-16-5089); 20 Feb 1961. She was born 01 Jan 1911 in Burleson County, Texas and died on 01 Jun 1986. Her body was buried at the Macedonia-Springer Cemetery in Hockley, Waller County, Texas.
"Wesley was a member of the Pile Drivers Union, Local 2079 for approximately 30 years. He was liked by everyone he worked for and was very dependable. He was a supervisor on most construction jobs. Wesley was seriously injured on a construction job at the Tennessee Gas Building (Tennaco Bldg.) in downtown Houston, Texas. A large steel "I" beam fell on him. The doctors feared he would not live. He was not able to return to work again and suffered a lot of pain the rest of his life when arthritis set in due to his injury. He sold his property in Hockley and retired on a lake in [Quitman] Ark."

    Wesley and Ada had seven children. Harvey Loyd Clepper (1936-1997), Cecil Leonard Clepper (1937-1990), and Ethylene Clepper Beard (1943-2011) have passed away, but the other four are still living.

Source:
• Lucille Mehrkam, History and Genealogy of the Family of Jacob Klepper/Clepper Family and Malcolm McAlpine Family (The Gregath Company, 1996), Library of Congress under card number 86-62751 (Page 216)
• http://picasaweb.google.com/MasseyTX/WesleyClepper
• FindAGrave.com

2 comments:

Nick Wallingford said...

Greetings from New Zealand, rather an unlikely place to hear from someone relating to your genealogy...

My own families (Ogg as my Mother and Wallingford as my Father) both came from Waller County, and we have Cleppers, Loyds and Alfords all related to us, families I expect you'll recognise!

I'd be very keen to work on some off blog exchanges - I think we may have some 'old people' in common...

Nick Wallingford
nickw@beekeeping.co.nz

Suzanne said...

I found it interesting that none of Ventis' children were identified or photographed - makes me wonder what became of them!