Spelling of Thomas Pendel's middle name ???

[Steve]

I looked and I couldn't find anything which could provide an answer. All the signatures I could find of him just listed had his middle name written as "F." The Google Books images of the original 1902 edition of his book just has his name as "Thomas F. Pendel".

The only clue I could find is Pendel's namesake son's will, which was written in 1928, in which the son states and signs his full name as "Thomas Francis Pendel". But that doesn't necessarily mean the father used that middle name spelling. But if there are no documents from or connected to the father spelling his middle name as Franses that could be an indication.

My best suggestion as a course of action would be to obtain a full copy of Pendel's US-Mexican War pension record and see if he signed his full name on any of the documents. Of course he could've just signed everything with an "F." like his other signatures.