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Lula Loyetta "Lulu" Leydig, a native of Butler County, KS, was selected from a group of popular young women as "Miss Newton" at the 1926 Harvey County Fall Festival in Kansas. In this role, said a newspaper, she "performed the duties as the city's hostess to the festival queen with becoming grace and dignity."
Lulu was the daughter of James Valentine "J.V." and Grace Lenora (Guinty) Leydig of the family of Winifred Agnes "Winnie" (Shirer) Leydig Lydig. Their path had led from Somerset County, PA to Muskingum County, OH and thence to Kansas.
At the age of 29, in 1928, she entered into marriage with a cousin, 30-year-old World War I veteran Robert Dennis Webreck of Berlin, Somerset County, PA. Their nuptials were held in Kansas, far from the groom's hom. In reporting on the wedding, the Meyersdale (PA) Republican stated that "The bride came with her parents to Newton to resided several years ago, and by her sweet, genial disposition has endeared herself to a large circle of friends in the younger and older set with whom she has been associated in both church and social affairs."
Prior to marriage, during the world war, Robert had served with the 110th Infantry, Company C and saw action at the Battle of the Marne. He went missing in action in August 1918, and in fact he had been wounded by German poison gas, captured and spent five months as a prisoner of war, primarily in Bavaria. His captors were hard on those American soldiers of German descent, often saying "Aren't you ashamed of coming over here to shoot at your cousins?" In a letter to home, printed in the Republican, he said that "We are treated good here, so don't worry about me. I will be home some day."
In a very rare instance of a relocation eastward among Kansas pioneers, the couple established their dwelling-place in Robert's hometown of Berlin in Pennsylvania. By that time, he had turned to farming as his occupation. The couple went on to bear a brood of three sons -- James Robert Webreck, Richard Milton Werbreck and William F. Werbreck. Lula is known to have inherited the old Leydig family Bible, and in August 1941, she and her mother arranged to meet in Kansas with her uncle Harry Spencer Leydig and cousin Corinna Leydig so the latter two could examine the handwritten family records in the book. She is mentioned in the memoir, "Personal History of the Leydigs of California," authored by her cousin, Corinna (Leydig) Talbot of Fresno, CA.
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Copyright © 2023 Mark A. Miner. Photo courtesy Elsa Bernice Haupt. |
