The Kienlen Plantation

Christian Frederich Kienlen, my 3rd great grandfather, had an interesting life - a true rags to riches story. He was born in 

Marbach am Neckar, in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, in 1799, the son of Johann Gottfried Kienlen and Marie Charlotta Schemp Kienlen. He was trained in the family business. He was a confectioner.

In 1815, in Indonesia, Mount Tambora erupted. This was, and still is, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The world's climate changed suddenly, and the following year, 1816, is known as the "Year Without a Summer." 

 While Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein and  John Polidori wrote The Vampyre, people of lesser means were starving. Conditions in Wurttemberg were worse than in most places. People there resorted to eating moss, grass, and tree bark, and a mass exodus soon followed. Christian left his family and went to the United States as an indentured servant. That's a story for another day.

Christian eventually made his way to the boom-town of St. Louis. He was the first confectioner in the city, and his name is listed on many land deeds of that period. In 1837, however, he auctioned off his confectioners' tools and bought 100 acres of land in the wilderness of St. Louis County. It was here, in the area now know as Wellston, that Christian and Marie Louise Moreau Kienlen moved their young family. 

According to family lore provided by my father, Richard L. Kienlen, Christian had a store on the St. Charles Road (now Martin Luther King Drive). He sold provisions to people going west. We still have the key to this store, which Christian's grandson George had nickel-plated.

Although I have found no evidence that this store existed, I have learned about his plantation.

According to my dad, the Kienlens built a large, 2-story brick home. There were even stone lions out front guarding the porch. At one time, there was a sketch of the house, but it disappeared when in the possession of my grandparents. Kienlen Avenue in the Wellston area of St. Louis County was the driveway through the property to their home.

In 1868, Marie Louise Kienlen sold 66 acres to Erastus Wells (for whom Wellston is named) for $17,000. The deal included the family home. Mr. Wells then built a three-story mansion on the property. His son Rolla Wells, one-time mayor of St. Louis, included this photo in his 1933 book Episodes of My Life:

Peeking from behind the left side of the house seems to be a brick, 2-story home. I can't prove this is the old Kienlen home, but it very well may be. Sadly, both homes burned down in later years.

This transcript from a 1965 KSD radio broadcast about Wellston mentions the Kienlen home:
"In 1868 Wells purchased a country home in the area which now bears his name. Located a few blocks north of Easton Avenue, the spacious house, with wide verandas extending across the first and second stories, had been the farm home of the Kienlen family. The driveway which led to the house is the present Kienlen avenue, on which stands the Wellston City Hall. The handsome brick residence burned to the ground in 1893, after which the country property, with its orchards, gardens, and vineyards, was subdivided into small home sites." 

Now we have conflicting evidence. Did Christian Kienlen built the house in the foreground above, or Erasatus Wells. It's really hard to know, but the orchards, gardens, and vineyards were probably started by the Kienlens. The home pictured seems to be of a later period than Kienlen would have built it, but I'm no architecture expert. The house behind the house is more likely.

So what do we know about the plantation? The Federal Agricultural Census of 1850 gives us some clues. This census lists what was produced in the year ending June 1, 1850, so it reflects the harvest of 1849. At that time, there were 50 improved acres and 50 unimproved acres. The cash value of the farm was $20,000, a lot of money in 1850. They had 4 horses, 4 milk cows, and 6 other cattle. They had 4 sheep and 20 pigs. They produced 200 lbs of butter. 

They had grown 800 bushels of corn, 200 bushels of potatoes, and 95 tons of hay. They also grew 400 lbs of cotton and 1000 lbs of sugar cane. (The sugar cane surprised me.) They had $100 worth of produce from their orchard.

Christian lived at this site from 1837 until his death on December 31, 1851. His wife continued to live there until she sold it and moved in with her daughter Julia Kienlen Brokmeyer, wife of  Missouri Lt. Governor (1877-1881) Henry Brokmeyer. 

So what became of this land? Here's a little project I did a few years ago.

Interestingly, in 1905, construction workers building a house came upon the Kienlen family cemetery. I did not know this existed, and I now have another lead to follow. I assume they found and removed Christian. He and Marie Louise had children who died young, and those may be the other burials.  The article is also proof that Rolla Wells is an imperfect source of information. He was incorrect in saying the Kienlens got their land from the Spanish government. In 1837 this was the state of Missouri, in the U.S.A. 

My St. Louis Locations

I admit, I haven't worked much with land records or maps. I know I need to, but I find it to be a time-consuming project and I am far from retirement.

This week's theme prompted me to download Google Earth, and at least map out a couple of places that were important in my own life. 

My First Home

9320 Sterling Place

Affton, Missouri

We lived in this little house for the first ten years of my life, 1965-1975. Originally this was a two bedroom house, but my dad took part of the family room (I think) to make a third bedroom. The grassy area next to the house was not there at the time. It was a creek. I remember many happy hours playing in that creek.

The gravel road is where my sister Elaine lost a tooth. We tried to look for it awhile but never found it. At the far end of the gravel road there was a family with some teenage girls. They gave us their old Barbie dolls. I remember they looked a lot different from the Barbies we had. I wish we had kept them. They may have been the original ones.

Directly across the gravel road was a family with three boys. They were all about the same ages as me and my sisters. Sometimes we got along, and sometimes we didn't. I believe our fighting ruined the friendship of our mothers.

I remember there were some "hippies" that lived across the street, and a teenage girl living next to us had a baby that she named Amy. I remember asking how she had a baby when she wasn't married, but I don't remember my mom's answer.

The man behind us, Mr. Fish, grew tomatoes. The couple across the street, the Hermans, had two granddaughters that we liked to play with when they visited. Mr. Herman used to fall asleep in his lawn chair, often without a shirt on. When he stood up, you could see tan lines from his stomach folds from sleeping in the sun in his chair.

Going to the Park

Times were different then. For some reason, my parents let us ride our bikes, alone, to a nearby park called Ohlendorf Park. According to Google Maps, the trip was 1.3 miles and took about 7 minutes by bicycle. It was all side streets, but my daughter lives near the park and there are still very few sidewalks. We rode our bikes with no helmets, and we had no cell phones to call if we had a problem. The park looks different now, but I remember there was something you could climb on with a large, triangular piece of metal that several people could slide down at the same time. I burned the backs of my legs more than a few times on that thing. It also make a squeaking sound when you slid, which was basically your skin sticking to the hot metal. 

I decided not to put my second house here because my sister lives there now, but my first job, at age 16, was at Missouri Botanical Garden. I sold tickets to get in, and sometimes I worked in the gift shop or in the plant shop.

A lot of teenagers worked at the Garden, and sometimes we would get together and do things we weren't supposed to do, like look around at everything in Henry Shaw's house (the historic house of the garden's founder which is open for tours). I have always been proud that my first job was in such a great place. We are members of the Garden now, and we visit pretty often. My granddaughter Rose, who likes plants and flowers more than any kid I've ever known, enjoys our visits. She likes to see the Rose Garden. She thinks it's her garden, and we don't correct her. 

When I graduated from college, my first job was at St. Louis Children's Hospital as a Registered Nurse. At first I worked on the Cardiology/Cardiothoracic surgery floor. I also spent a year in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The PICU was boring. I know that sounds silly, but all of the patients were sedated, and I worked at night so not much went on unless it was bad. I later transferred to the Emergency Unit, and I absolutely loved it there. 

I left the hospital in 2003 and started working in Student Health Services at Washington University in St. Louis. I was drawn by the benefits (tuition benefit for the kids + good retirement plan). I like working with the college students. It's a fun age group. I get to meet students from all over the world, and I enjoy hearing about their studies and plans for the future. We do what we can to keep the students healthy so they can complete their studies. Our office is in this building, Dardick House. We are in the basement where the green awnings are located.

We park behind the building, between the building and the baseball field. Like anyone who works at a school, we really look forward to summer. Each spring, as I walk to my car in the afternoon, I can hear the sound of a ball hitting a metal bat and I know summer's coming soon! 

Extra-Curricular Activities: Richard Leroy Kienlen and Sharon Eileen Aden at School

I was 9 when the Little House on the Prairie television show started, and I, of course, read all of the books. So when my mom told me she went to a one-room school house, that's what I would think of. I still do, but as an adult I know it couldn't have been the same. She went in the 1950s. I need to ask her brother about it, but in some ways I don't want to change the images I've imagined. She, along with her older brother Tommy and younger sister Diana, grew up in the town of Poplar Bluff, in southeastern Missouri. "PB" as we called it. After elementary school, she went to 

Poplar Bluff High School and graduated in 1960. 

My dad's education was different. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, a big city compared to Poplar Bluff. He attended Siegel Elementary School and then McKinley High School. The high school was just down the street from from the four family flat where he lived with his parents. He was an only child. He loved to travel around the city on the street cars. He used to talk about going off 

on his own, just to explore new places. 

Both of my parents were involved in extra-curricular activities in high school. My mom was the librarian for her Future Teacher's of America organization. Although she never because a teacher officially, she was an involved mother.

My dad was in the Chess Club. He taught me how to play chess, although I haven't played since I was a kid. He also tried to teach my oldest daughter. I'm not sure how far they got.

Dad was also in the Camera Club, and eventually became a photographer. He used to have stacks and stacks of photography magazines in our basement, tied together with twine. Photography magazines and National Geographic magazines. Both magazines were full of beautiful pictures. 

No wonder he wanted to keep them.