Maybe You've Heard of Her Husband
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Courtesy of the German American Society in Portland Maybe You’ve Heard of Her Husband? Finding Louisa Weinhard RESEARCH FILES by Tiah Edmunson-Morton LUISE WAGENBLAST was born in Archives and records repositories Germany in 1832. She was four when are filled with voices. We visit them to her mother died, and she traveled to learn about families, past actions of Missouri at fifteen, arrived in the Pacific governments, and activities of private Northwest at twenty-three, and married organizations. They are also spaces a man who would become famous that reflect power and document a when she was twenty-seven. By the dominant narrative. Creators, archivists, time she died at age eighty-five, she and researchers make decisions about had buried her husband and four of what to include and who to exclude, her five children. Her life was punctu- and the result can be distortion, omis- ated by both sadness and generosity; sion, and erasure. For all the voices her legacy is marked by details and recorded in any archive, there are also silences. This is how I reconstructed many that have been silenced.2 As any- the story of the woman who became one who has done historical research Louisa Weinhard, wife of Henry.1 on women knows, their stories were I am an archivist and educator first, not actually hidden; more often, they historian second, and the extensive simply were not recorded. The his- endnotes in this article reflect my intent tory of nineteenth-century women’s LOUISA WAGENBLAST WEINHARD is pictured here in 1888. She arrived in the for it to be both a lesson in historiog- work is often told through the story Pacific Northwest in1855 . Although married to Henry Weinhard, who was famous for his beer-making, reconstructing her story involved time and patience. The chronology raphy and a story about a woman. The of husbands and sons. Women were of her life, like many women’s histories, is an example of how historians reveal silenced chronology of Louisa’s life is set in his- categorized as wives and mothers voices in archives. torical context with details about cul- rather than business partners or own- tural and ethnic groups, social welfare ers. When talking about researching concerns, and the influence of wealth. women, I often cite the complications Ultimately, the purpose of this article surrounding names: if their first name is to examine the longer-term impact was recorded in newspapers (not just complicating research in the Pacific challenge to use, for example, because and importance of uncovering the sto- “Mrs.”), actually finding a woman’s Northwest in the mid to late nineteenth towns were in flux as industries and ries of women, as well as to empower surname at birth to track genealogy century was the status of the state and people migrated to different regions. researchers to find their own Louisas. feels like a happy accident. Further its cities. Oregon Territory records are a Tracking businesses, occupations, and 128 OHQ vol. 122, no. 2 © 2021 Oregon Historical Society Edmunson-Morton, Maybe You’ve Heard of Her Husband? 129 movement is difficult when you are name, however, and his business was who else lived in the house, if there will, I did not find anything actually researching men; finding details about extremely successful, so I assumed were servants, and names of neighbors. produced by Louisa. What I was able women’s lives is nearly impossible. researching his wife Louisa would be Government and court documents to stitch together about her life reveals As a part of my work curating the simple and good practice for future such as estate and probate records a woman who was committed to her Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives, I work on the other women I had identi- have information about heirs and are family, church, and community, but also document present-day women in the fied. I was wrong. especially valuable if contested. Unlike a woman who enjoyed the benefits of Pacific Northwest’s brewing indus- Although she was famous for her census records, marriage and death her wealth and privilege. tries. When I was preparing for an generosity and her involvement in records usually include the correct oral history in 2016 with Dana Garves, local church and aid societies during legal name, but they are less reliable BORN NOVEMBER 30, 1832, in owner of BrewLab and former brewing her lifetime, Louisa Wagenblast Wein- for birthplace information. Business Waldrems, Germany, a small town chemist at Ninkasi, I found a blog post hard’s biography had to be woven directories and phone books include about 300 miles southwest of Berlin she had written called “Oregon’s First together with disparate and at times names, addresses, and advertisements, in Baden-Württemberg, Luise Wagen- Women Brewers [1879-1908],” and contradictory facts. More generally, I but also taxes paid, occupations, and blast was the tenth of eleven children those stories acted as an interesting found that records for the Weinhards marital status. Newspapers are peren- of Eva Catharina Bohn Wagenblast and historical counterweight to my work are scant, mostly limited to newspaper nial favorites for beer history research- Johann “Michael” Wagenblast. She with living women.3 Garves had cited articles and advertisements, census and ers; beyond articles, advertisements, was baptized on December 2, 1832, in her sources — online genealogy sites estate records, lawsuits, and, for Henry, and obituaries, they include public a larger town to the north, Backnang, and newspapers, the Oregon Historical glowing biographies in books about notices of sheriff’s sales, property or which was known as “Gerberstadt” or Records Index, Brewed in the Pacific great men. If the subtler details about business sales, lawsuits, and estate Gerber City for its prevalence of tan- Northwest — and I used her citations relationships, motivations, or hobbies announcements. Popular magazines, neries, leather factories, and wool and to add names of my own.4 Most, if are lacking for Henry and his company, scholarly secondary sources, associa- cloth mills.5 Eva’s fifth and eleventh not all, brewers in nineteenth century important details about Louisa and her tion records, theses and dissertations, children died before their first birth- Oregon were men. In my research, I experiences are entirely absent. If it is breweriana websites, historical fiction, days, and Eva herself died in April 1836 found most women linked to breweries so difficult to tell the story of a famous and reports from historic preservation when she was forty-four years old.6 were not making beer, but I suspected woman linked to a famous brewer, agencies and architectural remodel The years following Eva’s death they played an essential role in the there is an even greater challenge in firms gave me lines of inquiry to follow. were likely personally difficult, but life in businesses’ success by completing accurately telling the story of women I purchased an ancestry.com subscrip- Germany was also generally challeng- work such as running the household, in less well-known Oregon brewing tion and used its member discussion ing. Dorothea Knadler, a descendant of childminding, keeping the books, and families. Researchers and writers must boards for links to family memoirs Christina Wagenblast, wrote in her 1939 participating in community events. I be creative in where they look for and photographs. “Find-A Grave” was “Family History of Michael Wagenblast” also knew that several ran breweries biographical details. a treasure trove of name variations, that continuous wars, high taxes, and after their husbands died. Because we exist in the stories peo- links to relatives, obituaries, and pho- limited opportunities drove people to But was there a way to determine ple tell about us and the organizations tographs and biographies from family leave. Friends and relatives who had the jobs they did or the roles they within which we conduct our lives, dif- members. I used Google translate, emigrated shared “glowing accounts played? I searched in online newspa- ferent sources will tell different stories sometimes successfully, when I found of America with its constitutional rep- per databases and conducted on-site about different periods. Census records a name in a German language doc- resentation of the people, this freedom research in the places these women formed the spine of my research into ument. I reached out to staff at the of speech, press, action and religion, lived, and the short answer is: no. Louisa Weinhard. Although names are Aurora Colony, Portland Community its great rich, undeveloped resources.” Variables in terms of family structure, often incorrect, the census is valuable College, the German American Society Two of Louisa’s brothers, John and Got- geographic location, brewery size, and for determining age, number of children and German Ladies Relief Society, and tlieb, left Germany in 1840 and lived in available documentation make gener- (living or dead), marital status, birth- to students who had written graduate Pennsylvania for a few years; Gottlieb alizations and specifics quite difficult. place of individual and parents, real school papers. I learned a lot from all married, and John worked for a baker Henry Weinhard is a pretty familiar estate holdings, literacy, occupation, these sources; however, besides her before they both moved to Missouri. In 130 OHQ vol. 122, no. 2 Edmunson-Morton, Maybe You’ve Heard of Her Husband? 131 1847, Michael moved five of his other brief appearance in Jane Kirkpatrick’s children from Waldrems to Missouri, historical fiction novel, A Tendering of where they joined Louisa’s brothers and the Storm, where it was noted they were many other Germans. Details of their “German Americans traveling to the Bay journey are not available, but neighbor- with Keil, not members of the colony.”13 ing families traveled nearly two months Aukjen Ingraham offers different on the ocean, then to New Orleans on details in her 2001 Oregon Historical a steamer, and then up the Mississippi Quarterly article, for which she inter- and Missouri rivers on a smaller boat to viewed Louisa’s great-grandson, Wil- a trading post.