The Kirsch House was the gleaming diamond of the Kirsch family – an establishment in Aurora, Indiana that lasted for almost half a century and was remembered in glowing terms. Mom and I didn’t really expect to be able to find it nearly three quarters of a century later. When we did, it was in terrible shape, a hollow shell of its once illustrious self. This really didn’t surprise me, given that we could find the building at all. It is, after all, roughly 150 years old, give or take a few years in either direction. However, what did surprise me was the rest of the story.
Far from being overblown, the legend of the Kirsch House was only partly revealed in the family stories. And it contained chapters that one could never, ever have guessed. How I wish this building could talk!
Come along on my three decade journey of discovery. This ancestor, Jacob Kirsch, and his family are chocked full of amazing surprises and intrigue – and some of them are kind of, well…on the dark side! Get a cup of tea and get comfortable…this is some story. I think Jacob holds the OMG Ancestor Award – meaning I said that more researching him than anyone else.
This photo was noted as Jacob Kirsch in Mom’s “suitcase of my life” that she left me when she passed. The name is not on the back of the photo, but Mom says that she thinks this is Jacob. We do have some photos of Jacob when he’s older that are positively him. Note the military pin, probably privately made by a local jeweler. I wonder where that pin is today. Surely not in my jewelry box!
Jacob Kirsch was certainly an interesting man. For one thing, he had a glass eye. When he was an old man, he used to sit outside the Kirsch House on the sidewalk in his chair, take his glass eye out and scare the children, who would run away screaming for their life…only to return for him to do it all over again. Even more amazing, for a man who died in 1917, we have two eye-witness (pardon the pun) accounts!
As my mother, his great-granddaughter would have said, he was “some character.” How I would love to sit down in a chair beside him, watch him scare those kids and listen to stories about his life – and how he lost his eye. Maybe the children would gather around and listen to his lifetime of adventures too! Goodness, there were wars and murders and floods and elephants, oh my!
Eloise Lore, his granddaughter, said that Jacob’s eye was lost in a quail hunting accident, something about hiding behind a bush with another boy. Boys will be boys. So when his mother lectured the other children about not “putting your eye out,” maybe they listened! Nah!
Ironically, the glass eye would definitely affect two other things in Jacob’s life, although today we don’t know exactly how. First, depending the age at which the accident happened, it could have affected his ability to serve in the Civil War, as it would have affected his depth perception. His obituary, with information obviously from a family source, said that even though he could not pass the Civil War physical, he went along anyway and served as the cook and teamster. And yes, by the way, his family was “Union,” being from Indiana.
Additionally, another story about Jacob’s marksmanship survives within the family, but we really can’t gauge whether this is a true story or a tall tale. Eloise, his granddaughter who knew him well, told me that he was at one time called to the Cincinnati zoo to kill an elephant that had either broken out of the zoo or turned on its trainer. In any event, the elephant had gone insane. I shudder to think about why, but Jacob supposedly was summoned because of his superior marksmanship and went to kill the elephant. One would think that with one eye, his marksmanship would be inferior, not superior, but then again, there are a lot of possible variables to this story. Eloise, born in 1903, also said that he had a lot of “large hunting rifles” at the Kirsch House. Jacob would have been 62 in 1903, so Eloise knew him from that time until his death in 1917.
The fact that Jacob does have a glass eye is visible in later photographs, if you realize what you’re looking for. In the earlier photo above, he doesn’t seem to have the glass eye, assuming that it is Jacob. However, he is wearing some sort of apparent military pin. I wish this pin were clearer in the photo. That pin might hold another clue about his military service.
Certainly, all of these stories can’t be true…but we know for sure that one of them is. Telford Walker, a man in his 80s or so in the 1980s when Mom and I visited Aurora, Indiana, and the local historian, told us he was one of those small children who used to watch Jacob Kirsch remove his glass eye!!! He told me that Jacob used to pop it in his mouth and then spit it out again. No wonder those kids ran screaming. That’s the stuff nightmares are made of.
Another local man, Earl Huffman, born in 1896 tells about the Kirsch House and Jacob in his column in the Journal Press, “Aurora As I Saw It Through the Years” on December 14, 1976. Earl says of Jacob, “He had only one eye but he saw everything. He operated the business on a high level and catered only to high-level traveling men.”
Funny, that glass eye story is one Mom and I had never heard until Telford told us. We sat there in the old Kirsch House, dumbstruck, spellbound, staring at Telford and each other in disbelief. Jacob must have been having a good laugh, watching his great-granddaughter and great-great-granddaughter come back to the Kirsch house to be shocked by his infamous glass eye. Family memory can be quite selective – but you’d think that story would have been VERY memorable. We asked Eloise, his granddaughter, who was elderly but still living when Mom and I first visited Aurora, and she confirmed the story. She thought “everyone knew that,” so there was no need to mention it.
Germany to Indiana
Photo compliments of Chris Young of the Weinacht family. http://www.seawhy.com/gvmuch.html
Jacob Kirsch was born in the Lutheran church in Mutterstadt, Germany (above) on May 1st, 1841 to Philipp Jacob Kirsch and Catharina Barbara Lemmert.
The church registry in Mutterstadt, above, records the birth of Jacob Kirsch on May 1st, 1841 and his baptism on May the 5th. It states the names of his parents as well as his godparents, “Jacob Krick II and Anna Maria Lemmert, Protestant couple from here.” Anna Maria was his mother’s sister, so Jacob was named for his mother’s sister’s husband. The record also says Jacob immigrated with his parents in 1847. Gotta love those German church records!!!
We don’t know if the church records were a year off, or it the family took some time after leaving Mutterstadt to get to their port of debarkation, because they didn’t actually set sail until June of 1848.
Another record of Jacob’s birth is from Nora Kirsch’s Bible
The following document was sent to my mother years ago by Eloise Lore, Jacob and Barbara’s granddaughter. It is from the Bible of Eloise’s mother, Nora Kirsch Lore. The handwriting is my mother’s as she “fixed” things. As you can see, sometimes her “fix” was inaccurate.
Jacob and his family immigrated first to New Orleans, then boarded a steamer for Aurora, Indiana. They left on June the 14, 1848 from the port of Le Havre in France and arriving in New Orleans on the 4th of July, the significance of which is not lost on me.
Although I’m sure it changed some between 1848 and 1920, here’s a postcard depicting the quayside in Le Havre. Many of the old building would have been the same. Jacob’s eyes must have been as big as saucers.
I visited LeHavre in 2013, and although it didn’t look anything like the quayside above today, the surrounding countryside was still very quaint and villages were scattered about every couple miles or so – each one with a cluster of houses and a church. Scanning the horizon, you could see several at one time. Little has probably changed between then and now except for power lines, paved roads and a few new buildings. The little villages are still the little villages nestled in the countryside, the church at the center of the community.
The sea, however, I’m sure looks exactly the same. Timeless, vast, and sometimes dark and ominous in its beauty.
This must have been high adventure for a boy of 6 or 7 years. I bet his mother had a terrible time keeping track of him on the ships, because he would have been the perfect age to want to explore, run around and perhaps play like he was a mate or a pirate. I wonder if he wore a patch over one eye!
The ship’s passenger list gives Jacob’s age as 6.
This painting from the 1860s shows the port of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Their landing would have looked something like this – amazing I’m sure to Jacob. As far as he was concerned, this trip was the adventure of a lifetime.
From New Orleans, the family boarded a river paddle steamer and steamed their way up the Mississippi River, angling northeast at the Ohio River. This steamboat on the Mississippi in 1853 is probably very close to what Jacob saw.
On the map of Dearborn County below, you can see the City of Aurora at the bend in the River, and Lawrenceburg upstream towards Ohio. This would be the end of the line for the Kirsch family – and the beginning of their new life.
Ripley County
Aurora, in Dearborn County, would play a large part in Jacob’s life as an adult, but first the family went to Ripley County, joining Dearborn County on the west near Moore’s Hill, where Jacob lived and grew up as a child. His first sight of Indiana was likely the steamboat dock at Aurora. Ironically, that dock was less than a quarter from where Jacob would spent the majority of his life as an adult, the Kirsch House on Second Street.
The Kirsch family is found living in Ripley County in the 1850 census, and Jacob had a new baby brother, Andreas, who would die as a young child. This child was listed as 1 year old, meaning he had had his birthday by August 20th, 1850. The gravestone in the old Lutheran Cemetery is confusing and in very poor condition, but the date was still legible many years ago, February 6th. If this child turned 1 on February 6, 1849, that means his mother was pregnant when she was on board that ship. If she had morning sickness on top of sea sickness, she would have been one miserable woman.
Andreas death date is also given as September 19th, 1821 and 1891. Clearly, neither year can be accurate. Another transcribed source says 1853, which is likely closer to the truth. The year was probably 1851 since both a 2 and a 9 can look like a 5 when the stone is worn, and since we know Andreas is not in the 1860 census.
We don’t know if Jacob had experienced death before or not, but we do know that on September 19th, (probably) 1851 his baby brother, age 2 years and 7 months, died and they likely buried him in a small grave beside the Lutheran church that no longer exists, in the countryside, in their new country. Jacob would have been 10 years old. He would certainly have remembered that day, probably vividly.
By 1860, the older family members were moving to town. Jacob’s sister Barbara married Martin Koehler in 1851 and brother Philip Kirsch was living with them in a boarding house in Aurora in 1860. Brother Martin Kirsch was living with William Kraas, a German baker in Lawrenceburg. The young Kirsch’s were fledging.
But Jacob, along with his brother John, born in 1835, are, well, missing, for lack of anything else to call it. Actually, we know John outlived Jacob because Jacob’s obituary provides us with that tidbit – so he’s not dead. And Jacob is very much alive too…someplace. I just can’t find him!
On May 27th, 1866, Jacob Kirsch married Barbara Drechsel in Aurora, Indiana, a nice German girl.
Between the 1860 census where Jacob was missing and his 1866 wedding, life for the Kirsch family would change dramatically.
The Civil War
Jacob’s parents, Philipp Jacob Kirsch and his wife Katharina Barbara Lemmert had five sons. One died in infancy. Three, and possibly four, served in the Civil War. Martin served, but is never found in records again and likely died, either in active duty or by disease.
I believe that Jacob Kirsch also served in the War. He certainly was of the age where militia participation was required. There is, however, that little issue of a glass eye, and the obituary that says that he “was unable to pass the physical examination for admission, but served in the conflict as cook and teamster when but 19 years of age.” And there’s the painting of him wearing what appears to be a Union uniform, passed down through the family.
And not only am I confused about his service, but it appears that the government was too.
Jacob’s widow, Barbara, applied for a Civil War pension after Jacob’s death. Her pension application was declined, but she gives Jacob’s unit number as the Indiana 137th Regiment Infantry, Company F and says he enlisted in Jefferson County, Indiana. This unit was organized at Indianapolis, Ind., and mustered into service May 26, 1864. If Jacob was in this unit, he was ordered to Tennessee and assigned to duty as Railroad Guard in Tennessee and Alabama, Dept. of the Cumberland, until September, 1864. Barbara did not say when he mustered out. Given that Barbara likely knew Jacob during the Civil War, I find it unlikely that Jacob did not serve. Furthermore, we have that painting of Jacob in uniform.
I researched the 137th regiment, and found a daily diary kept by another soldier, removing all doubt about whether or not that particular soldier served. This man’s name was also not on the roll of the unit. It appears that records were not well kept during the Civil War, so although Jacob Kirsch does not appear on the official federal roster of this unit, it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that he did in fact serve. We’ll likely never sort this out today, but I gave it my best shot!
When I received Jacob and Barbara’s records from the National archives, they included the intermingled records of two different Jacob Kirschs. Another Jacob Kirsch died in 1931 and his military records involving his burial allowance indicate that he served in company K, 13th regiment and enlisted on May 16, 1864, discharged on September 21, 1864.
The “other” Jacob Kirsch lived in North Madison, Indiana, when he died, was a cooper, born in Cincinnati, Ohio of German parents. His wife’s name was Eveline, but she predeceased him, according to his death certificate. His step-daughter applied for burial benefits, so Eveline could have married Jacob when he was older. In some of the service records, he is recorded as Jacob Cash.
A note on the request for award of benefits for the burial of the Jacob Kirsch in Madison County says, “Name not found on rolls of the 13th Indiana Infantry, Private Co., K 137th Indiana Infantry, 100 days, 1864, enlisted May 16, 1864, discharged September 21, 1864.” Note, the underscore was theirs.
So, they denied Barbara’s pension request in 1929, but they “fixed” the request of the 1931 Jacob so his family could obtain the burial benefit.
Somehow, I just have the feeling that the mortician looked in that exact same book that I discovered, found Jacob Kirsch listed, and suggested that the “Other Jacob’s” step-daughter file for death benefits. The worst thing that could happen was that they would be turned down. They weren’t.
I verified at Fold3.com that there is a service record index card for Jacob Kirsch, Company K, 137 Indiana infantry.
The Regiment is the same. The history of Regiment 137 shows us that it had 10 companies, lettered A to K, with different companies being raised from different geographic areas.
So, now we have Jacob of Madisonville who died in 1931 whose step-daughter claimed service in Company K, 13th Indiana infantry. A Jacob Kirsch’s name was found on the 137th infantry, Company F. And Barbara claims her Jacob served those same dates in the 137th, Company F but her widow’s claim was denied.
Company F shows a Jacob Kirsch from Jefferson County on the “Indiana Volunteers, 137th Regiment.” Company K shows no Kirsch or Cash.
It’s beyond me why the Veteran’s Bureau could not find Jacob’s name on the roster for the unit in which Barbara says he served, when he is clearly there, and they corrected the application for another Jacob two years later. This list of rosters was published by the State of Indiana in 1867, so it was surely available in 1929, and the undertaker apparently found it two years later in 1931.
Had Barbara not believed that Jacob had served, she would not have filed for a pension. In a small community, one cannot claim service without the rest of the community knowing whether you actually served or not. Apparently by 1929, Barbara was elderly and impoverished, and the family was very hopeful that his pension would help her. I’m sure her daughters didn’t let Barbara starve, but it’s sad to see the widows of our servicemen reduced to dependence on others in their old age.
Jacob’s Brothers Who Served
From the Dearborn Co. History book, we find the list of men in the 32nd Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, described as “strictly a German regiment,” recruited in Sept 1861. Dearborn Co. German men furnished most of two companies; Company C with John L. Giegoldt of Aurora as Captain, and Company D that included Martin Kirsch and Valentine Kirsch, a member of the Lawrenceburg Kirsch family.
Ripley County offered a $20 bounty for every man drafted, then in 1864, they offered a $100 bounty for every man who either served or found a suitable substitute within the county.
Jacob’s oldest brother, Philipp Kirsch served in the Civil War in the US Army Company D 3rd Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, known as the third Cavalry. He was joined Aug. 22, 1861 at Madison, Indiana for the duration of the war. He owned his own horse, but the equipment was furnished by the government. He was in Capt. Keister’s company and mustered out at the end of the war on Sept. 9, 1864 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He served a total of 3 years and a month. Based on his regimental history, Philip was likely at the historic Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest battle in American history, with 23,000 casualties in one day.
Only one known photo of Philipp Kirsch who served in the Civil War exists, in the photo below with Philip on the left, Barbara Drechsel Kirsch in the middle and her husband, Philipp’s brother, Jacob Kirsch on the right. This photo had to have been taken before Philipp’s death in 1905. Jacob Kirsch doesn’t look nearly as gray as he does in later photographs.
Jacob’s brother Martin Kirsch also served in the Civil War, and may have been killed. I find nothing after the Civil War for Martin. He was recruited in 1861 and served in Company D 32nd Indiana Regiment. Part of the Army of the Ohio, the 32nd fought at Rowlett’s Station in Kentucky; Shiloh, Stones River, and Missionary Ridge in Tennessee; and Chickamauga in Georgia.
There is also a John Kirsch who served, but I’ve been unable to verify that the John who served is Jacob’s brother.
Starting a Family in Aurora
On May 27, 1866, Jacob Kirsch married Barbara Drechsel, daughter of Aurora residents George Drechsel and Barbara Mehlheimer. Barbara Drechsel was born in Germany too, and according to family members the entire group spoke German until WWI when they began speaking English publicly. They were married by J.C. Schneider, minister at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran church, formed in 1856, where their children were subsequently baptized and attended school.
Barbara’s father, George is listed as one of the church founders, so Barbara had likely gone to church here her entire childhood. The current church was built in 1874, with Barbara and Jacob likely watching it be built and perhaps participating.
Here’s the Google street view of the church where many of these baptisms took place, but it looked a little different even 25 years ago when Mom and I visited.
The church in the early 1990s still had a grassy area along the side. Mom and I wondered if the Kirsch children played in this yard as they attended the Lutheran school. They assuredly walked to school, being less than two blocks to the Kirsch house and only a couple blocks to their Drechsel grandparents as well. Plus there would have been few strangers and everyone knew everyone else.
The Kirsch children were educated in St. John’s Lutheran School held in the church. Free schools did not exist in Aurora at that time, so everyone who educated their children paid tuition in some location for their children to attend school.
Mother and I visited this church and perused the records when we visited. The stained glass windows appeared to be original, and mother thought they were beautiful. We took several photos, including the one below that shows mother pointing upwards. Now she too has gone to join her ancestors who lived and worshiped here, and we are left with only the reflections of their lives on earth.
Religion played an important part in the lives of the German immigrants. Most of the German families were Protestant, but a few were Catholic. Churches delivered their sermons in German until the advent of the First World War. Eloise remembers hearing German spoken at the Kirsch House, but she recalls that the adult children of Jacob and Barbara Kirsch told them that they needed to speak English, not German, when WWI broke out, and they never spoke German again. The family was afraid that people in America would thing they were not loyal.
I understand the concern, but it seems odd for a group of people who fought in the Civil War some half a century earlier.
The 1870 census shows that Jacob and Barbara had started a family.
They were living in Aurora, but didn’t own property, at least not yet. Jacob is listed as a cooper and they are living in a building with another German family and possibly some additional people as well. Nora was 3, Martin 2 and the baby, Edward, was 3 months old.
A year later, on September 9th, 1871, they bought lot 6 in David Walser’s subdivision in the city of Aurora.
Mom and I were given this 1875 plat map during our visit to Aurora, and we were able to locate the properties of importance to Jacob and Barbara Kirsch during their lifetime. Barbara Drechsel’s parents’ home is located on Exporting Street, and the future Kirsch House, labeled as the French House, is located on Second Street beside the depot.
Their first home in Walser’s subdivision is near the bottom, with a pencil note indicating which lot was theirs. I wonder if they built that house or if it had been previously built.
Today, this property is along Lincoln Street where it splits from Conwell.
Old maps and Google street view today are wonderful tools used jointly. We can “drive along” Lincoln.
The original homes are probably gone today or well disguised under contemporary siding and modernization.
Jacob and Barbara didn’t live there long, because by August of 1875, they bought the property from James and Ellen French, renamed it the Kirsch House, of course, and moved the two blocks to town, right beside the depot. Prior to this sale, the establishment was called the French House. An ad in 1876 business directory shows Jacob Kirsch as the proprietor, still gives the name as the French House and says “The house is pleasantly situated near the railroad depot and will be found the most desirable place in the city of Aurora at which to stop. Good wines, liquors and cigars.”
If you were going to have a bed and breakfast type of tavern in Aurora, this was the place to be. Earl Huffman in his article mentions the crowds of people at the train station awaiting the arrival of trains and references the Kirsch House of that era as a “glamorous hotel.” I think I would have been outside with a tray of cold drinks in the summer and hot drinks in the winter, working the crowds! The train depot delivered people to the doorstep, and directly down second street were the docks for the Ohio River. As they say in real estate, “location, location, location.”
As a proprietor, it doesn’t get any better.
In the 1880 census, Jacob is shown as a saloon keeper and having a boarding house. Indeed, they have 3 boarders and Barbara’s sister, Mary Drexler, age 17, is living with them as a servant.
Earl Huffman who knew Jacob Kirsch and the Kirsch House says that “The Kirsch House catered to tobacco buyers and other prominent business men who visited Aurora. It was a plush and modern hotel at that time, with a resplendent history and a stone gutter and a wooden portico over the cement sidewalk which was laid in 1905. Jacob Kirsch catered to only high-level traveling men. Aurora had some of these men, and they frequented, and some lived at, the Kirsch House.” The Kirsch House may have been posh and had a portico over the sidewalk, but according to Huffman, at that time in history, the street was still dirt. Of course, horses and carriages waited at the depot for visitors who needed a ride, so the clip-clop of hooves would have been a constant backdrop at the Kirsch House.
You can see the depot and the porch in the photo above, which was laminated on the bar in the old Kirsch House building when Mom and I visited in the 1990s.
The Kirsch House
From 1875 until 1921, for nearly half a century, the Kirsch House was a landmark establishment in Aurora as well as the hub of Kirsch family activity. Memories of the Kirsch House, references to it and stories about it filled the 1900s and live into the 21st century, firmly planting the Kirsch House as an icon of the Kirsch family shortly after their immigration. My mother may have been there as a child, but she had no recollection of it. Her brother, Lore, did visit as a child, and Eloise, mother’s aunt, had many fond memories of the Kirsch House. Eloise was the youngest child of Nora Kirsch and C.B. Lore, born in 1903, so she spent her entire childhood visiting the Kirsch House. My grandmother, Edith Lore, Nora Kirsch’s daughter, lived at the Kirsch House while attending business school in Cincinnati between 1905 and 1908, taking the train back and forth to classes daily.
Eloise said that there was a bar on one side, and on the other there was a parlor, dining room and kitchen. The cooper’s wagon delivered beer to the Kirsch house and the beer was kept in the basement. I’m surprised there was a basement with the river flooding issue.
Eloise said the stairs to the upstairs were curved, and that is the staircase that Nora descended to marry Curtis Lore, Eloise’s father. Eloise also said that Jacob always said, “Another horse, by God,” and that he lost his eye behind a bush while quail hunting. You know, I guess it’s possible that a stick poked Jacob’s eye out, given that bush part of the story, instead of a gunshot. I really never thought about that possibility, but it wouldn’t make nearly as good of a story.
Mother, my daughter and I visited the old Kirsch House in 1992 when it was Perrone’s restaurant. The bar is original, and may have already been installed prior to Jacob owning the property when it was the French House. Regardless, Jacob Kirsch, with his glass eye, stood behind this bar for nearly 45 years and served his patrons. I wonder how many different stories he had in his repertoire about how he lost his eye. You know the patrons asked!
Based on the metal seal on the bar, it was manufactured in Cincinnati, but we don’t know when. It was beautifully restored when we visited in 1992, but was missing from the building in 2008.
Research on the Huss Brothers Manufacturing company tells us they were in business still in 1912 when an article in a woodcraft journal tells us they had a fire in their varnish room, but the machinery wasn’t damaged and that they made billiard and pool tables and bar fixtures. The company seems to be in business as early as 1890 and specialized in high end cabinetry, including musical instruments. The bar probably arrived via rail, right next door.
I visited the Kirsch House one last time in 2008, when it was indeed in a sorry state. It had not been inhabited in the past 15 years or so, and the bar had become the subject of a lawsuit. I’m guessing the bar is or was the single most valuable asset on that property, and it apparently “disappeared” at some point in a real estate transaction. In 2008, the city was evaluating their options in terms of purchasing and restoring the building and had an architect provide an evaluation and recommendations. The mayor at that time was kind enough to not only give us a complete tour, something I had never had before, but a copy of the recommendation as well. I told him I was hoping to win the lottery, then he wouldn’t have a funding issue. Needless to say, I didn’t win. As of 2013, the building was still standing, but had not been restored.
The Kirsch House was located beside the depot on Second Street. This allowed the proprietors to take full advantage of any travelers arriving on the train, and they were only three blocks from the Ohio River where passengers arriving by steamer would disembark as well. Because of the proximity to the train depot, the hobos would come to the back door of the Kirsch House and Barbara would feed them all. The Kirsch’s were looked upon, according to Eloise, as upper class shop and property owners. Photos above and below were from our late 1980s or early 1990s visits.
The Kirsch house, when Jacob owned it, had a roof covering the sidewalk. In 1992, the roof over the sidewalk was gone.
Mother always spoke of the private garden area behind the house. I understood that this area was enclosed with brick for privacy, included a pump, and it is indeed where one of Jacob Kirsch’s son-in-laws’ committed suicide.
In the photo below, my mother and daughter are looking at the depot side of the Kirsch House. This is a very long building and this is about half its length.
You can see in essence the same view of the Kirsch House in the postcard below, also from the Kirsch House bar.
It looks a lot different today. Jacob and Barbara would probably be heartsick.
The following document provided by Telford Walker (now deceased) was an envelope singing the praises of Aurora sent from the Kirsch House in 1894.
The Kirsch House was purchased in August 1875 by Jacob Kirsch from James and Ellen French. Twelve years later, in February 1887, a very unusual transaction occurred and Jacob sold the Kirsch House to his wife Barbara Kirsch.
The family scuttlebutt was that Jacob had been involved somehow with the murder of an itinerant bricklayer who accosted a local gal and the bricklayer’s family subsequently sued the men who killed him. As it turns out, this story was based at least partially in truth, with a bit of icing on the cake. A suit was filed in the Federal Court in Indianapolis.
Barbara eventually sold the property in March of 1921 after Jacob’s death to G. and L. Neaman. This location comprises four city lots, lots 280-283.
In July of 1941, George and Louise Neaman sold the property to Fred Wellman, and in 1976, the Wellman’s sold it to PGR. In 1986 PGR sold it to Ann Craft who apparently still owned it when we visited in the late 80s or early 90s. It was then an Italian Restaurant, Peronne’s.
Emmert. L. Kirsch of Lawrenceburg Indiana in 1993, provided the following information in a letter.
City of Aurora Directory, Dec. 5 1895 – Phil Kirsch, Retired
Jacob Kirsch, Proprietor
Ed Kirsch, Clerk
Kirsch House 162 and 164 Second Street.
Emmert notes that the above address raises the question of the actual location of this establishment. An 1876 article indicates the north end of Second Street but the 1895 directory address indicates the south end of Second Street. Emmert goes on to speculate that perhaps Jacob had a second location at the south end of Second Street at that time. He says there is evidence of a track at that location. I don’t think this is the case.
The current address for the property is 506 Second Street. In the 1875 deed, it is listed as 280-285 Second Street, which were the lot numbers, and in 1900, the census lists Jacob at 148 and his son Edward at 162 Second St. There is evidence that the addresses on the Streets were changed at some point, and from the looks of the addresses, possibly twice.
We do know that the location of the Kirsch House that Mother and I found is at the North end of town, beside the depot, and Telford Walker knew Jacob Kirsch at the Kirsch House in that location. In fact, in an incredible twist of fate or moment of synchronicity, Telford was at a luncheon taking place at Perrone’s, the former Kirsch House, when mother and I visited. The then current owner went and got Telford and introduced us.
In the courthouse at Lawrenceburg, there is a framed “Boland’s Location Map of the Business Center of Aurora, Indiana”. It says the coffin factory had just been erected, which was built in 1889 or 1890, so this map must be from the early 1890s.
At the top of this chart, separated from the O. & M. depot grounds by only an alley is located the Kirsch House conducted by Mr. J. Kirsch, with the following ad. “The traveling world will here find every comfort and convenience of a temporary home; good viands, good beds and courteous treatment. Keep the Kirsch House in your mind when you visit Aurora.”
On the map, the Kirsch House is located between Exporting and Bridgeway Streets on Second, the same location as today. The entire block behind the Kirsch House is taken up by the Samuel Wymond Cooperage stave yards and the train depot is next door. Jacob Kirsch’s daughter, Carrie, would marry Samuel Wymond’s son.
Cousin Irene Bultman (now deceased) recalls of the Kirsch House:
Back in the 30s or 40s, my mother’s sister and her husband bought the Neaman House, the old Kirsch house, and found some pictures in the attic, but I don’t know what happened to them. Gladys and Fred Wellmann, then their son Thomas took ownership and had it until 1976. Thomas or Tommy, as he was known, refinished the counter behind the bar. The dining room has been redone. When Aunt Gladys lived there, on the ground floor was a living room and a large dining room and a large kitchen. You could go into the saloon from the dining room. I don’t remember whether there was a bedroom on the first floor and whether the living room was used as a bedroom. I know that my female cousin slept upstairs. The Express Freight office was also connected to this building.
The following photo is of Jacob and Barbara Drechsel Kirsch in later years. Jacob’s beard and moustache were ever-present it seems. Jacob was apparently carrying a pocket watch and I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like he might have been wearing a lapel pin. I wonder if it was that same military pin. He was also wearing a ring on his left hand.
Another photo of Jacob and the family exists. We can date it by the age of Eloise who is in the photo and looks to be about 3 or 4 years old, so the photo must have been taken about 1906 or 1907 but before 1909 when C. B. Lore dies. These two photos appear to have been taken the same day, judging from the clothing.
This is the only photo where all of the Kirsch children appear to be present with their parents. Left to right, I can identify people as follows:
Seated left – one of the Kirsch sisters – possibly Carrie.
Standing male left behind chair – CB Lore – which places this photo before November 1909
Seated in chair in front of CB Lore in white dress – Nora Kirsch Lore
Male with bow tiestanding beside CB Lore – probably Edward Kirsch
Male standing beside him with no tie – probably Martin Kirsch
Woman standing in rear row – Kirsch sister, possibly Lula.
Standing right rear – Jacob Kirsch.
Front adult beside Nora – Kirsch sister, possibly Ida.
Child beside Nora – Mildred or Eloise Lore, probably Eloise
Adult woman, seated, with black skirt – Barbara Drechsel Kirsch
Young woman beside Barbara to her left with large white bow – probably Curtis Lore
Apparently Barbara maintained the Kirsch House, at least for a few years before she sold it after Jacob’s death in 1917. We found stationery predated for the 1920s with 192_. B. Kirsch is listed as proprietor. She was 72 years old in 1920 when this stationery was printed. She was one ambitious and apparently tireless lady.
Barbara did not inherit the property when Jacob died because she already owned it, free and clear. Based on an 1887 deed, the Kirsch House legally belonged to Barbara alone, an extremely unusual situation for that time and place.
Mother and I found the February 1887 deed from Jacob to Barbara. This was a highly unusual move, especially since they did not divorce nor was there any oral history of discord. We wondered why, and suspected that something was amiss, or at least that there was a good story lurking someplace. However, we were certainly not prepared for what came next.
The Lynching
Jacob Kirsch was involved with a lynching. What appears below is the newspaper coverage we were able to find, followed by the actual court documents found at the National Archives branch in Chicago, Illinois in 2008.
Aug. 26, 1886 Newspaper article:
Swift Retribution
Louis Hilbert Murdered by a Tramp Bricklayer at Aurora
The Murderer Forfeits His Life Within Twenty Minutes After Killing His Victim
A frightful double tragedy occurred at Aurora on Thursday last about the noon hour, resulting in the death of two men. The announcement that a highly esteemed citizen had been murdered by a vagabond tramp convulsed the city with excitement, but retribution was quick and horrible.
The murderer was hanged on the street in less than thirty minutes after the commission of his crime. The Aurora fair was in progress and the many thousand people who were in attendance were wild with excitement. The particulars of the murder and lynching are as follows:
Mrs. Randolph is putting up a business building next to the First National Bank on the principal street. Her son-in-law, Louis Hilbert, of St. Louis was sent for and came to Aurora to oversee the work.
Two weeks ago a tramp bricklayer named Watkins engaged to work on the building. He worked steadily until Thursday, when about noon, he appeared at the Randolph building and Hilbert ordered him to go to work. He had been drinking and spurned the order with an oath. Hilbert then told him to leave the premises, when he drew a knife, and flourishing it, made for Hilbert. Valentine Grossman, a laborer, tried to hold Watkins, but he struck at Grossman with the knife and intimidated him. He then rushed viciously onto Hilbert and stabbed him 4 times in the breast and shoulder. Hilbert sank to the ground dead.
Several eye-witnesses detained the murdered until Officer Anderson arrived and placed him under arrest.
An examination of Hilbert proved that he was lifeless and the crowds on the street became furious. Watkins, the murdered, was placed in a buggy and with an officer on each side of him, an effort was made to take him to jail for safekeeping. The crowd had now swelled to hundreds and the facts were passed from pallid lips to resolute hearers.
“Hang him!”, “Mob him!”, “Kill him!” was the cry on every hand. The horse which was drawing the murdered away was stopped, men climbed into the buggy from every side and over the buggy top like demons thirsting for human blood. Watkins was torn from the powerless officers, a handy rope was tied around his neck and he was dragged and kicked through the streets to the coal yard enclosure of the Aurora Distilling Company. The scaffold over an old well was utilized by the mob for a gallows and here Watkins was strung and paid the penalty of his awful crime.
Watkins lifeless body was cut down and taken to the Coroner’s office. From letters found upon his person it was found that he was a married man living at No. 153 S. Lombard St., between Ohio and Wayne Streets, Louisville, KY and that his name was William Watkins. A letter from his wife of date August 13th, inst, discloses the name to be Eliza D. Watkins. In the dead man’s pocket was found the following letter:
Aurora Indiana, Aug. 18th
Dear wife – I received your postal and was glad to hear from you. Got the two dollars. Here is two more. Best I can do at present. Don’t answer till I write again. Maybe I will stay. Drop a postal anyhow. It will be no loss and let me know whether you got the two dollars or not. Sorry to hear Mother was sick. God bless you all. Good by.”
The knife Watkins used was an old shoemaker’s tool – a sharp blade only two and a half inches long.
This is the first hanging that has occurred in Dearborn County since the hanging of Fuller in 1820. Hilbert, the murdered man, married the daughter of Louis Rudolph, who a few years ago was brutally beaten to death with a dray pin by two young men named Cope and Johnson who died in the penitentiary while serving out a life sentence soon after their imprisonment. An unfortunate and untimely death soon after carried off a beautiful daughter. A fire a few months since destroyed the homestead, and the son-in-law attempting to rebuild it now loses his life in the attempt. So it would seem that a strange and sad fatality was attending the family.
Almost Another Murder
While the excitement attending the affair just described was at its height, Martin Garrity struck William Dixon, felling him insensible to the ground. Instantly, the cry was raised that another murder has been committed and from every side arose the cry of “Hang him”, and a crowd of excited fellows started to enjoy another lynching bee. Sheriff Guard appointed a number of deputies and succeeded in quieting the excitement. Dixon was seriously injured and for a time, his life was despaired of, but he is not thought to be in a fair way to recover. He is an old and must esteemed citizen of Cochran. Martin Garrity, the cowardly assailant of Dixon, in a worthless character. He is now in jail awaiting the convening of court.
About March 10th, 1887, same newspaper:
Damages Wanted
The lynching of William F. Watkins at Aurora on August 19, 1886 will be remembered by our readers. Watkins was a Kentuckian, a citizen of Louisville, and a bricklayer by trade. While doing work at Aurora, he had a quarrel with his boss, a well known and popular contractor, and stabbed him to death. Public indignation was so great that Watkins was taken from the arresting officers and hanged by a mob. On Thursday last, suit was begun in the Federal Court at Indianapolis by William W. Gibson as administrator of his estate and on behalf of the widow and children of the deceased, against Jacob Kirsch, William Gerlach, George Langford, Julius Hauck, Charles Baker, Joseph Schwartz, Adolph Schultz, William Thompson, Cyrus Sterling, Albert Bruce and Valentine Grossman for $10,000 damages. The manner of Watkins’ death is not stated in the complaint, but it is alleged that the defendants, on the late-mentioned date “did kill and murder” the deceased, thus depriving his family of his support and leaving them unprovided with any means of gaining a livelihood.
The Lawsuit
This information was intriguing, and finding the original documents was a 15 year journey itself crossing the state of Indiana from Aurora to Indianapolis, then culminating with an archival technician in Chicago at the National Archives records center doing a personal favor and preserving these documents by cleaning them of coal dust and dirt before opening this packet that was sealed by the court 119 years ago. The technician made me copies of these documents, at the exorbitant copy fee of 75 cents per page, and sent me the entire case file. I didn’t care how much it cost. To me, it was gold.
The file shows that the suit was filed against all of the men accused of the murder of William Watkins by his estate administrator. All of the defendants, Jacob Kirsch included, retained the same law firm. Much of the case file is the same pleadings and responses, word for word, being filed for each defendant.
The package included the actual pleading document itself, Jacob’s response, which was identical to that of the rest of the men, although Jacob is consistently named and mentioned first, perhaps implying that he had a leadership role (or that someone though he had more assets and would be the best legal target), the settlement document and the court’s finding. All very interesting.
The Pleading
In the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Indiana, term 1887, William W. Gibson, the administrator of the estate of William F. Watkins, decd, plaintiff vs Jacob Kirsch (and the other 10 men named separately), shown here.
The plaintiff William W. Gibson who sues as administrator of the estate of William F. Watkins, decd, complains of the defendants, Jacob Kirsch (plus the list of other names) and says that the plaintiff is a citizen of and resident of the state of Kentucky and that the deceased herein named was at the time of his death and for 5 years theretofore a resident of the city of Louisville and that Eliza D. Watkins was on the 19th day of August 1886 a resident of Kentucky with her children. And the plaintiff says that on the 24th day of February 1887 he was duly appointed administrator of the estate of William F. Watkins by the proper court of Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Plaintiff says that the deceased William F. Watkins was the husband of Eliza D. Watkins and that they were duly married at the City of Louisville in the State of Kentucky on December 23, 1873 and that they lived and cohabited together at said last named place as husband and wife from that time up to the time of his death hereinafter charged and that there were born to them three now surviving children, Sarah Blanche, aged 8, Francis Marion aged 6 and Emma Elizabeth aged 3 and that said Eliza Watkins and 3 children are now all living in the City of Louisville, Kentucky.
And the plaintiff says that on the 19th of August 1886 and for a short time theretofore the deceased William Watkins was temporarily in the City of Aurora, Dearborn County, Indiana employed at his usual avocation. And plaintiff says that on said day the defendants and each and all of them at the City of Aurora unlawfully struck, beat, bruised, wounded, choked and strangled the said William Watkins and that then and there the said William Watkins died. And the plaintiff says that the defendants and each of them did then and there kill and murder the said William Watkins and did then and there in the manner aforesaid wantonly, wickedly and unlawfully cause the death of the said Watkins.
And the said Watkins then and there died leaving surviving him as his only heirs at law the 3 children herein before named and the said Eliza Watkins, his widow.
Wherefore the plaintiff demands judgement against the defendants for the sum of $10,000 dollars and all further and proper reliefs.
Signed, George E. Downey, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, attorney for plaintiffs. Filed March 2, 1887.
As in all civil lawsuits, a response to the plaintiff’s complaint was filed, for each defendant, all of them reading the same except for the name. Sadly, all are signed by the attorney firm, not the defendant, so we don’t have a signature of Jacob Kirsch.
The Response
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