|
a.
|
Note: th of real estate.
1860 census St. Louis, Brewer, $15,000 real estate, $300 personal property. 1870 census St. Louis, Brewer, $70,000 real estate and $130,000 personal property. In 1887 Charles was President of the Stifel Brewing Co.
“<b>Stifel, Charles G., </b>manufacturer, was born in the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg. Germany, January 28, 1819, son of Frederick and Anna Catharine (Renz) Stifel. He was well educated in the schools of his native town, and when approaching manhood came to this country, to which he had looked as a land of boundless opportunities for young men dependent upon their own efforts for success in life. His earliest experiences in the United States were hardly calculated to confirm this impression, but in the struggles of his young manhood he evidenced that sturdiness of character and tenacity of purpose which, yielding to no discouragements, is certain to command success sooner or later. His first bitter experiences and subsequent success constitute an object lesson which may be studied with profit by young men of the present generation, too much inclined to think that the acquisition of wealth is a matter of luck, and too apt to forget that individual effort is the magic talisman which repels poverty and gathers the riches of the earth. Arriving in New York in 1837, when he was eighteen years of age, with meagre resources, Mr. Stifel at once sought employment, which would afford him the means of livelihood. At that time, however, the country was in the throes of a financial panic, business of every kind seemed to be at a standstill, and for days and weeks his search for employment was in vain. In New York, Philadelphia, and Newark, New Jersey, he offered his services at any kind of work for his board, without being able to find the temporary home which this arrangement would have given him. Finally, in the city of Newark, he met a farmer who offered to give him employment at four dollars a month, on a farm, forty miles away. Accepting this offer gladly, he walked the entire distance to the farm, and began his career of an American business man as farm laborer, at a compensation of a trifle more than thirteen cents a day. After working on this farm several months, he went to Wheeling, Virginia, where he obtained more satisfactory remuneration for his labors as a brewery employe, his wages during this term of service ranging from ten to twelve dollars a month. For several years he labored in this capacity, and during these years rigid economy alone enabled him to make any headway toward the realization of his ambition to accumulate sufficient capital to start a business of his own. His earnings were small, but what he earned he saved until he had six hundred dollars to his credit. Then disaster overtook him. He loaned his money to a friend, and lost all but one hundred and fifty dollars. Sick at heart over the loss of his small but hard-earned fortune, he left Wheeling and went to New Orleans. Three days after he reached that city he was stricken with an illness which lasted six weeks, and when he recovered he was almost penniless. He was sick of the Crescent City, but he had not the means to go elsewhere and bravely set about to make the best of his situation. In the smallest way possible he began buying and retailing country eggs in the New Orleans market. Gradually he built up a business which yielded him net profits of two or three dollars a day, and again he began to accumulate capital. Enabled, after a time, to embark in business on a larger scale, he went to Nashville, Tennessee, and engaged in packing eggs, which he shipped to the New Orleans commission houses. In this business he laid the foundation of his fortune, and, in 1845, had prospered to such an extant that he was able to return to Germany, and bring his father back with him to America. On this occasion, he narrowly escaped being impressed into the German military service, which he had evaded by coming to this country as a young man, and his stay in Germany was limited to thirteen days. Upon his return to this country, he established himself in business in Cincinnati, Ohio, engaging there in the shipment of farm produce to New Orleans. In 1849 he came to St. Louis, and at once became identified in a small way with the brewing business, in which he has since built up a large fortune and gained renown as a man of affairs. The brewery of which he thus became part owner, with two associates, was a primitive affair, located at the intersection of Collins and Cherry Streets, and his share of the capital was eighteen hundred dollars. A reasonable degree of prosperity attended its operations, and at the end of three years Mr. Stifel purchased the interests of his partners. In 1859 he built the brewery on Fourteenth and Chambers Streets, which he operated until his retirement from active participation in business affairs. He was himself the architect of this building and plant, which for nearly forty years has been recognized as one of the best equipped and most admirably arranged breweries in the West, compact in space, yet not cramped, and thoroughly practical in all its appointments. Its capacity was originally eighty barrels of beer per day, but this has been increased by changes to three hundred and fifty barrels per day, and it has also a malting capacity of one thousand bushels per day. At the beginning of the Civil War this business had assumed considerable proportions, and Mr. Stifel was on the high road to fortune. His business interests did not, however, prevent his tendering his services to the government as soon as it became apparent that an armed conflict was to take place between the supporters of the Union and those who sought to destroy it. Early in 1861, in anticipation of an outbreak in Missouri, he purchased about fifty muskets, and got together a company of one hundred men, to whom he began giving military instructions in the malt house connected with his brewery. When prompt action became necessary he organized a regiment within forty-eight hours, and on May 12th, the day after the capture of Camp Jackson, marched it to the arsenal, where it was regularly mustered into the United States service for three months by General Lyon. Of this regiment, which became known as the Fifth Regiment of the United States Reserve Corps, he became colonel. After receiving arms and other equipments at the arsenal, his regiment proceeded to a rendezvous in the north end of the city, and while passing up Walnut Street was attacked by a mob of secession sympathizers. Two of his soldiers were killed, and seven wounded, but the attack of the rioters was repelled with a loss of thirty-eight in killed and wounded. A week later he was ordered to report for duty at Boonville with three hundred men, and when General Lyon left that place for the South, a few days afterward, he was placed in command of Western Missouri and Kansas. He had two steamboats at his disposition, and an artillery equipment which consisted of two twelve-pound cannon and one sixty-eight pound howitzer, and with the forces under his command he determined to inaugurate active military operations. Confederate Colonel Joe Shelby was in camp fifteen miles below Lexington, Missouri, adding daily to the strength of his forces by enlistments. Colonel Stifel resolved to take Shelby by surprise, and planned an attack which should be made at day-break simultaneously by two detachments of his troops, one of which was dispatched by boat to the scene of the action, and the other by land. The movement was entirely successful, and, being under the impression that he was attacked by forces superior to his own, Shelby was completely routed. Later Colonel Stifel moved to the western part of the State, and fought a spirited engagement at Blue Mills, near Independence, routing the enemy and capturing that place. He continued in active service, having numerous skirmishes with the enemy for almost a month after the period for which he and his troops had enlisted. Being then relieved from duty, at Jefferson City, he returned to St. Louis with his command, and was mustered out of service. Afterward he reorganized the regiment, and, entering the three years' service, was in command of it for six months. Meantime his business affairs had been badly managed in St. Louis, and, feeling it imperative that he should give them some attention, he tendered his resignation. General Pope, under whom he was serving at the time, at first refused to accept it, telling him that he could not be spared from the service. Subsequently, however, when informed by Colonel Stifel that he was being financially ruined by the reckless conduct of his business in his absence from home, General Pope accepted his resignation, and he returned to St. Louis. It took him several years to regain what he had lost by his patriotic devotion to the government of his adopted country, but from that time forward he enjoyed continuous prosperity, and has long occupied a position among the wealthy and influential business men of St. Louis. In 1889 he disposed of his brewing interests to the great English syndicate which acquired so much property of this character in St. Louis, but he continued to manage the brewery which he had established and built up until his retirement from business, in 1892. Besides being a large property holder and a successful manufacturer, he was, during his active life, interested in various financial and other institutions, and for twenty years was president of the Northwestern Savings Bank of St. Louis. When he became a citizen of the United States he began voting with the Whig party, and, uniting with the great body of the Germans of the country in opposition to slavery, became a Republican later. He has ever since acted with that party, although he has never been a politician in the ordinary acceptance of that term, and has only once held a public office. This was in 1855, when he was a member of the upper branch of the city council. He was married, in 1847, to Miss Louise C. Stifel, and three children born of this marriage were living in 1897. His son, Otto Stifel, is well known in the city as a prominent man of affairs, and is vice-president of the St. Louis Brewing Association.”
[<i>Encyclopedia of the history of St. Louis : a compendium of history and biography for ready reference; </i>New York: Southern History Co., Haldeman, Conard & Co., proprietors, 1899, 3001 pgs., pages 2141-2143]
Note: Immigrated 1837. 1850 census St. Louis, Brewer and boarding, $3000 wor
|
