Translating Entry 3: breadcrumbs to follow

I’m really getting the hang of translating these journals finally! Again it was a shorter entry, but held a considerable amount of information that led to bread crumb after bread crumb following his life and stay in St. Louis. Very exciting actually and I’ve had a wonderfully distracting week getting not much else done.

I mentioned at the end of the last post about Tivoli. My assumption was that Tivoli was a suburb of St. Louis at one time. I was wrong. Having difficulties finding any information on the World Wide Web for myself, and I am very good at research on the web, I looked up the St. Louis Historical Society. This led to the State Historical Society of Missouri’s website. I searched there to no avail myself so on a hunch, I emailed their research department requesting some insight into Tivoli and St. Louis hoping maybe they could find something. In the meantime, I transcribed and translated the third entry.

The German Transcription

Sam staged 13hau August 1864 Der Vonnittag war langweilig, der ich Wirts zu thun hatte. Nachmittags ging ich on board of Steamer W.R. Arthur mit welchen wir nach Orleans zu gehen geden Ren. Abends ging ich ins Tivoli wo Sauter ein Konzert auff uhrse. Ich horte dahelbst nicht nur aus gezeichnte Musik, Sondern auch ein meisterhaftes Clarinet Solo von ein em jungen drutfahen aufg efufrt welcher erst Burg sich jung gewandert war. Julius Hundhausen, August 13th 1864

English Translation

Saturday the 13th of August 1864.

The afternoon was boring, as I had nothing to do.

In the afternoon I went on board the steamer W.R. Arthur with whom we plan to go to Orleans.

In the evening I went to the Tivoli where Sauter was giving a concert.

I not only heard excellent music, but also a masterful Clarinet Solo performed by a young fellow who had recently immigrated. Translation by Arin Blackwood of Julius Hundhausen’s journal entry August 13th 1864.

Following Julius’ foot steps

I gained three little tidbits from the entry: (1) he referred to Tivoli this time as “the Tivoli”; (2) he is taking the W.R. Arthur down the Mississippi River for the rest of his journey to New Orleans; (3) He saw a concert and even gave the conductors name.

I first looked into the Steamer boat he mentioned. It wasn’t hard to find information on this particular steamer as it was one of the infamous steamers to have exploded and sunk on the Mississippi and killed many passengers and crew.

stereoscopic image of the W.R. Arthur docked in New Orleans.

The Arthur’s boilers exploded on January 28, 1871 (7 years after our trip here) caught fire and sunk near an island. The W.R. Arthur was a side wheel packet and was known as one of the finest and best-appointed steamers on the river. It was built in both Shousetown, PA and finished in Louisville, KY in 1864 for the St. Louis and New Orleans Packet Company. The 1871 incident was apparently not the first time it sunk, only the permanent one. The Mississippi is home too many ghost ships from the steamer period, but that’s for another blog post. The W.R. Arthur made frequent trips between St. Louis and New Orleans carrying both living and inanimate cargo. Because it was also a shipping steamer, that could explain Julius’ downtime in St. Louis as they waited for the steamer to be unloaded and reloaded with cargo for its next trip. When the Arthur sank, it was carrying an impressive 1,000 tons of molasses and sugar, 1,066 bales if cotton, 75 cabin passengers, and 20 more on deck. There’s a considerable amount of difference in the media reports of the time as to how many lives were lost in this tragedy.

Tony’s Tivoli

I thought the great amounts of information available on the W.R. Arthur was a serendipitous eureka moment. One of my proudest moments on this journey thus far, until I received an email from a Zack Palitzsch, an archivist at the St. Louis Research Center. Zack kindly responded to my email in regards to Tivoli in St. Louis. He too ran into the locations that I had already crossed off my list: (1) Tivoli, Italy. and obvious no for this adventure; (2) The Tivoli Theater in St. Louis – a theater that opened in 1924. As he found as well, there’s no mention of this theater before 1924.

His third suggestion was far more promising, however! He found ads in St. Louis newspapers during the 1860s, hundreds of them actually, for a Tony’s Tivoli. Almost all of these ads were in the German newspapers, so he couldn’t catch much of what was being discussed other than they dealt with hospitality and billiards.

Zack also told me (as he was working off my second entry where Julius mentioned going to the theater a mile from Tivoli) that there were several theaters in relatively the same area between Market and Olive Streets and 5th through 12th Streets.

Breadcrumbs! The excitement took over my dining room table, where my sister had been working remotely and thus was also distracted by this tremendous news! Oops. Tony’s Tivoli was most definitely my first breadcrumb. However, the newspapers.com is not a free site understandably and as a poor adjunct, I couldn’t move myself to subscribe just yet. My sister beat me to Google this time (Google you traitor! LOL) and found the next breadcrumb. Needless to say, Tony is not the typical name you apply to a German establishment or German heritage in general, so I still had my doubts. Google came through for the sis though, or should I say the blog “To the Sound of the Guns”. This particular blog post was in regards to Conduct unbecoming an officer in Tony’s Saloon a.k.a. Tony’s Tivoli. This particular incident occurred in 1862, but listed witnesses to the event and listed there in clear Roman script is an Anton Niederwieser, Proprietor of Tony’s Tivoli. Anton, most definitely a Germanic name. This conduct unbecoming report actually provided a great deal of information for our search as it also provided the neighboring establishments involved in the incident, as well as, witness accounts. Two witnesses are listed as hailing from Seinberger’s Hotel, while this did eventually bring me to the end of this trail, I couldn’t find any record of a hotel by this name. Luckily, the author provided a picture of the original report and it says Leinberger’s Hotel. In a round-about way Seinberger’s still helped as it led me to the Southern Hotel, which led me to Tony Faust’s Oyster bar, which then led me to Tony’s Tivoli, but I get ahead of myself. The blog author also stated that he traced the location of the incident to Tony Niederwiser’s Beer Garden and Billiard Saloon at 17 South 4th Street, between Market and Walnut Streets, according to the 1863 St. Louis City Directory.

Today, there’s no 17 S. 4th Street. Honestly, there’s not much of old St, Louis there at all any more; which I might add is sad, but I understand there were a lot of fires and failing businesses.

Current vicinity of 17 S. 4th Street between Market and Walnut in St. Louis via Google Maps

The incident report mentions two businesses accompanying Tivoli’s, the hotel and an attached oyster bar with a separate proprietor. As I briefly mentioned, there was no Seinberger’s Hotel on record, and without the name of the oyster bar, the hotel was all I had.

The Southern Hotel

Believe it or not, that blog post is all the remains outside of the newspaper clippings of Tony’s Tivoli. It could have been a dead end. Seinberger’s Hotel, as I said, does not exist, but in trying to find it, I found the Southern Hotel. I searched for hotels on South 4th Street in the 1860s and got several hits on a fire at the Southern Hotel in 1877. Two new blog posts from “Distilled History: A Drinking Blog with a History Problem” (great name!) provided new breadcrumbs to follow. Now, the Southern Hotel was located on the corners of South 4th and Walnut and Broadway and Walnut. I spanned the entire side of that block, which is a block away from where “To the Sound of the Guns” had the Beer Saloon being located. There were, however, a lot of pictures, drawings and maps involved in the 1877 fire so I started searching them for clues or angles that may help me out. One drawing in regards to a fire stood out significantly. Next door to this hotel was a Tony Faust’s Oyster Bar. The incident report mentions an oyster bar next door so this was promising. There appears to be a tall building behind said oyster bar that has a garden on the roof (see picture below). Very promising! Two problems though…Tony Faust didn’t move his oyster bar to that location until 1870. It is possible that he took over another oyster bar, but I can’t confirm that. The buildings around the Southern Hotel on Compton & Dry’s 1875 Pictorial St. Louis, only the hotel itself and Tony Faust’s are labelled. Second problem, this is a block away from where the military history blog stated Tony’s Tivoli was located (17 South 4th Street). This building I found in the picture is on the corner of S. 4th and Elm Street, between Walnut and Elm, not Walnut and Market.

I returned to the blog post and read the original myself. The image was not the best quality so it took a bit. The witnesses listed were not patrons of a Seinberger’s Hotel, but a Leinberger’s Hotel. This change to the name didn’t help me much though. Next, I tried to fact check the address given. I looked up the quoted directory (1863 St. Louis City Directory). I couldn’t find the 1863 directory, but I did find an 1866 edition of a directory that has Anton “Tony” Niederwieser, the proprietor, at 17 S. 4th Street, not the business itself.

digital clipping from Edwards’ Descriptive Gazetteer and Commercial Directory of the Mississippi River 1866

I had a hunch, but a hunch isn’t enough for me. I was pretty sure that tiny slip in the corner of the picture of the oyster bar was my Tony’s Tivoli.

Missouri History Museum Photograph and Print Collections

I could be and probably am completely wrong, but it led me in the right direction. I never leave things on a hunch, but this was as far as I could go with my current resources. I returned to that lovely email from Zack and caved into the subscription to newspapers.com my finances be damned. It was worth it I tell you!

We need to write newspapers like they did in the 1860s

In all seriousness, I support the above heading. I think more people would read the paper again. The clippings I translated for this post were epic! Not only did I find all those clippings Zack mentioned on Tony’s Tivoli, but also ads for Leinberger’s Hotel. Almost all of these ads were in German, but being typeset instead of script made translating go much faster. The only trouble was guessing for the capital letters B and V as they were the exact same form.

key to German Gothic Type Set

Daily Missouri Republican 22 Dec 1862, Mon. Page 3

This lovely gem, being in English states “they went into the “Tivoli” saloon, corner Fourth and Elm streets,…”. 4th and Elm Streets!!! Bingo! Eureka! and all other celebratory shouts you can muster.

Mississippi Blotter 19 Feb 1860, Sun. Page 5.

Tony’s Tivoli, corner of Elm and 4th Street. The undersigned hereby brings to the attention of the local and remarkable public that he has greatly enlarged his _____ with a magnificent Billiard-Salon. In the future, the same will strive to keep the best drinks, the most delicious dishes and good service in favor of the public. Every morning at 10 am a delicious soup for Lunch! Excellent coffee all day long. I have also elegantly furnished some rooms for family groups. Anton Niederweiser translation by Arin Blackwood

But wait, there’s more…

Westliche Post 1 Aug 1864, Fri. Page 2

Remember at the beginning of this post? Julius went to a concert given by Sauter at the Tivoli on August 13th 1864.

Tivoli. Saturday the 13th of August 1864. Concert for the benefit of the music director Sev. Rob. Sauter, of which the kind of benefit the crowd cried out in earnest. Entrance fee 25 cents. Admission fares are available in Tivoli and in the music store of the Mr. Endres & Co. Translation by Arin Blackwood

The exact concert that Julius attended. It gets even better with some reviews of the concert. Apparently Tony’s Tivoli became well known for its concerts.

Westliche Post 18 August 1864, Thu. Page 3

The undersigned feels compelled to ask the well-known writer about the last Saturday August 13 benefit concert for Music Director Mr. Sauter in the Tivoli, in how far he, as a music connoisseur, found out that in the Larghetto v. Beethoven, the clarinetists of the orchestra caused a disharmony, which touched the gentleman uncomfortably. The clarinetists of the orchestra would like to beg if the orchestra is able to pass a comment of this kind over to the audience, since we don’t know whether it was due to the purity of the instruments or to poor performance. For my part, I accept this complaint for the time being; I would have preferred it to have been from the music director since the same is recognized as a capable musician and conductor in his field, but I regret that a gentleman I know should express himself in such detail. Former second clarinetist in Sauter’s Orchestra Translation by Arin Blackwood

Neuer Anzeiger des Westens 14 Au 1864, Sun. Page 8

Sauter’s benefit concert, in Tivoli, was quite well lit last night–as was to be expected. The program offered the auditorium, among other things, the Duvetura to Fra Diavolo and Strabella. Pieces from Norma and Traviata, and the Wedding March from a Midsummer Night’s Dream and similar beautiful things. Translation by Arin Blackwood

various ads and reviews regarding the Tivoli.

The Tivoli seemed to be one of the places to be with concerts, meetings and fine dining. It also seems to be a popular meeting place amongst the Home Guard or Militia which is probably one of the reasons Julius was a popular patron.

Tony’s Tivoli, the old Tivoli run in the best style, which, particularly in recent times, has experienced a gentle migrations through the successful concerts of the Waldauer and Vogel’ichen bands on Sundays, will from now on have harmonic music every day or rather every evening. In order to not be dependent on the weather in this venture, the concert will be held in the hall it it rains or if it is nice, for which purpose space has already been made.

Tony’s Tivoli is indisputably one of the most pleasant places to relax in town and, thanks to the restless care of its owner, harbors in its ward such a mass of good drinks and food of all kinds that this summer as in previous years it will be a frequent visit. So whoever wants to spend a couple of pleasant hours every evening should go to Tony’s Tivoli.

A benefit for Robert Sev. Sauter? Who doesn’t call the Tivoli and who doesn’t know Mr. Sauter, the conductor of the wonderful orchestra that delights visitors every evening in the Tivoli with its must-see performances? In the past, Mr. Sauter already had a reputation as a notorious musician and conductor, but in the last few years, since his concerts in the Tivoli, he has gained a far greater recognition from the public, so that–if you have the best most outstanding musicians of St. Louis, the name of Robert Severin Sauter is one of the first to be mentioned. As it can be seen from the advertisements in today’s newspaper, there will be a big benefit concert for Mr. Sauter in the Tivoli this evening. The aforementioned music director entrusts such a large circle of friends that the garden area of the Tivoli would be overflowing if all the friends turned up. However, the number of those who think of Mr. Sauter as a good music conductor is even greater, and we call the benefit concert to this evening in the honor of the latter.

The Tivoli was a truly magical place to stay the day before yesterday. A thunderstorm that had just passed, over which the stars of heaven has finally triumphed, made the foliage of the proud trees appear in the lushest green. The garlands of wild vines around and between the columns of the portal had never presented themselves so lightly, gracefully, and voluptuously. The garden was filled as it was every evening, but not overcrowded, and underneath was a particularly startling an happily chosen addition of the fairer sex. Mr. Waldauer, who conducted the orchestra himself, chose his most emotional pieces and the extremely careful, precise interpretation made them, despite the air saturated with moisture, the greatest attraction for the ear. In addition all devices worked properly–what more could one wish for.

Location of Tony’s Tivoli in red and the Theater district as indicated in green per St. Louis Archivist

Location of Tony’s Tivoli in red

Leinberger’s Hotel

Lastly, I found ads for Leinberger’s Hotel which was located on the northwest corner of Washington Avenue, with the entrance on 4th street.

Täglicher Anzeiger des Westens 21 Jul 1861, Sun. Page 7.

The witnesses listed in the incident report apparently were staying at the hotel and had travelled the several blocks down 4th street to patron Tony’s Tivoli.

Serious mystery solved and on to the next adventure alongside Julius Hundhausen.

Side note: Julius fathered my Great-Grandfather Erwin at the ripe old age of 67!

#writing #StLouis #HermannMissouri #SouthernHotel #Hundhausen #WRArthur #civilwar #Tony039sTivoli #Sauter