Henry Wideman's Journey Home: Johann Henrich Weidmann

In the author’s direct family line, the vast majority of ancestors relocated to the America’s from Western Europe in the 1500-1700’s. While many of this bracket originated from England, there was additionally a paucity of individuals from divergent parts of the world. One of the earliest known documentations of travel to the Americas within the author’s family was 7th generation Johann Henrich Weidmann from Westiffeom, Germany.

Born in 1738 in Westuffein, Kassel, Hesse, Germany, Johann Henrich Weidmann was one of the first of the Hart family lineage to travel overseas to the Americas; setting sail in 1761. When he embarked on this excursion on the ship the “Sandwich” in the company of his heavily pregnant wife, Mary Oberdorf, Weidmann was only 23 years old. However, while traveling over the Atlantic ocean, Mary unfortunately passed away. Arriving in Pennsylvania in the early 1770’s, Henrich (now known as Henry) soon moved to the Abbeville District of South Carolina, only to move to Wilkes County, GA in about 1777. Furthermore, finally abandoning his restless, wandering
The couple had 9 children, Thomas, Francis, Elizabeth, Lucy, Leonard, Sarah “Sally”, John, Jacob, and Mark Wideman. Additionally, in nonetheless another legend surrounding this family, Leonard Wideman’s servants are fabled to have massacred their master in spite of recent mistreatments, leaving his wife, Savil Haney, widowed and bankrupt.

This family, including many other branches of the Hart family tree, populated the South Carolina, specifically in areas around Orangeburg. Henry Wideman was the son of Adam Wideman and Millie Harris. Wideman had son James “Henry” Wideman, who with his wife Nancy “Carrie” Caroline Carter had daughter Martha and this carried on until present day, when the author and her family still live in the South Carolina