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Courtesy of Patricia von zur Muehlin
Agnes Konert
We asked you about your own family histories, and Patricia Konert von zur Muehlen contacted us to point out the long tradition of “German immigrant women or their daughters working as housekeepers for wealthy families in the city.”
Her aunt and godmother, Agnes Konert, first worked for “a family that borrowed money from her and then could not pay her back, because of the 1929 Crash.” Then Agnes went to work as a housekeeper for Eugene Benoist’s daughter, Viola Benoist Fisher. Viola had married George Dunbar Fisher, the son of a Canadian squire, and he’d founded the Fisher Optical Company in St. Louis in 1911.
Agnes was “totally devoted to Viola as her personal maid, cook, and housekeeper,” von zur Muehlen writes. “Thirty years of 24-hour shifts in someone’s home is a long time of mutually sharing experiences. I never heard my dear aunt utter a word of complaint about the lady she always referred to as ‘the Madame.’
“Aunt Agnes did not drive,” von zur Muehlen continues. “She stayed in the city during the week and came home on weekends, taking a bus, as I recall, and walking from old Highway 21 down the hill to the Konert farm in Jefferson County. She often had packages of meats such as souse, blood sausage, head cheese, and Braunschweiger purchased at some market in the city, perhaps Soulard.
After Viola’s death, Agnes retired and “lived out her life on the farm where she was born. There were three Konert farms on Konert Road: Gerhard Konert (Agnes’ father), John Konert, and Ben Konert. Two of the log homes of the original immigrants are still intact and in use.” The Konerts, along with four other families, came to this country from Westphalia, in the Kingdom of Prussia, in 1846. This group of five families joined 14 German-speaking families from various places in central Europe (Alsace, Lorraine, Rhenish-Prussia, Rhenish-Bavaria, Baden, and Bavaria). The small community had founded the Immaculate Conception Parish in 1840, in what is now Arnold, Mo. Until 1846, they comprised the entire parish.
Aunt Agnes’ aunt was a housekeeper in the 1880s, and von zur Muehlen’s mother, Margaret Stetina Konert, worked as a maid for the Muckerman family in Webster Groves when she was in her teens. One of John Konert’s sisters, Marie, also became a housekeeper—for the Freund family, Czech Jews who owned the Freund Bakery. “When they held formal parties, she had to serve in a formal gown. And when Marie was old and in a nursing home, one member of the Freund family was a frequent visitor.
“So that tradition of the immigrants and children of immigrants being recruited as household staff continued to yet another generation,” von zur Muehlen writes. “I myself have worked as a housekeeper since 1992, proudly carrying on the tradition. I currently work part-time for a lovely lady who is a direct descendant of John Mullanphy and granddaughter of Katharine Boland Clemens.”
Katharine married into the Clemens branch of the Mullanphys—best known for the leaf named Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain. Her memoir, Gardens and Books, was full of “interesting information about the lifestyle of the lady of the house and the household staff,” von zur Muehlen reports. “They gave their hand-me-down clothes to the maids—but stipulated that they never be worn in their presence.” Also, when entertaining the famous pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch and his wife, Clara (Mark Twain’s daughter), Katherine had the piano removed from the greatroom so that no one would impose upon Gabrilowitsch by begging him to play.
“I love that story,” von zur Muehlen says.
