Jonathan Edward Wolf was born in Huntington Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania on August 9, 1835. He was the eldest of five children of Jacob and Matilda (Kinert) Wolf.

The Wolf family, originally of German descent, settled in Adams County when it was still part of York County. The county seat of Adams County is the now-famous Gettysburg. Jonathan’s grandfather, John Frederick Wolf, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran, was in his eighties and still living in the area when the two great armies clashed.

About 1845-50, Jonathan E. Wolf moved with his parents to Dubuque County, Iowa.

On March 18, 1858 he married Mary Margaret Taylor. She was born in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania on March 3, 1840, the second of ten children of Robert A. and Susanna M. (Brinker) Taylor. She moved with her parents to Iowa about 1854-56. Mary’s only three brothers all died while serving for the Union, namely, John B. Taylor of the 13th Illinois Infantry, and Arthur S. Taylor & William S. Taylor of the 38th Iowa Infantry. Jonathan and Mary (Taylor) Wolf had five children together: Jacob Kinert, John Robert Lincoln, Laura Etta, Lorenzo Taylor, and Liva Georgia.

At the age of twenty-seven, Jonathan E. Wolf enlisted as 3rd Sergeant of Company A, 18th Iowa Infantry on July 7, 1862 and was enrolled and joined for duty at Dubuque, Iowa on July 17th.

Sergeant Wolf was described as being five feet, six inches tall, with blue-gray eyes and light brown hair. His occupation was that of a farmer.

The regiment was mustered in at Camp Kirkwood on August 5, 6 and 7, 1862. Soon after they moved to Springfield, Missouri via St. Louis and Sedalia, and joined the Army of the Southwest.

Shortly after his regiment was sent to Missouri, Sergeant Wolf had the misfortune of contracting measles. He was left sick at Jefferson City from August 6-31, 1862, and company muster books for September and October list him left sick at Sedalia, Missouri since August 30th.

Tad Campbell at Wolf’s grave

He was treated in the U.S. General Hospital at Jefferson City, Missouri about three months in the fall of 1862, then at Springfield, Missouri about two weeks in winter 1862, then sent to the convalescent hospital at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri where he was discharged due to disability on February 23, 1863. A notation was made that his “military character” was good.

After the war he lived at Zwingle, Dubuque County, Iowa until December 20, 1869 when they moved to Louisburg, Miami County, Kansas. They remained here until April 1882 when they settled at Welda, Anderson County, Kansas.

For most of his life Jonathan E. Wolf worked the land as a farmer. In his later years he became a house carpenter. He was a member of the Louisburg Post No. 252, Grand Army of the Republic in Louisburg, Kansas.

Jonathan’s wife Mary (Taylor) Wolf, died at Welda, Kansas on their twenty-ninth wedding anniversary, March 18, 1887, at the age of forty-seven. She was laid to rest in the Welda Cemetery. Jonathan married secondly on October 31, 1888 at Welda, Kansas to Mrs. Nancy Jane (Stephenson) Randle (1841-1915), widow of James P. Randle. They had no issue and their marriage appears to have ended in separation or divorce.

Jonathan died at Welda on September 3, 1920 at the age of eighty-five, and was buried by the side of his first wife Mary.