J. Robert Voigt, the son of Christian Voigt and Auguste Matthes, was eighteen years of age when he arrived at Houston with his mother and six sisters about 1851/2. He married Anna Schweikart whose family came with the Useners to Texas in 1839.

He was one of the Charter Members of the Turnverein, an early social and physical education group of Houston. Robert became an architect and was the originator of the first ready built houses in Houston. After his marriage he continued to live in Houston where his son Robert was born.

When the War Between the States broke out, he was living at Industry, Texas. He enlisted with sixty men from there to form a Company known ä s the Voigt Volunteer Rifles. He was elected Captain. The Company marched to Houston and was inducted into the Legion of General Waul in May 1862. He was taken prisoner at Yazoo City, Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 14, 1863 and imprisoned at Johnson*s Island, near Sandusky, Ohio.

While in prison he occupied his time writing a diary which his grand-daughter, the late Alma (Voigt) Talley, gave to her son, William Talley. He also made two music boxes with revolving cylinders made from cannon ram-rods, one of which was given to me by the Talleys when I still lived with my grandparents. I liked music and treasured old sentimental things even ä s a child, and it looks better now than when I received it!

He also painted an elaborate silk scroll of the Lord's Prayer with illuminated manuscript letters. This was the property of his great-grand-son, Robert H. Voigt, who recently donated it to Texas University.

In the diary were Sketches of the prison guards and a detailed illus-trated analysis of the confederate gun emplacements at Vicksburg, all skillfully and painstakingly done in India ink.

After the war he returned hö rne and moved with his family to Galveston. There, Emilie, called "Melie," was born. Broken in spirit and in body by his imprisonment, Robert Voigt died in Galveston in 1868 two years after Melie was born. His son, Robert remembered his father's screams of pain and believed that his father died of a ruptured appendix for which at that time there was no Operation.

His wife, Anna, died soon after, leaving the baby, Melie, to her sister Auguste Schweikart, who became the wife of Isador Japhet. Robert, twelve or thirteen years of age at that time, moved to Industry to live with relatives.

The Schweikart family plot. Photo taken 25 December 2012 at the Washington Cemetery, Houston, Harris County, Texas.

The front side of the gravemarker of Robert Voigt. The information of his wife, Anna Mathilde Schweikart Voigt, is on the reverse side. Photo taken 25 December 2012 at the Washington Cemetery, Houston, Harris County, Texas.

Memphis Daily Appeal (FEB 09,1863)

The reverse side of the gravemarker of Robert Voigt, containing the information of his wife, Anna Mathilde Schweikart Voigt. Photo taken 25 December 2012 at the Washington Cemetery, Houston, Harris County, Texas.