Harold Wolfinbarger, Jr.

by Bonnie Aspenson

Some years ago, my mother, Myrtle Wolfinbarger Braun of Guthrie, Oklahoma, corresponded with Mr. Harold A. Wolfinbarger, Sr. of Denver, Colorado. He was an amateur artist and sent her one of his oil paintings of a Colorado snow scene. He also sent a biographical pamphlet about his son, Harold A. Wolfinbarger, Jr., who was a professional western artist and had acquired considerable fame. This is a partial text of the pamphlet, apparently written 30 to 40 years ago.

From the time, when as a high school student, he won a national cartoon contest, Harold A. Wolfinbarger's life has been devoted to drawing, painting and illustrating. Passionately fond of the West where he was born, he found no reason to leave it, and traveled from Mexico to Montana painting and striking landscapes, the wild animals which still abound in various areas, and the adventurous life of the cowboy with which he has intimate acquaintance. In his beautiful paintings, this artist captures the spirited colors and true atmosphere of the West. His excellent illustrations for historical books and magazine articles has made him internationally known.

Born in Denver, Mr. Wolfinbarger went to school there, graduated from South High School and attended Denver University. He was art editor of the yearbook at both institutions. During summer vacations, he worked as a ranch hand, cowboy and trail rider, becoming familiar with this mode of life which makes his paintings of western subjects authentic. Before finishing school his work became so much in demand that his future as an artist was secured at an early age. Except for a period of eighteen months after his high school graduation when he worked as an apprentice to a leading Denver commercial artist and as a monitor in the Denver Art Institute, he has been a successful professional free-lance artist executing commissions for the leading industrial and business firms of Colorado and private individuals.

He had advanced art study at the Art Student's League in New York City, studying under Frank Vincent DuMond.

Mr. Wolfinbarger's career has been long and distinguished. His designs, illustrations and paintings have won national, regional and local awards in both Advertising and Fine Arts. The book, "Matadors of Mexico," by Ann D. Miller of Tucson, Arizona, published by Dale S. King of Tucson, which he designed and illustrated, was acclaimed internationally. His paintings hang in many private collections and have been exhibited in many art museums. He was a member of the Denver Artist Guild for many years and served as president of that organization in 1957 and 1958.

The art of philosophy of Mr. Wolfinbarger is summed up in these two wonderful sentences of his: "The adventure in life is a grand one and for an artist it is so grand that he must give outlet to it that others may feel also the uncontrollable magnetism that brings people to nature for peace and happiness. In my paintings, I hope to create that lingering and haunting beauty of an experience which will never be forgotten as long as there is life."

Samuel Wolfenberger

The pantheon of Texas heroes is long and glorious. From the martyred heroes of the Alamo to Sam Houston and Steven Austin, icons of the Texas War of Independence, history has brought lasting fame to dozens of Texan patriots.

Others, like Samuel Wolfenberger, the great-grandson of John and Anna Margaretha Wolfersberger, linger in the shadows of obscurity, long neglected by Texas historians but a forceful figure in colonial Texas and in the early days of the Republic of Texas.

Only now is the story of Samuel Wolfenberger in the creation of the Texas Republic coming to light, although few contributed more to the welfare of the republic and later State of Texas.

Today, a simple marker erected to his memory in Bastrop, Texas, says simply that he fought in the 1835-1836 Texas War of Independence battle of Velasco and participated in the capture of the Mexican stronghold of Bexar before joining the precursor of the famed Texas Rangers.

Born in Wytheville, Virginia in 1804, Samuel Wolfenberger left home at 19, a grown man, to begin an eight year odyssey that would take him westward across six states. In his travels, he learned the skills of a wagonmaker and wheelwright and later rode to the defense of the Alamo - - and into the pages of Texas history.

By 1825, Samuel was in Tennessee, engaged in trading with a John Seaver, who historians believe to be John Sevier, one of Tennessee's founders. Later, in Hawkins County, he would meet and marry Caroline Flesheart. She moved westward with him to Texas in 1831 to settle in what is now known as Bastrop County in eastern Texas.

The stocky six-footer was later remembered as a natural leader who inspired the confidence of others due to his courage, judgement and willingness to tackle dangerous tasks. As a wheelwright Samuel found ready employment as well as spare time to take part in colonial Texas' political, military and civic affairs. By 1834, Samuel was prominent enough to be named alcade, or mayor, of the settlement of Mina, today's Bastrop. There, he formed a local unit of the Texas Committee on Safety and Correspondence, a group modeled on American Revolution committees.

Within weeks of the start of hostilities on October 2, 1835 against the repressive Mexican regime, Samuel enlisted in the Mina volunteers in the campaign against Mexican forces in Bexar County. As Santa Anna marched toward San Antonio, Samuel was brought home from the defense of the Alamo to organize a unit of the Texas militia in the Mina area. It is easy to speculate that perhaps his appointment - - to help recruit Texan volunteers - - spared him from the fate of the other Alamo defenders.

Once the Texas War of Independence was won, Samuel joined the Texas Ranging Service, forerunner of the modern Texas Rangers, where he served as a non-commissioned officer. The service had been organized to protect the infant Republic's borders, defend against Indian raiders and enforce the law. In 1837, Samuel served for much of the year as second sergeant in a fort on the Colorado River, deep in Indian territory.

While serving on Texas' western frontier, the people of his community again called him home to higher duties. Summoned home from Coleman's Fort on the Colorado River, Samuel was designated County Coroner for the newly formed Bastrop County. In 1839, he was named county tax collector, and six years later, was appointed to the county government's finance committee.

As he prospered at home in Bastrop County, Samuel and his family established one of the earliest family cemeteries in Texas. It lies a few hundred yards north of Samuel's original cabin on Walnut Creek, part of the extensive landholdings near modern Bastrop owned by him after the end of the Texas War of Independence.

In the years leading up to his death in 1860, Samuel again took time out from his wagon-making trade, contributing time and money to the creation of schools in rural Bastrop County. In August 1854, he was appointed one of three trustees for Bastrop's School District No. 19.

At ceremonies to dedicate a historical marker to his memory in 1972, historian Deed L. Vest, Dean of Students at St. Mary's University, said, "Today, we finally recognize Samuel Wolfenberger as one of the great men of Texas history and one of the true benefactors of all those who now inhabit this beautiful state. It should be a long time before his name is forgotten."

General Willard Wolfinbarger

Willard Roland Wolfinbarger rose from an underage private on the battlefields of World War 1 France to the rank of a two-star general in the cold war.

In one of his last commands, he led the U.S. Air Force's Tactical Air Command in Weisbaden, Germany. Between the wars, Willard Wolfinbarger learned to fly with Charles Lindbergh, helped defend air pioneer General Billy Mitchell, and served as an attache in Nazi Germany. One of the last Americans to leave the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, he slipped out of neutral Lisbon in December 1941, just days ahead of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

In a life filled with danger, intrigue and excitement, Willard Wolfinbarger traveled far from his roots in the plains of Kansas but never left his hometown behind. Willard was born December 12, 1900, the youngest of six siblings, in the central Kansas community of Marion to W. Hilton Wolfinbarger and his wife, Serelda Chadwell.

Hilton and Serelda had earlier moved to Kansas from the Cumberland Gap region in Tennessee. Serelda died in 1904, leaving his father the difficult task of rearing young Willard and five older children.

A railroad man, Hilton took his eldest three sons and headed west. Willard and his sister, Myrtle, were placed with foster families. Willard's older sister, Margaret, was married by that time and remained in Kansas.

Willard was placed with a German farmer and his spinster sister near Canada, Kansas, a small farming community west of Marion. Thereafter, Willard referred to the couple as "Aunt" and "Uncle."

As the only child in the household, Willard became the center of attention. The couple gave Willard every opportunity to grow into a self-sufficient, independent and responsible young man who spoke fluent German as a second language.

When he was only 14, they bought the family's first car so Willard could learn to drive them into town and run errands for the farm.

Even though his sister, Myrtle, had been placed with a farm family some distance away, both attended the same high school and remained close over the remainder of their lives.

World War 1 broke out in Europe in 1914, and three years later America joined the war. Young men from across the country rushed to volunteer for service. Willard, too, answered the call -- not waiting to come of age.

Years later, the Kansas City Star reported Willard's secret when he, then a general, belatedly confessed to having fudged a little on his age to join the Army. He joined Company M, 139th Infantry Regiment, 35th Division, and was soon at the front in France.

He observed his 17th birthday in France. Young Willard was one of the unit's runners, carrying messages back and forth across the front lines. During the 1918 Meuse-Argonne offensive, he was struck in the leg by a German bullet. In great pain, he stopped an officer and handed him the message. He lay wounded on the battlefield for three days before his rescue.

Taken to a hospital in Bordeaux, he convalesced from his wounds for seven months. After World War 1, Willard returned to Marion to finish high school. He went on to the University of Kansas in Lawrence where he was a member of Delta Upsilon and Phi Alpha Delta fraternities.

After graduation, he remained in Lawrence to attend law school. He graduated with an LL.B degree in 1924 after winning election to the presidency of the law school's student body. Willard passed both the Kansas and Missouri bar exams, then briefly practiced law in Independence, Missouri.

But law couldn't hold Willard's attention for long. He jumped at a chance to become a flier, winning appointment as a flying cadet. Willard entered as one of more than one hundred cadets and finished as one of only 19 graduates.

After flight training at Brooks and Kelly Fields in Texas, Willard was commissioned a second lieutenant in the famous Army Air Force class of 1925. Several of the 1925 graduates went on to wear starts in World War 2, but the most famous graduate was "Lucky Lindy," Charles A. Lindbergh, who startled the world by flying across the Atlantic in 1927.

The graduates kept up a peripatetic correspondence through a pass-it-along system of letters started by Willard, by then known as "Curley" to his classmates. One letter addressed to the class was from Lindbergh, then a household name.

Addressed to the Kelly Field "gang," Lindbergh's letter went on to say that "I am sorry to cause so much delay in our circulation, but my mail is held up considerably and have been waiting for your letter since Curley told me he mailed it to St. Louis six weeks ago.

Curley earned his nickname from his flight school classmates because they said he didn't have enough hair to make a curl. The people in Marion still called him Bill.

One of the highlights of Willard's early Army Air Force career was arole in the court martial of air pioneer General Billy Mitchell. As a lawyer and pilot, he served as a defense attorney for Mitchell at his famous court martial in 1925.

Although Mitchell lost his court martial and ultimately left the military, Willard's path also crossed that of another famous American. Future General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, then a major general, was the only judge to support Willard's client.

Willard formed another lifelong association in 1929. On June 29th, Willard married Olga Isabella Imperatori in Pleasantville, New York. As the ceremony got under way, a loudspeaker equipped plane flew over the church playing Mendelssohn's Wedding March.

The couple had one child, Loren Gilbert Wolfinbarger(now Mrs. Douglas Tabor of Denver,) born in 1939 in Newport News, Virginia.

Meanwhile, Willard's military career flourished. Promoted to captain in 1937, he held a series of assignments with Air Corps units in the US and the Philippines.

Assigned as Assistant Military Attache For Air to the US Embassy in Berlin from 1940 to November 1941, he attended receptions with Adolf Hitler, Herman Goering and the elite of the Nazi hierarchy.

While the US remained neutral after the start of World War 2, Willard observed the German invasion of France at close range.

With US neutrality soon to end, Willard escaped Nazi Germany through neutral Portugal only days before December 7, 1941, as one of the last embassy officials to leave Berlin.