Sophie Henrietta Lackey Ottmers

OTTMERS, SOPHIE HENRIETTA (1850 ~ 1947). Confederate widow Sophie Henrietta Ottmers was born on August 30, 1850 in Germany. She was born to John Lache and Louise Jabus both of Germany.

She was first married to German Confederate veteran August Arhelger and was then married to George H. Ottmers of Germany. Sophie Arhelger and her husband lived in Fredericksburg before the Civil War. After the outbreak of the War, August Arhelger joined the Confederacy in Company C of the Eighth Battalion, Texas Cavalry.

Arhelger served with his wife's future second husband when the company was consolidated with the First Texas Cavalry, Colonel August Buchel's regiment. Buchel's Regiment served in the Texas frontier and eventually during the Red River Campaign. Buchel was killed at the Battle of Pleasant Hill in Louisiana and is buried at the Texas State Cemetery.

Sophie had two children named W. H. Stucke and Mrs. Augusta Christelles it is unclear which husband she had the children with. She had three grandchildren named Mrs. Josephine Lowe, Joe Stucke, and R. E. Christelles.

It is also unclear when either of her husbands died, but it is likely Ottmers died in 1928 because Sophie Ottmers applied for her husband's Confederate pension that year.

Sophie entered the Confederate Women's Home on November 21, 1945 from Waco, Texas. She died at the Home on November 2, 1947 and was buried at the Texas State Cemetery.

Information taken from Texas State Cemetery file materials.