St. Louis Holidays With The Mosblechs
The Mosblechs have very large families as a rule. My great grandfather Eduard Mosblech was one of twelve children. Eduard had fourteen children and his brothers had twelve and thirteen children respectively. While I have not yet been able to verify the size of the other two families, both Mom and I remember it the same way. Grandma Ellis had a picture from the newspaper because the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did a story about them one year because the family was so big.
We were talking about how hard it would be to have family gatherings and my mom related a story about how the Mosblechs used to have Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc, when my grandmother Alivna M. Mosblech Ellis was a child.
Eduard, Magdalena and 12 of their 14 children from the July 5, 1934 edition of the St. Louis Star-Times
Her grandparents, Gustave and Bertha Mosblech owned two houses with a big backyard. One of the houses had a dining room, kitchen and parlor. I think Gustave and Bertha also slept in this house. The other house was almost all bedrooms. The family would gather at the two houses. I feel for Grandma trying to remember all those cousins’ names. It must have been an interesting day, if nothing else.
One of the Mosblech Houses. The Other Was Torn Down Prior to 1987 – Courtesy of Google Earth
In those days, the kids ate after the adults. It was a different time and children were not held up like they are today. When I was a kid, my parents would not eat until all of us kids had been served. It was just the opposite years ago. My grandfather told me that when you had chicken the kids developed a taste for backs because that is what was going to be left.
The adults would send all the kids over to the house with the bedrooms, while they ate the holiday meal. After they were done eating, the kids went over to the dining room. The adults usually went to the back yard. I guess they had a fire during the winter months.
Rear View of the House and Utility Building – Courtesy of Google Earth
I started doing some research and found that the houses were in the 200 block of E. Schirmer Street in the Patch neighborhood. One of the houses, which was built in 1892 is still standing. It appears to be a rental property. The other house was torn down to be replaced with a utility building in 1987.
Ellis-Mosblech Family History Book Cover
Gustave passed away in May 1924. Bertha followed him in March 1925. Their son Frank O. Mosblech took ownership of one of the houses, which is the one still standing. Gustave and Bertha lived at 211 E. Schirmer, which was replaced with the utility building.
I recently completed the book version of the Ellis-Mosblech family history. If you are interested in the book, it can be accessed by clicking here.
My grandmother and her brothers and sisters tended to have smaller families. Several sisters had only one child or three to four at the most. Uncle Frances was a notable exception. He had twelve children but I am pretty sure that he was the only one who had more than four children.
I hope you found this article interesting. What are some of your family holiday traditions? You can leave a comment or ask a question about this or any post on my Facebook page and Twitter profile.
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