George W. Weikert was in prosperous circumstances in 1860. At least, that’s what the Census indicated. In one page in 1860, the Adams County Census taker managed to capture many of the families, wealth, and farms that would be devastated just three years later. One could almost overlay that page on the Elliott Burial Map to see the contrast in farm real estate with the devastation to follow.

Among others on the page are the Trostles, the Herbsts, and the Sherfys—all of which owned farms that saw severe action, woundings, death, and burials. (We also see the Essick family—by that time, George W. Weikert’s namesake son had married Elizabeth Essick.) Of those on the page, George W. Weikert was one of the most prosperous.

A cut of the Elliott burial shows where George and Jacob Weikert’s farms were in relation to those of the Trostle and Sherfy farms.

How did George and family come to be in the middle of fighting on the second and third day?

George Weikert Background

George W. Weikert was a prominent Gettysburg-area farmer of German descent. He was born 1803, likely in Maryland . Many genealogies suggest he is the son of Capt. George Weikert (Sr., 1760–1823) and his first wife Maria (Margaret) Spitler (1760–1809) and thus the brother of John Jacob Weikert who owned a nearby farm. But data on this point is uncertain, and the number of George Weikerts in the area at the time (there were three in the census in the same town) leave some doubt. Either way, John Jacob was undoubtedly a close relative.

Around 1833 Weikert married Anna Mary Elizabeth Gruff (b. 1809 Maryland). Anna Gruff allegedly had some connection to a prominent Holland family. Years after the battle, the younger George Weikert would note this connection when the subject of a huge inheritance came up (young George never got a cut of this inheritance).

By the early 1850s they were settled in Cumberland Township, Adams County, PA, north of Gettysburg, raising a large family. Weikert made his living as a farmer; the 1860 federal census shows him as a prosperous farmer (real estate $2,700, personal estate $500) in Cumberland Twp. In the census (1860) his household included his wife “Ann M. Weikert (b.1808 MD)” and children Hannah (b.1846), Valentine (b.1844), Emanuel S. (b.1850) and Louisa (b.1851) – evidence of the younger portion of his family. (Earlier-born children had largely grown up by 1860.) Local histories note that Weikert purchased a 78‑acre farm in about 1851 and lived there with his family. The farm lay at the corner of what are now United States Avenue, Sedgwick Avenue, and Hancock Avenue, just north of Little Round Top in Gettysburg.

After the 1863 battle the Weikerts returned to find their farm used as a Union field hospital (the house parlor and barn were hospital wards). The family soon sold the property to members of the New Jersey Brigade (who erected a monument on the ridge); it later became part of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association holdings. The original stone farmhouse survives to the present day (see photo), and the circa-1798 barn remains on site, both within Gettysburg National Military Park. (A famous walnut “Witness Tree” still grows by the house.)

Children of George W. & Anna M.E. Weikert

George and Anna Weikert had a large family (at least ten children). Among their sons were:

• Jacob Henry Weikert (b.~1834). The eldest son, Jacob Henry appears on later records in Adams County. (By 1859 he was 24, per the birth of daughter Amanda.) He married and raised his own family near Gettysburg.
• George Washington Weikert Jr. (1836–1919). Served in the Civil War (Union). After the war he was a Gettysburg police officer (later Chief of Police) and died in Gettysburg in 1919. (Family sources list him as having three daughters.)
• John Thomas Weikert (1838–1916). Enlisted as a private (Co. B, 140th PA) in 1862. He survived the war and lived in Gettysburg, dying in 1916. His grave is marked in the Gettysburg National Cemetery, Pennsylvania Plot (as “Pvt. John T. Weikert”).
• William Francis Weikert (1841–1895). Served as a private in the 140th PA Volunteers. After the war he lived in Adams County and died 1895 (memorialized in Gettysburg Cemetery).
• Andrew Valentine (Weikert) (1845–1903). (Called “Valentine” in some records.) He enlisted in 1862 (Co. A, 140th PA) and also survived. He later married and had several children.
• Emanuel Silas Weikert (1850–1927). The youngest son, born on the family farm (the 1860 census lists “Emanuel S. Weikert, age 9”). He moved to Ohio as an adult.

Daughters of George and Anna included Anna (b. 1840), Hannah (b.1846), and Elizabeth “Louise” (b. Nov 1851). (The 1860 census shows Anna, Hannah, Louisa, and Emanuel; Elizabeth Louise is who is listed as Louisa.) These daughters married local men (for example, Elizabeth Louise married Edmund Bair in 1878). All the children grew up in Cumberland Twp and many are listed in later census and cemetery records in Adams County.

Weikert Farm, Gettysburg Battle, and Later Ownership

When the fighting neared their area on July 2, 1863, the Weikert family fled to safety, as did many civilians. (Jacob Weikert’s family likewise fled their own farm that day, inviting neighbor Tillie Pierce to come along in a now-famous civilian account.) George likely took his wife and younger children to a safer location away from the firing – possibly toward Two Taverns or another nearby village, as other Cumberland Township families did.

While the Weikerts were away, Union troops swarmed over George’s land. His property was in a vital position: troops of the Army of the Potomac’s II Corps (particularly Brig. Gen. George J. Jersey Brigade of New Jersey regiments) occupied and defended that ground during the battle. Thousands of Union soldiers marched past or camped around the farm as reserves moved up to the front. Perhaps most notably, George’s house and barn were pressed into service as a field hospital during and after the fighting on July 2–3. Wounded men from both the Union and Confederate armies were brought to the Weikert farm. According to family and contemporary accounts, the stone farmhouse’s parlor was filled wall-to-wall with injured soldiers, and the barn sheltered many more.

The scenes at the Weikert farm in those days were grim. Amputated limbs were reportedly piled outside a window of the house after field surgeons operated on the dining tables. At least six soldiers died in the parlor of the house-turned-hospital, and the yard quickly became a graveyard: hastily dug trenches in the yard were filled with dead from the battle. In one striking episode, the Weikerts later discovered their missing parlor carpet had been cut up and used to line and cover a burial trench for soldiers on their property. The barn on the farm, which predated Weikert’s ownership (it may have been built in the 1790s by an earlier owner), also served as a shelter for the wounded. For two days and nights, George Weikert’s farm was overwhelmed by the suffering of war – essentially converted into a temporary hospital for the Union Second Corps in the rear of the active battlefield.

When the battle finally ended, George Weikert and his family returned to their home to find scenes of devastation familiar to many Gettysburg civilians. Fences were gone, crops had been trampled or used up, and the house was in shambles. The floors were blood-stained, furniture broken, and virtually every piece of linen or clothing in the home had been taken for bandages. Corpses and graves dotted the property. Imagine the shock of the Weikert children seeing their yard as a makeshift cemetery and their home filled with bloody straw and debris. In the days and weeks after, most of the hastily buried soldiers were disinterred by crews and moved to proper cemeteries (Union dead to the new Soldiers’ National Cemetery, Confederates eventually to Southern cemeteries). During that process, the Weikerts witnessed the exhumations – and it was then they discovered the strips of their missing carpet under layers of dirt and bodies. The aftermath for George was a struggle to recover. He had to quickly restore his farm to livable condition and resume making a living.

The Weikerts Sell the Farm

George did not hang on to the farm many years after the war. In 1868, he posted an advertisement in local newspapers to announce his retirement from farmingand sell all his equipment. Land in the area was being bought up for memorial purposes, and the Weikerts sold to members of the New Jersey Brigade who had defended that land.

Death, Burial, and Legacy

Anna Mary Weikert died in 1879, leaving George a widower. George W. Weikert lived five more years, then died in 1884 (family records give 10 Sep 1884 as his death date) and was buried locally in Saint Mark’s Reformed Church Cemetery in Mount Joy Township next to his wife. Surviving today are the farm’s structures: the stone house and barn, both of which visitors can see along Sedgwick Avenue. These remnants – along with the family’s written records – keep alive the legacy of the Weikerts on the Gettysburg battlefield.