Louisa Gastiger

1840s–1860s

Born 12 April 1842 in Baden, Germany. Emigrated in 1865 with her fiancé, Amon Kelble, and his brother Charles, reaching Xenia, Ohio, on 24 September 1865, and married Amon there on 2 April 1866.

1870s–1880s

Raised six children in Xenia while Amon built his stonemasonry business, from 1881 in the house at 17 West Main Street. Lost her son Harry in 1880. Broke her arm on the ice in 1888.

1890s

Celebrated her silver wedding anniversary in 1891 and was tried, and cleared, over Sunday selling in the family saloon in 1894. Widowed in March 1897; lost her son Henry in 1899. Won injunctions against two streetcar companies.

1900s

Visited Tennessee with her sister in 1901 and made her will. Died on West Main Street on 10 July 1908, aged 66.

From Baden to Xenia

Louisa Gastiger was born on April 12, 1842, in Baden, Germany. In 1865, at twenty-three, she left for America with her fiancé, Amon Kelble, and his brother Charles, a crossing marked by the death of Amon's sister along the way. The group reached Xenia, Ohio, on September 24, 1865, and Louisa and Amon were married there on April 2, 1866. Her sister Rosalie also came to America and married Burkhardt Geiger.

Louisa and Amon had six children: Amon E. (Ben's great-great-grandfather), Henry, Andrew, Robert ("Nobe"), Lena, and Harry, who died of diphtheria at home in August 1880, just short of his first birthday. From 1881 the family lived at 17 West Main Street, which was both home and Amon's business office.

Behind the Saloon Counter

From 1883 to 1894 Amon kept a saloon on West Main Street, and it drew the family into repeated trouble with Ohio's liquor laws. On October 1, 1894, Louisa herself was tried for serving alcohol on a Sunday; the case was dismissed for lack of evidence after the chief witness contradicted himself.

Louisa's health was often poor. She was sick with heart disease in January 1887, and in January 1888 she slipped on the ice going out her back door, broke her right arm above the wrist, and had bruises "too numerous to mention." She was confined to the house again in 1889 and had the flu in January 1897. There were good times too: wedding gifts for a neighbor's marriage in 1890, a twenty-first birthday party for a young friend, and on April 2, 1891, a silver-anniversary party for fifty friends and relatives.

Widowhood

Amon died in March 1897, leaving Louisa a widow at fifty-four, with the house and property left to her for life. Her son Henry died two years later. She managed the family's affairs on her own, and in 1899 she went to court against two streetcar companies, the Dayton, Spring Valley & Wilmington Transit Company and the Rapid Transit Company, over their use of Main Street, winning an injunction against each. In May 1901 she spent several weeks in Ooltewah, Tennessee, with her sister, Mrs. Burkhardt Geiger, and her nephew Leopold.

That October she wrote her will. Her furniture and household goods were to go to her daughter Lena, her real estate and money to be divided among her children, $100 extra to her grandson Charles Marsh, and $25 to St. Brigid's Church for masses for her and her departed family. She left three holy pictures from Germany to Mrs. R. Kelble; to Amon E.'s wife, Sarah, pictures of her mother, her father, her grandfather, Henry, and the bishop, with a crucifix, a bottle of holy water, and an ice chest; and to her son Andy a picture of herself and her husband.

In late 1904 she fell down a flight of stairs at a neighbor's house and broke her ribs, and she came down with pleuro-pneumonia. By 1907 she was living in the Klein Building on West Main Street, where that January some clothes she had hung over the stove to dry caught fire. In April 1908 she revised her will, giving Lena's share to her grandson Charles Marsh instead; her son Andrew still owed her $1,100 and Robert $300. After about five months of stomach cancer, Louisa died on West Main Street at 2:45 in the afternoon on July 10, 1908, at sixty-six. She was a member of St. Brigid's Church. Her brother-in-law Charles Kelble later bought her house and replaced it with a two-story building, a store below and offices above.