The Clothing Industry - A Family Tradition

It seems that most of my grandmother's family was involved in the clothing industry.  Whether it be millinery work, tailoring, or selling, these career choices keep appearing in the stories of my ancestors.  Another interesting fact is that it is through this line of work that my family lines intertwine and their names become a large part of Ripley's history.  

As I have written before, the Thill family brought their hat making skills to this country from the Alsace region of France which helped them establish a foothold in the Cincinnati business world.  As his mother's son, Nicholas Becker, Jr. continued the path and created a secure future for his son as Louis later followd in his father's footsteps.  

My great-grandmother, Amy Montgomery Becker's maternal grandfather was a gentleman from Germany named Michael Linn.   Upon his arrival in Ripley in 1855, Michael established the M. Linn General Store on Main Street selling clothing and other items.  When Michael died in 1910, his son, William F. Linn, along with two of his brothers, continued running the store which at that point was called M. Linn and Co. Dry Goods.    

After Amy and Louis's marriage in 1911, they lived in Stuebenville, Ohio where Louis was employed as a clothing salesman.  They returned to Ripley in 1922, at which time, Louis purchased M. Linn Clothing Store presumably from William F. who had opened another store, Linn's Men and Boy's Clothing also on Main Street.  Louis renamed his new store Becker's Department Store.

I'm not sure when Catherine's millinery shop on Second Street closed, but with Louis's purchase of M. Linn's Clothing, the family's tradition of work found in the clothing industry continued and these two families, the Linn's and the Becker's, would come to play an important part in the economy, and therefore the history, of Ripley, Ohio.

The advertisements for M. Linn & Co. were found in The Ripley Bee newspaper in 1911.  

      

The facts about the establishment of M. Linn's and Becker's Department Store were found in my great-grandfather, Louis's obituary and the book, Ripley, Ohio - Its History and Families published and compiled by the Sesquicentennial Historical Committee for the 1962 celebration of Ripley's Sequicentennial. 

Inside the Hat Store

Last week I posted a picture showing the outside of my ggg-grandmother's millinery shop.  Today's picture is of the inside, as well as a family portrait.  The photograph is not labeled so there was some investigative work to do before I could name the people.  The "investigative team" was made up of my mom, her sister, and myself.  We aren't professionals, but I think we hit the correct identifications.  Having the twins in the picture was a huge help!  My mother also recognized her grandfather, Louis, as a child which helped a lot, too!

There is no date on the photograph, but the twins, Edith and Ethel, standing in their plaid dresses, helps to give an approximate year when it was taken.  Their birth year was 1890, and I think they look about three.  

That's their brother, Louis, standing to the left.  He must have been about five or six years old.  His grandmother, Catherine Thill Becker, is seated next to him while her son, Nicholas, Jr. is standing behind her.  I'm not absolutely sure, but it is logical that the lady next to Nicholas, Jr. is his wife, Anna Beyersdoerfer Becker.  She and Nicholas were my great great grandparents and the parents of Louis and the twins. 

The older gentleman sitting next to the twins is most likely Nicholas Becker, Sr., husband of Catherine.  We do not know for sure who the lady standing in the right corner behind him is, but I have my guesses.  I think she might be Anna's sister, Flora.  In the 1900 census, Flora is listed as a milliner.  She and Anna were very close right up to their deaths, having died only months apart.

The store seems quite small and crowded.  In later years, it would become a living area for the Becker family once the store, at that location, was closed.  Looking at all the cases and mirrors, I can just imagine the ladies of Ripley coming in to pick out the ribbons and other notions to adorn their hats.  

I'd like to thank my cousin, Nick Renneker, and his sister, Patsy, for sending me the pictures of the hat store.  We share Nicholas and Anna as their great, and my great-great, grandparents, yet only came to "find" one another last year through Ancestry.com.   It truly pays to share your family history through genealogy sites such as Ancestry, Footnote, Genealogybank, etc.  You never know who and what will come your way!   

Becker's Millinery Store

In 1866, Nicholas Becker opened a millinery store on Second Street in Ripley, Ohio.  He, his wife, Catherine, and son, Nicholas, Jr. had settled in the small town just two years earlier.

Catherine, whose maiden name was Thill, had come from a family of hat makers.  Her father, Nicholas, and her brothers, George and Joseph, owned and operated hat stores in Cincinnati.  In 1876, a men's hat and cap department was added to the Second Street store.  Nicholas, Jr. conducted that aspect of the business along side his mother who still operated the millinery shop.

Located on Second Street, the store served as both business and home.  Nicholas, Catherine, and their son's family all lived upstairs above the store.  It must have been tight quarters as Nicholas, Jr. and his wife, Anna Beyersdoerfer, were the parents of three children, Louis, Edith, and Ethel.

I do not know the date of this photograph, but I am fairly sure that the older lady on the sidewalk is Catherine.  I believe the man standing next to her is her son, Nicholas.  The other ladies were possibly employees of the store and I do not know who the young men are.  I am very curious as to who is looking out of the second story window.  I would assume it is a family member or housekeeper.  The 1900 census lists a housekeeper named Anna Fauth.  Or maybe it is Anna Beyersdoerfer Becker.  I will have to read up on techniques for dating photographs and then maybe I will have more of an educated guess.

Mary B. Thill

I have been so busy just researching these Thill's. They were a prolific bunch! I've taken one child of Nicholas's to research at a time and have added quite a few cousins to my tree. As usual, there are some that tug at me for various reasons.

One such new cousin is Mary B. Thill. She was the daughter of Joseph and Mary (Strassel) Thill. I am hoping her middle initial "B" is for Barbara, her grandmother, but chances are, I'll never find out.

Mary, born January 28, 1871, was the first child of Joseph and Mary. The little I know about her, I have discovered from the census data. She is listed in each census year from 1880 until 1930, the exception being 1890 which was destroyed in a fire. In 1900, she can be found still living with her parents as she never married. When her father died sometime between 1900 and 1910, she continued living with Clara, her sister, Joseph, her brother and her mother. When Joseph married, she and Clara, along with their mother were still living in the family house on Loth Street, where they had been living since about Mary's birth.

Mary and Clara's mother died sometime after 1920. Mary and Clara must have sold the Loth Street house as they are found in the 1930 census living at 3229 Glendora Avenue. Also living in the house were owners, Edward and Henrietta Etterer. Mary made her living as a dressmaker while Clara worked as a bookkeeper in a gymnasium.

The last record I have about Mary is her death certificate. She died at the age of 62 from cirrhosis of the liver on June 9, 1933. Clara, her sister, was the informant.

As I got to know Mary through my research I found myself wondering what her life was like. I have no other resources that can help flesh out her day to day life. Was she happy? Did she enjoy life? Hopefully, through my research I will come across a living relative who might have knowledge or an artifact from Mary's life. It might sound far-fetched, but you just never know what will come your way through this hobby of genealogy.

The Thill's - Dealers of Hats

I have been finding a lot of information about my newly discovered Thill family. In all my findings, which for now are mostly censuses, Nikolaus, my 4-greats-grandfather, and his sons are listed as dealers of hats. One indication of the influence the Thill family had on Cincinnati can be found in the Cincinnati City Directories. The page on the left is from 1878-79. The one on the right is from 1888 - 89.

The Thill occupation of dealing with hats did not come as a surprise to me as I had known all along that his daughter, Catharine Thill Becker, had been a milliner. My mother had told me how Catharine had a hat shop on Second Street in Ripley and thanks to a cousin in Texas, I even have some pictures of the shop and Catharine. I'll be posting them later.

The Thill Connection - At Last!

For many years I have been trying to find proof that Catharine Thill Becker's parents were Nicholas and Mary (Matz) Thill. Catharine's death certificate said so, but I wanted something other than a death certificate. The problem with a death certificate is that who knows who gave the information and, maybe, just maybe, they really had no idea the names of parents or where they were born, or anything! A genealogist would never use a death certificate for proof of anything other than the actual death of a person so for years, I looked and looked with no luck.

About a year and a half ago, I stumbled on a website that had a family tree which included a Josephine Thill Kleiman. Josephine's parents were Nicholas and Barbara (Matz) Thill. They even lived in Cincinnati. Very excited, I emailed the owner of the page asking about his Josephine. I mean, how much closer could you get? Sure, the mother's name was Barbara, not Mary, but I really felt as if I had found a vital clue. A return email was very nice, but did not have any information that tied my Catharine to his Josephine. I still had to find proof.

Then, lo and behold, I found the Hamilton County Probate Court web site that I wrote about in a previous post. I quickly read how the wills were organized and made my way to the T's...and there he was! A Nicholas Thill was right there in the index! Back on the Wills main page, I entered the Volume and Page Number in the boxes, hit my Enter key, and in a few seconds, there was the will, all four pages, in very small cursive writing.

Thank goodness for a zoom button because I would not have been able to read the screen without it! I scanned through the first page which was legal probate information and made my way to the second page where the word "Will" was written. The first name I noticed was a daughter Mary Ann Miller who received the majority of Nicholas's property including real estate and furniture. Further down the page was the name of his son, George, and then I read Josephine Kleimann's name. I made a mental note to contact the aforementioned fellow as I was sure he would want to see this will.

Next came a son, Joseph, then a son, Nicholas. At this point, my fingers were crossed, and I was saying a little prayer when there she appeared! Catharine Becker, nee Thill! Her father had requested that a promissory note for the $1400 that was owed to him by her, be destroyed. I found her! After all those years, she had been hiding on a piece of paper in a courthouse.

I had the proof I needed to connect Catharine not only to her father, Nicholas, but also to siblings. True, I still don't know her mother's rightful name, although with the information in the will, I was able to locate the family in the 1860 census, where her mother is listed as Barbara. I'm not sure why Mary is on the death certificate. Maybe Barbara went by the name of Mary or maybe Catharine's son thought his grandmother's name was Mary. I don't know, but I intend to try and find out. As for her last name being Matz, Nicholas's will also mentions a Nicholas Matz as receiving money so maybe there is a connection there. I don't know yet, but with my finding this one will, I now have so much more to research and discover.

Marriage Record of Nicholas Becker and Catherine Thill

Some days you just get lucky! Hamilton County, Ohio put a lot of records on their probate court web site. There are wills, births, marriages, deaths, and other goodies to explore. I haven't had time to really dig yet, but I did find the marriage record for Nicholas Becker and Catharine Thill. They were married in Cincinnati at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on September 16, 1860.

Two Beyersdoerfer Sisters

Anna and Flora Beyersdoerfer were daughters of Michael and Elizabeth (Wenser/Young) Beyersdoerfer. They also had a brother, Conrad, and a sister, Ida.

Anna, six years older than Flora, was born September 26, 1864. Flora's birthday was February 20, 1870. Both girls were born in Ripley, Ohio and spent their entire lives in the small town.

In 1883, Anna married Nicholas Becker. They made their home on Second Street and would become the parents of three children, Louis, and twins, Ethel, and Edith. The children's Aunt Flora would remain single, living with her parents. In 1900, the census reported that Flora worked as a milliner most likely with Anna's mother-in-law, Catherine Thill Becker.

Anna and Flora died in 1950, only a little more than two months apart. Anna in February and Flora in May. Both are buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Ripley.

Photo courtesy of Nick Renneker.

A Fateful Trip on the Magnolia

The small town of Ripley, Ohio is located about fifty miles east of Cincinnati, and in 1868, one option for travel between the two cities was by steamer on the Ohio River. One such steamer, the Magnolia, was a popular mail line packet that regularly traveled between Maysville, Kentucky and Cincinnati.

My great-great-great grandmother, Catherine Thill, came to this country in 1848 from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France. She was twelve years old. Her family settled in Cincinnati where, in 1860, she married Nicholas Becker. By 1864, Nicholas, Catherine and their young son, Nicholas, Jr. moved to Ripley where they spent the remainder of their lives.

On Wednesday, March 18, 1868, Catherine and Nicholas, Jr., having spent time in Cincinnati, were returning to Ripley aboard the steamer Magnolia. They were just two of the 145 passengers and crew on board that day. As the Magnolia passed by the small Kentucky village of California, a horrible explosion occurred. Many were burned, drowned, or otherwise injured.

Luckily, Catherine and Nicholas, Jr. were not injured. They and the other unharmed passengers were taken by rescuers in skiffs to California. Between eighty and ninety people lost their lives in the terrible accident, including several citizens of Ripley.

An account of this incident can be found on Riverboat Dave's Paddlewheel Site. His account is taken from an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer, however, the date on the site is incorrect. In March of 1868, the 17th was a Tuesday, not a Thursday. A list of passengers and crew are also on the site, however, there is no mention of Catherine Becker or her son, Nicholas. A Mrs. Baker, of Ripley, is mentioned. I believe this to be a misspelling of Becker.

My information about this story can be found in the book Historical Collections of Brown County, Ohio compiled by Carl N. Thompson, copyright 1969. Mr. Thompson's story of the Magnolia accident was obtained from the Martin Family History, published in the Ripley Bee in 1928. It includes Catherine Becker and states

"Mrs. Becker, who is now about 91 years of age (1928) had her eight year old son with her, now a well known citizen of Ripley."

A Family With Deep Roots in Ohio

As I start this blog, I guess it's best to start with the basics - the who and the where. As time goes by, the details will emerge. This blog will focus on my maternal line - a diverse group of families. Represented in this line are Germans, Scotch - Irish, English, and French. Some first settled in the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania and went on to fight for freedon from the English crown. Others made the difficult decision to cross an ocean in the mid-1800's in hope of making a new life in this country. Today, their descendents can be found all across the United States, but the roots are deep in the soil of southwestern Ohio.

This blog will include stories, photographs, and vital statistics of the following families and those connected to them.

• Bauer
  
• Becker
  
• Beyersdoerfer

• Gates
  
• Germann
  
• Guy
  
• Haitz
  
• Koewler
  
• Linn
  
• Montgomery
  
• Thill

I am looking forward to sharing this family with you. They are an interesting group of people!
Until later!