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ANDREA THE GLADIATOR:
: The Countess of Knoff, Ovia Veerle Knoff, 1890 - 1968?
Very little is known today of Ovia Veerle Knoff. She is believed to have been born in the Dutch East Indies in April of 1890 as Ovia Veerle Wasser - (later to acquire the unofficial title of Countess and surname of Knoff).
Early Years:
Ovia Veerle Wasser was the youngest of seven children born to Gunther and Vera Wasser. Gunther Wasser was affiliated with the famed, Knoff Armaments' Company, founded in Germany in early 1859.
In the fall of 1897, Wasser received a substantial promotion within the company hierarchy and moved his entire family to Hamburg Germany when Ovia was 7 years old. Aside from his high position within the Knoff Armaments' Company, Wasser had large holdings in mineral mining and Railroads' throughout central Europe. He also had direct access to many of his high-ranking peers in public office.
Grammar School and Adolescence:
Born of privilege, Ovia Veerle Wasser attended the finest schools in Europe and proved to be an exceptionally gifted child pertaining to literature and music, she played several instruments but greatly excelled at the Grand Piano and later composed during a brief time for private audiences of the wealthy elite, she also wrote music herself. Rare, for a young woman of her time, Ovia shot skeet and was an excellent horsewoman, spending several hours each day alone on horseback, when possible.
Viewed as extremely physically attractive, she strongly rebelled against a prearranged marriage that is believed to have been between her and Karl Werner in 1906 when Ovia was 16 years old. Werner, a 46-year-old German industrialist, was said to have been left standing at the alter, publicly humiliated.
Some experts believe that the failed wedding had been prearranged to combine the power and wealth of the Knoff Armaments' Company and Werner Industries, - if in fact, it had been Werner that Ovia had been destined to marry, sources aren't completely clear on the groom's actual identity.
Also among the dignitaries in attendance during the failed wedding was Germany's, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. It was later written that the Kaiser, apparently somewhat intoxicated at the time, scathingly referred to Ovia as "The Countess of Knoff" in a sarcastic reference to the Knoff Armament Company and implying that Ovia was volatile and not worth having as a wife. This unofficial title followed Ovia for the rest of her life and she was said to have had a seething dislike for both the Kaiser and the bogus title which he had bestowed upon her.
After the failed union between Ovia and the perceived Karl Werner, the entire Wasser family disinherited Ovia and never communicated with her again, leaving her humiliated and penniless.
On a footnote: Some historians believe that Ovia had been mute, yet it is unclear whether or not this condition stemmed from birth or was some form of PTSD, possibly stemming from the public humiliation of Germany's Kaiser during her failed wedding or the rejection of her biological family. Some sources speculate that Ovia had been beset with a severe speech impediment and simply chose not to speak, often conversing with others by pen and paper.
Early to Middle Age:
Little is known of Ovia Veerle Wasser between the years 1907-1915. After her failed wedding and family disinheritance, it is believed that she toured as a pianist within a performing circus act, traveling throughout Europe for several years. Somewhere close to this time she also began a serious relationship with a soldier in the German Army whose identity has been lost to history. Allegedly, the couple had planned to be married at the end of World War I, which was now raging across Europe. The soldier, whose identity is not known, is believed to have been killed in fierce combat during the coinciding time of the infamous "Fokker Scourge."
Among scholars, speculations have always persisted that the German soldier, a machinist by trade, had suddenly and unexpectedly been sent to the front lines in France, upon direct orders from German High-Command. Entering combat, the machinist had been killed in battle a mere day later.
In 1916, at 26 years of age, Ovia Veerle Wasser married and became Ovia Veerle King, when she married Isaac Joshua King, a 51-year-old Englishman and former Cattle baron, then living in Odessa Texas. In 1890 King had struck oil and abandoned the cattle trade in favor of developing more petroleum wells. It is unclear how the couple became acquainted or exactly when Ovia arrived in North America.
Many historians see these two events as having a striking parallel to the Biblical telling of "Bathsheba." With the death of the forgotten soldier having made Ovia Veerle Wasser single and unmarried, yet again, she was conveniently available for King's courtship and eventual marriage to her. Ovia later presented Isaac Joshua King with two sons, Phillip, in 1917 and David, in early 1919.
Evidence suggests that the marriage was less than ideal, with King having a live-in mistress on the premises and Ovia apparently taking many lovers, herself.
1918 At War's End:
With the Armistice signed, German documentation revealed that Isaac Joshua King had consorted with German diplomats between the time of 1915 and early 1918. This documentation presents the case that the Imperial German Navy had secretly planned to convert the majority of their Battleship fleet to oil-fired boilers in place of coal, thus greatly reducing refueling times within port.
This same documentation also gives evidence that Isaac Joshua King had agreed to supply Germany with that oil. A Senate hearing, accusing him of treason, was scheduled and King was to appear in early 1919 but he mysteriously vanished before he could be sequestered.
Some scholars believe that French Nationalists were responsible for assassinating Isaac Joshua King and his mistress while they were aboard King's own private Pullman car, along enroute to the Senate hearings. However, some experts strongly refute this claim and insist that King and his mistress went into hiding with their untold millions. In either case, Isaac Joshua King was never seen again, after 1919.
1920 - 1949:
Ovia Veerle Wasser, now Ovia Veerle King, was permitted to keep her husband's oil leases and mineral holdings yet she continued to find herself plagued by the Kaiser's age-old title of "The Countess of Knoff." The so-called "Countess of Knoff" was snubbed by the social elite of society for the rest of her life. There were also ill feelings toward her which undoubtedly stemmed from her late husband's secret dealings with Germany during the war.
During the decades that followed, she became a self-taught and ruthless businesswoman within the oil industry, refusing any and all offers to sell her leases. Many of her competitors became wary and increasingly intimidated by her sporadic behavior and hardline business practices.
During this time Ovia also began to embrace her age-old and hated title of, The Countess of Knoff, and had her surname legally changed to Knoff. Some historical experts believe this change in attitude was in morbid reflection of Ovia's increasingly cynical outlook and hardened demeanor.
When war with Germany broke out again, in 1939, Ovia's youngest son, David, flew to England to stand against Hitler. In 1941, Ovia received an urgent telegram informing her that she was soon to become a grandmother. Her youngest son David; then begged Ovia to ship the girl from England and care for her and the would-be child until his return.
The results of this telegram or any actions taken by Ovia are obscure to history and nothing is known of the English girl or her soon-to-be child.
David King survived the war but was later killed in a plane crash in 1949. Not much is known about David King or his Military Service, he apparently Served under a different surname than King, undoubtedly to avoid the ridicule of his father's treason, twenty years earlier. David's wartime exploits have fallen into the pages of time and obscurity, unheralded.
The Countess of Knoff mourned her son's loss in private.
1950-1968?:
With untold wealth generated by the rich Texas oil fields, Ovia Veerle Knoff slowly became a recluse and refused to communicate with members of the press, preferring to stay within the confines of the heavily guarded oil leases which she lived upon. Ovia had many live-in servants as well as her oldest son, Phillip, who was still living at home with her and apparently a special needs adult to some degree. The state of his condition is not known.
It is believed that Phillip died of natural causes in April of 1964, at 47 years of age, having never left the guarded oil field property during his entire life. After the loss of a second son, Ovia Veerle Knoff is believed to have sold all of her holdings within the oil industry yet she remained on the private property of oil leases until her death which is speculated to have been in May of 1968 when she was 78 years old. The cause of her death is believed to have been chronic alcoholism. She had not left the property for the last 30 years of her life.
Ovia Veerle Knoff is presently buried in Odessa Texas upon these same oil field leases, she now rests between her two sons, Phillip and David:
