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Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
Portrait of Adam Lemp by Carl Wimar.
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Courtesy of the City of Eschwege
View of Lemp's rock cellar (lithograph). Adam Lemp is second from the left.
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Courtesy of Tourist-Information Eschwege
A typical home in Eschwege, Germany.
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Courtesy of Tourist-Information Eschwege
View of Eschwege.
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Courtesy of Tourist-Information Eschwege
View of the Landgrave's Castle, Eschwege. Adam Lemp's brewery was across the plaza from the castle.
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Courtesy of Tourist-Information Eschwege
View of the Market Plaza, Eschwege.
Johann Adam Lemp stands as one of the most influential figures in St. Louis history, the founder of what became a sprawling brewery with hundreds of employees. But the story of the German-American founder of the famous Lemp Brewery still lies shrouded in mystery in the Gateway City. Over the next several weeks, legal documents, newspaper articles and scholarly research published in German will weave the fascinating tale of a man that is far more complex and interesting than previously understood.
Johann Adam Lemp was born sometime between May 25, 17931 or May 20, 17982 in Grüningen-by-Gieβen, the son of Jeannette Gilbert Lemp and Wilhelm Christoph Lemp, in what is now the German state of Hesse. There were no official government birth certificates from that era, so the local Lutheran priest would have recorded Adam’s birth in church records.3 To complicate matters, Adam’s death certificate places his birth in 17964 and a German language guide to St. Louis claims 1797,5 so the exact date of his birth is still problematic. He was baptized on June 2, 1793.6 Wilheml Lemp was a brewer, and it has long been assumed that Adam learned the profession from his father.7 Records from this period can be difficult to locate, and in May 2017, when the author requested copies of the documents cited in an earlier article concerning his birth, the Lutheran Church in Germany could not find them.8 New research has revealed that since Adam’s father died when his son was 13 years old, that surely other brewers in Grüningen must have taken over his education before he moved to Eschwege.9
Central Europe was convulsed in war, as Napoleon battled against various coalitions of Great Powers who tried and failed to prevent the French leader’s rapid conquests of the small, disorganized states of the Holy Roman Empire. In fact, it is highly likely that a young Adam’s childhood was deeply affected by the violence of the times, and Grüningen probably frequently saw both French and other nations’ armies passing through the centrally-located Hesse.10 By the time Adam moved to Eschwege to work at the city brewery at the age of 18, Napoleon had been defeated, Hesse had been restored by the victorious allies as two states, Electoral Hesse-Kassel and the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, and a semblance of normalcy probably returned to the region for the time being.11
On July 16, 1816, Adam married the first of his three wives, Anna Elisabeth Clermont (or Clermund and Klermund). She was older, having been born in Eschwege June 1, 1792. As will be common with many of the figures in Adam’s life, spelling is not uniform, and names frequently are interchanged between their German and French variants, illustrating the influence of Napoleon’s interventions in Hesse. Anna was the daughter of Heinrich Wilhelm Clermont, a clothmaker, and Catharina Elisabeth Reinfurt Clermont. She gave Adam one daughter, Jeannette (or Johannette) Catherina, before tragically dying on March 28, 1832, at the age of 40.12 Adam and his family had been living at 9 Herrengasse in Eschwege at the time.13
Adam married his second wife only three months later on Aug 11, 1832 to Justina Anna Charlotte Baum,14 or a year later on the same date in 1833. Justina was born on May 8, 1811, the daughter of Johannes Baum and his second wife Martha Walter Baum, from nearby Treffurt. Justina bore Adam two sons; Wilhelm was born on May 24, 1834, and Jacob was born on February 21, 1836. The younger son’s namesake, Jacob, came from his mother’s brother, who was his godfather. Tragedy struck Adam’s family on December 12, 1838, when Wilhelm died at the age of four. Jacob would take his older brother’s anglicized name by the time he arrived in St. Louis in 1848, and the rest is history, as Adam’s younger son became known as William Jacob Lemp.15
Meanwhile, 1836 was turning into a pivotal year in Adam’s life. His mother died Feb 17, 1836 at the age of 76, in Eschwege; apparently, she had followed her son at some point, sometime after her husband died.16 And a series of poor business decisions and heart-wrenching personal choices in the years leading up to 1836 would change Adam and his family’s lives forever. Already at his house at 9 Herengasse in Eschwege, Adam had been brewing beer between 1832 and 1834; he was also apparently operating a restaurant, Das goldene Faβ (The Golden Barrel), at Schloβplatz 7 in 1834. Adam seems to have been struggling at remaining focused, as he also opened the Lemp Rock Cellar, on the Reichensächser Straβe ten minutes outside of town on the road to Kassel, an apparently failed venture that further damaged his finances.17
“He left Eschwege for America, leaving behind his wife, children and many debts,” reports a document found by Jürgen Beck in the State Archives of Marburg, Germany. Adam most likely indeed fled Eschwege due to pressure from his creditors.18 A later document published by Christy Hawes Bond states that his wife Justina actually left him.19 However, that is almost certainly incorrect, as other evidence supports that Adam did in fact abandon his wife and son. A newspaper advertisement published in a German national newspaper reads thus:
“Family News: I urge my husband, brewer Johann Adam Lemp, who fled from here in 1836, to return to me at once to resume his marital duties. Eschwege, October 30, 1841, Justine Marie Charlotte Lemp, née Baum.”20
Confusion still remains around when and where Adam was between 1836 and 1840, when Lemp Brewery publications claim he founded his brewery in St. Louis.21 The Lemp family later would later become the subject of several biographies in the late Nineteenth Century and the dates for his arrival range from arrival in St. Louis in 1836,22 in 1838,23 opening his brewery in 1838,24 arriving in 1839,25 opening his brewery in 1840,26 or even 1841.27 The city directory of 1840-41 lists Adam’s address as “Lemp, A. & Co., family grocery, corner of Sixth and Morgan.”28 There are also unverified claims he stopped in Cincinnati first before reaching St. Louis.29
Regardless, life continued for Justina and her son William. Records show she still owned some sort of interest or concession in the Rock Cellar, her husband’s final venture in Eschwege.30 If Adam had fled due to his creditors’ pressure, continued ownership hardly could have been financially beneficial. Justina remarried, after receiving a divorce from Adam (the aforementioned advertisement was most likely a necessary legal step to obtain a divorce), on July 25, 1843, to brewer Georg Ludwig Aulepp, who was born July 4, 1812, most likely in Ülzen, where his parents hailed.31 It is interesting that Aulepp was also a brewer; perhaps the marriage allowed for the repayment of her first husband’s debts by having her second husband take over the brewery. Adam had not forgotten his son, and even attempted to have an associate fetch William while the man was traveling in Hesse. That attempt ended in a lawsuit when the man sued Adam for payment of the $100; the brewer objected to paying since his ex-wife had refused to let William leave.32
William did in fact leave in 1848,33 having been “brought” by his father, becoming the foreman and manager at his brewery.34 At least one later publication would perpetuate the face-saving myth that William came with Adam in the 1830s.35 William would later visit Eschwege around Aug. 3, 1858.36 When her second husband Georg Aulepp died on May 19, 1853, Justina apparently went to America, looking for Adam; after all, her son William had already left Eschwege, and she probably possessed no means of financial support.37 At this point, her trail goes cold. Did she make it to St. Louis? There is no documentation of her living in St. Louis, and Adam had already married his third wife, Louise Bauer.38 It is hard to believe that William would have allowed his mother to live in secret in St. Louis. Then there is a mysterious painting purported to be her in the collection of the Missouri History Museum which the author will discuss at a later date.39
Despite his family troubles, Adam was now enjoying the success he could never find back in Hesse. Next week, we examine the rise of his brewery on the riverfront, as Lemp brings lager beer to St. Louis.
[1] ; Bond, Christy Hawes. Gateway Families: Ancestors and Descendants of Richard Simrall Hawes III and Marie Christy Johnson. 1994, p. 103; Stumpf, Nikola. “From Rags to Riches, The Early Years of Johann Adam Lemp (1793-1892), Brewer in St. Louis, Missouri,” Pohlheim Archive, June 30, 2016. Thanks to Dorris Keeven-Franke for providing the article to the author.
[2] Beck, Jürgen, “Ein Eschweger Bierbrauer Erobert Amerika,” Eschweger Geschichtsblätter, No. 20 (2009), 49. The Adam Lemp burial monument in Bellefontaine Cemetery also lists May 20, 1798 as his birth date. Since cemetery staff do not handle the purchase and construction of monuments, the answer to who erected the monument, and the rationale for the date of birth inscribed on it, is unknown. One should also note that the Lemp family has at least one documented death date manipulated in stone. Dan Fuller of Bellefontaine Cemetery recently discovered that the death date of Adam Lemp’s grandson, Frederick, was inscribed in the Lemp Mausoleum as the December 12, 1901, even though his death certificate lists December 13, 1901
[3] E-mail from York-Egbert König, Eschwege city historian, to author, dated June 16, 2017.
[4] City of St. Louis Certificate of Death, dated Aug. 23, 1862.
[5] Kargau, Ernst. St. Louis in früheren Jahre: Ein Gedenkbuch für Deutschthum. St. Louis: August Wiebusch & Sohn Printing Co., 1893, P. 353.
[6] Bond, 103.
[7] Beck, 49.
[8] Letter from Annette Schnarchendorff, Zentral Archiv, Evangelische Kirche in Hessen und Nassau, dated May 30, 2017.
[9] Stumpf, “From Rags to Riches…”
[10] Sauzey, Jean-Camille Abel-Fleuri. Campagnes du Contingent de Hesse-Darmstaft, sous le Premier Empire, 1901-12.
[11] Beck, 49.
[12] Bond, 107.
[13] Beck, 49.
[14] Bond,103; König, June 16, 2017.
[15] Beck, 49.
[16] König, June 16, 2017.
[17] Beck, 49-50.
[18] Ibid, 50.
[19] Bond, 105.
[20] “Familiennachrichten,” Allgemeiner Anzeiger und Nationalzeitung, No. 303 (November 6, 1841) p. 3950; reprinted verbatim in No. 310 (November 13, 1841) p. 4044.
[21] Lemp Columbian Exposition Souvenir Book, 1893.
[22] Hyde, William, and Howard Louis Conrad. “William J. Lemp,” Encyclopedia of the History of St Louis, Vol. 3 (New York: The Southern History Company, 1899) p. 1255.
[23] Beck, 51; Derby, George and James Terry White. The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. XII. New York: James White & Company, 1904. p. 36; Kargau, 352.
[24] Hyde and Conrad, 1255; “St. Louis and Beer: German Influx of 1848 Gave Real Impetus to Industry,” The St. Louis Star and Times, Wednesday, June 6, 1934.
[25] “Growth in Beer Trade has No Parallel,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sunday, July 18, 1909.
[26] Hyde and Conrad, 1255; “Growth in Beer Trade has No Parallel,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sunday, July 18, 1909; One Hundred Years of Brewing. New York: H.S. Rich & Co., 1900. P. 166; Compton, Richard J., and Camille Dry. Pictorial St. Louis, the Great Metropolis of the Mississippi Valley; A Topographical Survey Drawn in Perspective. St. Louis: Compton and Co., 1876. P. 191; Kargau, 353.
[27] Schard, John Thomas, “Trade, Commerce and Manufacturers,” History of Saint Louis City and County: From the Earliest Periods to the Present Day: Including Biographical Sketches of Representative Men, Vol. 2 (St. Louis: L.H. Everts, 1883) p. 1330.
[28] 1840-1 St. Louis City Directory.
[29] Bond, 105.
[30] Beck, 51.
[31] König, June 16, 2017.
[32] Streiblein vs. Adam Lemp, December 14, 1848. Copy of lawsuit provided to the author by Stephen Walker.
[33] William Lemp’s naturalizations papers.
[34] Hyde and Conrad, 1255; Waterworth, Edward B. and William Marion Reedy, ed. The Makers of St. Louis. St. Louis: The Mirror, 1906. p. 69.
[35] Reavis, L.U. Saint Louis, the Commercial Metropolis of the Mississippi Valley. St. Louis: Tribune Publishing Company, 1874, p. 187.
[36] William Lemp United States Passport, showing stamp from Leipzig, Saxony authorities authorizing his departure from that city to Eschwege, Hesse. Missouri History Museum Archives.
[37] E-mail from York-Egbert König, Eschwege city historian, to author, dated June 16, 2017.
[38] Bond, 105.
[39] Portrait of “Justina Clermont Lemp,” by Carl Wimar, 1858. Missouri History Museum Accession Number: 1971-034-0003. Donated by Edwin Lemp.
The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following people and organizations: Jürgen Beck, Franki Cambeletta, Dorris Keeven-Franke, David Mullgardt, Stephen Walker; Dan Fuller and Richard Lay at Bellefontaine Cemetery; Jaime Bourassa, Shannon Meyer, Dennis Northcott, Anne Woodhouse and others at the Missouri History Museum and Archives; Miriam Gerke and York-Egbert König at the City of Eschwege; Annette Schnarchendorff at the Evangelische Kirche in Hessen und Nassau; and Katrin Marx-Jaskulski at the Hessisches Landesarchiv – Personenstandsarchiv.
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via email at naffziger@gmail.com.
