William Wallace Westerman, known in the family as “Willie,” was born on February 25, 1873 in Bear Creek, Butler County, Pennsylvania, according to a genealogist of the Westerman family.  He was the first born of Elizabeth Duffy Westerman and Frederick Jacob Westerman.

Like his siblings, Willie was born into the rough and tumble world of the Pennsylvania oil boom. They moved fairly often. His family lived near several of his mother’s siblings, so he had Duffy aunts and uncles nearby. He probably knew them better than his father, who died when Willie was five years old.

For reasons not yet known, when his mother returned to Lockport with his only surviving sibling, his sister Mary, Willie stayed in Fairview, Pennsylvania, where he was cared for by Mary Duffy Hogan and her husband James Hogan. In the 1880 census, he is part of their household.

Eventually he came back to Lockport. Sadly, Willie died there on January 19, 1885. He was just shy of his twelfth birthday.

He is buried in St Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery in Lockport, New York. His name is also on the family monument there.

Patrick Duffy (b 1812) + Elizabeth Dillon (b 1818)
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Elizabeth Duffy (b 1844) + Frederick Jacob Westerman (1844)
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William Wallace Westerman (b 1873)

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