I am researching my great-grandmother's family in Indianola, Texas.
Her father was Ernst Wittnebert. Ernst was from Erfurt, which was at that time in Prussia.
Ernst boarded the ship the August Meline in Bremen on Sept. 16,1845. The ship arrived in
Galveston on Dec. 9, 1845. He had bought land in Menard Co. before he left Germany, so he
may have gone there first. Ernst was in Indianola by May of 1846, when he was enlisted in Company H
of the militia. There is no other record of him until March 1850 when he bought Lots 3 & 4, Block 28 in
the town of Indianola. On July 07, 1850 Ernst married Eliza Russe in Port Lavaca (all census records give
her name as Louisa). Ernst bought 4 acres "being outlots of Indianola South of Huck's Garden" on Nov. 03,
1850. In March, 1851 Ernst registered the cattle brand EW, and registered the brand EW (with a curved line
beneath it) on Feb. 17, 1862. The family is listed in the 1860 Census with the surname spelled "Whitinburg".
My great-grandmother Laura Wittnebert Daross told my father (her grandson) that her father Ernst was
gunned down on the porch of his house by a man on horseback. The date of this incident was May 1, 1866,
according to the application of probate of his estate by his widow. I assume Ernst would have been buried in
the Old Town Cemetery. My great-grandmother was married in 1869 and was living in Cuero in 1874, but her
mother and brothers remained in Indianola. They are listed in the 1870 and 1880 Census.
I am wondering if there is any record or report of the shooting of my great-great-grandfather, or where I could look
to find some answers.