F.W. Johannpeter and 1883 Bar Incident

Frederick William Johannpeter (1839 – 1915) was my second great grandfather on my mother’s side. He died 4 months before the birth of his grandson, Gilbert Padilla P. Ellis, leej twg yog kuv yawg.

Since he died before my grandfather was born, I had very limited information on him, when I started researching the family history. Grandpa didn’t have any verbal history on his grandparents. He lived with F.W.’s widow, Johanna, los sis “Hannah”, after Grandpa’s father died but she passed away when Grandpa was five years old.

I did have one picture of F.W. and Johanna in a window behind my great grandparents William and Caroline “Hli” Ellis on their wedding day in 1912. My mother had this picture in a group of family pictures she had from Great Grandma Lee, F.W.’s youngest daughter Caroline Leah “Hli” Ellis nee Johannpeter. Everything I know about F.W. is from official sources and a few newspaper articles.

F.W. was born in Bielefeld, Germany on January 7, 1839. He married Johanna Grieve on December 23, 1866. F.W. yog 27. Johanna was 23. Ib lub xyoos tom qab, their oldest son Gustave was born in Germany.

Nyob rau hauv 1868, the family moved to the United States and settle in St. Charles, Missouri. Their remaining 8 cov me nyuam, including Great Grandma Lee, the second youngest, were born in St. Charles between 1869 thiab 1883.

It appears F.W. went by Frederick, Fred, William and most frequently in official documents and one of the two newspaper articles, F.W. Johannpeter. Ob peb xyoos dhau los, I found a reference to a F.W. Johannpeter being involved in a political brawl in 1883. The article didn’t have enough information to confirm it was my second great grandfather, so I initially dismissed it. Hmoov tsis, I cannot find the original article.

Txawm li cas los, I recently found a St. Louis Dispatch tom qab newspaper article, which contained enough information that I feel comfortable it was F.W., who was involved. Nyob rau hauv 1883, the 44-year-old F.W. was running for St. Charles City Council from the 3rd Ward. While attending a local tavern, he began arguing with another unnamed “prominent politician”. It was not one of his opponents.

The prominent politician offered several opinions, which were not well received by F.W. A heated exchange occurred between the men until F.W. decided things had gone far enough. F.W. ended the exchange by bringing his beer mug down on the prominent politician’s head.

F.W. decided not to wait for the local police to intervene and exited the premises. The man didn’t press charges but the bad publicity couldn’t have helped F.W.’s campaign. One of his two opponents won the election. F.W. withdrew from politics and managed to avoid this type of publicity for the remainder of his life.

Most of the Johannpeters moved from St. Charles to North St. Louis in the early 1910s. F.W. died of heart disease while living on North 19th Street on February 21, 1915. F.W. yog 76 xyoo.

People often tell you not to argue politics or religion. Now you know why.

Koj tuaj tawm tswv yim lossis nug ib lo lus nug hais txog qhov no lossis muaj nqe lus hauv qab no saib hauv qab no lossis rau ntawm kuv Facebook phab los sis Twitter profile.

Tau qhov twg los: St. Louis Dispatch tom qab, Tim 2, 1883 ib tsab, p. 8

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