Searching for Frank Weston...

[Mark Russell]

At the suggestion of another forum participant, I'm reposting my "new member" introduction here...

Hello from Melbourne Australia. I'm Mark, a musician with an interest in Australian goldfields music, some of which is derived from Civil War era tunes. I'm on the hunt for information about Frank Weston, who reportedly served in the Civil War.

Weston came to Australia in the 1860s as a travelling performer and theatrical manager. He's significant because he influenced the business model and the repertoire of musical performance from 1870 through to 1910. I have a file on his activities once he arrived in Australia, but very little about his life before that. Weston was reported to be from Bayou Lafourche Louisiana, where his father was a doctor. Weston claims to have fought with McCullough's Texan Rangers at the Battle of Pea Ridge (https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/265252900).

Terry Foenander mentions in a blog comment that he had researched Weston (see the comments at https://bellanta.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/frank-weston-the-wizard-oil-prince-3/#comment-932 ) and that Weston served in the Civil War. I know Mr Foenander passed a decade ago, but I gather his son Chris might have his research papers (https://civilwartalk.com/threads/cs-sailors-and-marines-database.120452/)

If anyone can point me in the right direction to find our more about Mr Foenander's research, I'd be most grateful.

 

[lupaglupa]

The thread about Foenander's research is old and the member what started it hasn't posted since 2020. You could try to send him a message through the private message system but that seems a longshot.

I did not find any Westons in McCullough's Cavalry records. Nor do I find any Weston serving from Texas with the first initial F. I tried eliminating Texas and still don't find a match among Confederate soldiers for Frank A Weston. There's a Frank Weston in the Union Cavalry from Kentucky, but he was born in Prussia so I doubt that's your man.

Clearly there is something missing here - a badly misspelled name, a different state of enlistment...

 

[Mark Russell]

The thread about Foenander's research is old and the member what started it hasn't posted since 2020. You could try to send him a message through the private message system but that seems a longshot.

I did not find any Westons in McCullough's Cavalry records. Nor do I find any Weston serving from Texas with the first initial F. I tried eliminating Texas and still don't find a match among Confederate soldiers for Frank A Weston. There's a Frank Weston in the Union Cavalry from Kentucky, but he was born in Prussia so I doubt that's your man.

Clearly there is something missing here - a badly misspelled name, a different state of enlistment...

Thank you for checking the records. All I have to go on is what Weston told the Australian theatre journalists. And, of course, he might have invented the whole story.

 

[lupaglupa]

A lot of men who lived in their home towns all their lives embellished their records. The fact that Foenander says Weston was a veteran makes me think he did serve somewhere, somehow. But finding exactly what the facts were will take a lot of digging. It's a shame you cannot connect with his son. One would think with such an unusual last name you could manage to find him.

 

[Mike Serpa]

A couple things about him. Edit: If he was in Australia in 1864 (see ad below) I assume his Civil War service was before that?

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081662854&seq=124&q1=weston

Notable South Australians; Or, Colonists, Past and Present : George E. Loyau : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

archive.org

 

[Stryker65]

Could "Frank Weston" itself have been a fictitious name? There were some (not many) examples of Civil War soldiers using pseudonyms during the war, from privates all the way up to brevet brigadier generals.

 

[lupaglupa]

The biographies I found online were not able to link Weston to any records in the USA. I think any or all of his back story could be a fiction.

 

[Mark Russell]

A couple things about him. Edit: If he was in Australia in 1864 (see ad below) I assume his Civil War service was before that?
View attachment 556863

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081662854&seq=124&q1=weston

View attachment 556864

Notable South Australians; Or, Colonists, Past and Present : George E. Loyau : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

archive.org

Thank you, the clip about him leasing a theatre in Buffalo is very useful. He didn't die until 1919, but Australian papers mistakenly reported his death at least twice before that. And Mauritius is a long way from Sydney

 

[Story]

He was a snake oil salesman so $20 says he did enlist (probably in 1861) at least once and promptly bounty-jumped.

https://fellowfrockery.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F149783477896

 

[Stryker65]

He was a snake oil salesman so $20 says he did enlist (probably in 1861) at least once and promptly bounty-jumped.

https://fellowfrockery.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F149783477896

Wait, but that says that he arrived in 1854...

 

[Story]

Wait, but that says that he arrived in 1854...

Clearly a typo.

Searching for Frank Weston... | Researching Civil War Records & Ancestry

At the suggestion of another forum participant, I'm reposting my "new member" introduction here... Hello from Melbourne Australia. I'm Mark, a musician with an interest in Australian goldfields music, some of which is derived from Civil War era tunes. I'm on the hunt for information about Frank...

civilwartalk.com

 

[Rhea Cole]

A couple things about him. Edit: If he was in Australia in 1864 (see ad below) I assume his Civil War service was before that?
View attachment 556863

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081662854&seq=124&q1=weston

View attachment 556864

Notable South Australians; Or, Colonists, Past and Present : George E. Loyau : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

archive.org

Passage San Francisco to Sydney in the 1860's typically was 70 - 100 days (+.)

Passage from New York to Sydney 90 - 120 days (+.)

He was in Sydney in 1864. (+/-) six months to establish a business + sailing time puts his arrival back (+/-) a year to 1863.

Difficulty in finding records could come from a 90 day enlistment. It was not unusual for men who were physically unfit or had no taste for soldiering to not reenlist.

After the 250,000 gold rush emigration in 1850's, overall emigration was only (+/-) 10,000 / year in the 1860's. No record of national origin was kept. The vast majority were from the UK. American emigration to Australia was only a few thousand.

The American to Australia trade was carried out by clipper ships that made regularly scheduled runs. With the war on, there were likely fewer direct passages. Likely your man booked passage to England & onward to Australia. Voyages lasted (+/-) four months. It is quite possible your man left the U.S. circa 1862. That argues for a 90 day enlistment as well.

Having the funds for both passage & capitol to set up in business argues for someone that was successful. The small number of theatricals who fit that profile might be a fruitful line of inquiry.

 

[gary]

Easy to fabricate or reinvent oneself back then. There is a cowboy hotel/restaurant whose founder claimed to have been a cook for Grant and that Grant recommended him to Lincoln. Lincoln then hired him. Bovine feces. We know Grant could not communicate directly with Abe w/out going through the chain of command. There is no mention of him in the papers of Abe Lincoln. Anyway, it goes to show that w/out books or interweb it was easy to tell tall tales.

You can also try contacting the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Museum in Waco. Here's their email: [email protected]

I visited it over a decade ago and they do have a mighty fine collection of BBQ Guns and Lorenzo Barker's (66th Illinois Inf/Birge's Western Sharp Shooters) Henry Rifle!

Three's anothr Texas Rangre Musuem in San Antonio. [email protected]

I tried contacting the one in Waco about another alleged ranger but got no response. You may have better luck.