Louisa Gastiger

1840s

Born 12 April 1842 in Baden, Germany.

1860s

Emigrated in 1865 with her future husband Amon Kelble and his brother Charles, reaching Xenia, Ohio, on 24 September 1865, where she married Amon on 2 April 1866.

1870s–1880s

Raised the Kelble children in Xenia while Amon built his stonemasonry business, the family moving between rented and owned property on West Street and West Main Street.

1890s

Widowed in March 1897 when Amon died.

1900s

Lived on in Xenia another eleven years; died there 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 home for America with her fiancé, Amon Kelble, and his brother Charles — a crossing marked by the death of one of the party's sisters along the way. The group reached Xenia, Ohio, on September 24, 1865, and Louisa and Amon were married there on April 2, 1866. She had at least one sister, Rosalie Gastiger, who does not appear to have made the same journey.

Behind the Saloon Counter

For over a decade Louisa's household income came partly from the saloon Amon kept on West Main Street, and on October 1, 1894, that business put her in front of a judge: she was tried for serving alcohol on a Sunday, in violation of Ohio's Sunday closing laws. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence after the chief witness gave contradictory testimony — one of several brushes the Kelble family had with the state's temperance enforcement during these years.

Illness, Widowhood, and a Long Independence

Louisa's later years were shadowed by recurring illness. She was laid up with heart trouble in January 1887, broke her right arm in a fall on the ice in January 1888, was “quite ill” again in 1889, and suffered a bad fall down a flight of stairs at a neighbor's house in late 1904 that fractured her ribs and led to a bout of pleuro-pneumonia. In between, the household had its lighter moments — a wedding-gift exchange with the Kleins in 1890, a twenty-first birthday party for a family friend that same spring, and, on April 2, 1891, a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary party for fifty guests.

Amon's death in March 1897 left Louisa a widow at fifty-four, and she spent the next eleven years managing the family's Xenia property on her own — including two lawsuits she brought in 1899 against streetcar companies (the Dayton, Spring Valley & Wilmington Transit Company and the Rapid Transit Company) over injunctions affecting her Main Street real estate, both of which were resolved in her favor. In October 1901 she wrote a detailed will dividing her furniture, real estate, and money among her children, setting aside $25 for masses at St. Brigid's Church in memory of her and her late family, and leaving specific keepsakes — holy pictures from Germany, a crucifix, a bottle of holy water — to named daughters-in-law and grandchildren. She revised the will again in April 1908, shortly before her death, redirecting her daughter Lena's share to a grandson. Louisa died at home on West Main Street on July 10, 1908, at 2:45 in the afternoon, aged sixty-six. Her brother-in-law Charles Kelble later bought the house and replaced it with a two-story building — a store below, offices above.