Amon Kelble

1840s–1860s

Born 20 May 1846 in Baden, in the German southwest, to Andreas Kölble and Maria Anna Bohli. In 1865 he sailed for America with his fiancée, Louisa Gastiger, and his brother Charles; a sister died during the crossing. Reached Xenia, Ohio, on 24 September 1865 and married Louisa there on 2 April 1866.

1870s

Owned a lot on West Street in Xenia. By 1875 a stonemason, taking county contracts for culverts, bridge abutments, and the stone foundation of the courthouse addition. Sons Henry, Andrew, and Robert and daughter Lena were born.

1880s

Built the masonry for Xenia's new high school and bridges across Greene County; his firm Kelble & Co. was nicknamed "the Big Four." Bought the house at 17 West Main Street in 1881 and kept a saloon there from 1883, acquitted in July 1883 of eleven Sunday-selling charges. Laid the masonry for the water-works in 1887 and worked on orphans' homes in 1888–89.

1890s

Formed A. Kelble & Co. in 1890 and kept building foundations and culverts. Celebrated his silver wedding anniversary in 1891. Fell ill at Christmas 1896 and died at home on West Main Street on 28 March 1897, aged 50.

Baden to Xenia

Amon Kelble was born on May 20, 1846, in Baden, in the far southwest of the German lands, the son of Andreas Kölble and Maria Anna Bohli. His brothers included Anselm and Charles, he had a sister, Catherine, and a half-brother, Robert Bohle. In 1865, at nineteen, he left for America with Charles and with his fiancée, Louisa Gastiger. The crossing cost the family dearly: a sister traveling with them died at sea. The party reached Xenia, in Greene County, Ohio, on September 24, 1865, and Amon and Louisa were married there on April 2, 1866. Their children were Amon E. (Ben's great-great-grandfather), Henry, Andrew, Robert ("Nobe"), Lena, and Harry, who died of diphtheria as a baby in 1880.

In 1870 Amon bought a quarter-acre lot on West Street from his brother Charles, and he kept a lot on the east side of West Street, south of Shawnee Run, for nearly a quarter-century before giving it to his son Amon E. in 1894. In 1881 he bought the house at 17 West Main Street from his half-brother Robert Bohle for $3,000. It was the family home and his business office for the rest of his life, and in 1894 he added a $600 addition.

Stonemason of Xenia

By 1875 Amon was a stonemason, and for the next twenty years he built a business and a reputation. His firm, first Kelble, Seifert & Bender and later reorganized as Kelble & Co. (for a time in 1886–87 nicknamed "the Big Four"), won a long string of Greene County contracts: culverts and bridge abutments along the Little Miami River in the 1870s; the stone foundation for the courthouse addition in 1875, at $3.98 a perch; the stonework for Xenia's new high school, completed in February 1883; the abutments for the Charlton Mill bridge; the stonework for the new iron Trebein bridge after a tornado destroyed the old one in 1884; the Oldtown bridge; and in 1887 the masonry for Xenia's new water-works building.

In 1888 the firm did the stonework for new cottages at the Orphans' Home, and that August Amon was overcome by the heat on the job and could not work the next day. In July 1889 he left for Knightstown, Indiana, to build the stonework for the new Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home there. In May 1890 he withdrew from Kelble & Co. and started again as A. Kelble & Co. with Robert McKay and Elias King, laying the foundation for a 200-foot brick building for the Hooven & Allison Company and for a creamery, a culvert under Home Road, and the abutment of the Monroe Street bridge into the mid-1890s. For about twenty-four years, alongside the stonework, he was also foreman of the rendering department at the old Millen slaughterhouse.

The Saloon on West Main Street

From 1883 to 1894 Amon also kept a saloon on West Main Street, and it brought him repeatedly before the law. (He had already pleaded guilty to selling liquor in 1879 and 1882.) On a Sunday afternoon in May 1883, an argument between two customers moved out to the alley and ended with one of them shooting the other, grazing his eye; Amon was fined for selling on a Sunday and spent up to an hour in the Xenia jail, though most of the fine was remitted. The next month he was charged with eleven more counts of Sunday selling, and in July 1883 the jury and the mayor found him not guilty on all of them. He was behind on his Scott Law liquor tax in 1884, went to the courthouse to pay $100 under the Dow Law in 1886, and in 1887 two men were arrested for trying to tap his till. In September 1894 the superintendent of the Ohio Anti-Saloon League visited and reported underage boys on the premises, and that October Louisa was tried for serving on a Sunday. Amon was also arrested once for disorderly conduct at his own home, in August 1887.

Family and Community

Amon was an active member of the Improved Order of Red Men, serving as sachem of Wahoo Tribe in 1883 and later as a trustee and deputy great sachem, and in 1886 he represented Xenia at the order's state council in Newark, Ohio. The Kelbles' life turns up in the local papers: wedding gifts of a bedspread, tablecloth, napkins, and towels for a neighbor in January 1890; a twenty-first birthday party for a young friend that April; and on April 2, 1891, a silver-anniversary party for fifty friends and relatives. In November 1890, up at one in the morning to go to the pork house, Amon spotted a fire in a neighbor's stable and raised the alarm in time. In April 1892 a runaway delivery horse crashed into his horse and wagon outside a store, and his horse bolted down Second Street and plunged into a hack at Richardson's stable, smashing its curved glass.

Illness and Death

Amon fell ill on December 29, 1896, with what was called inflammation of the bowels. He seemed much better by mid-January, but in March he became seriously ill. On March 10 he made his will, leaving his property to Louisa, to be divided equally among their children after her death, and he died at home on West Main Street on March 28, 1897, at fifty, after about four weeks in bed. His horse, buggy, and bridle were sold for $88.50. Louisa outlived him by eleven years.