Gustav Ohmer, 1870–1958

Gustav Ohmer was born in Herxheim, Germany, in 1870. Gustav, fourteen, and his older brother, Karl (Charles) Ohmer, fifteen, arrived in America via Castle Garden, New York, on 31 October 1884 on the Rhein & Maasdam. They then travelled to St. John’s in Collegeville, Minnesota, where they both spent one semester before they left to make their lives in America. They left behind their younger brother Jacob Eduard (Edward F.) and parents Franz Carl and Anna Maria Ohmer, all in Germany. Edward arrived in St. Louis in the 1890s and all are buried at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis. Franz passed in Germany in 1902 and Anna Maria arrived in St. Louis in 1904.

Gustav found his career as a baker/confectioner in Ottumwa, Iowa, and married Mary Dennebrink prior to his arrival in St. Louis in 1898. Not much is known about Gustav and his brother Karl or their whereabouts from 1885 to 1898. After 1898, St. Louis was their home. Karl never married and it appeared that his life’s work was as a riverboat dockhand. Eduard arrived in St. Louis in the 1890s, married Amelia Schroeder, and they had one son, but all have passed and are buried at Calvary. Eduard may have been a teamster; his last known address was on Pennsylvania, a couple of blocks south of Anheuser Busch Brewery.

Gustav’s first address in St. Louis was 2402-2405 South Broadway and nothing is known about this location, other than it is just north of the Anheuser-Busch complex. As his family expanded, he had a house on Indiana Street, close to St. Francis de Sales Church, then on to Sidney Street close to St. Agnes Church. Marie was the Ohmers’ oldest child and was baptized at Assumption Church at the corner of Sidney and 9th (now Humboldt Academy).

In 1905, while living on Indiana Street, Maria Ohmer met a tragic death crossing Gravois on her way to a St. Francis de Sales Lenten Service. In 1914, Agnes was born just west of St. Agnes Church on Sidney Street. Agnes (Ohmer) Chase attended Loretto Academy and in 1943, Agnes was married to Marcellus Chase by Reverend Sullivan at the Ohmer church rectory of Immaculate Conception. This was just prior to Marcellus’s departure for WWII military service in the Pacific. In 1917, the Ohmers moved to Nebraska Street, where the family lived until 1989. This was the location of many family gatherings including Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and many other special events.

The Ohmer family included nine siblings: Marie, 1899; Charles, 1901; Lillian, 1904; Eddie, 1907; Gus, 1909; Wal, 1911; Agnes, 1914; Harold, 1918; and Russell, 1920. The family has grown to six generations and almost 150 descendants from Gustav and Mary (Dennebrink) Ohmer. All of the first and second generation family members of the Ohmer, Chase, and Callahan families found their final resting place at one of the following cemeteries: Calvary, Resurrection, Assumption, Jefferson Barracks, or Sunset Burial Park.

Written by Michael Chase
November 2020

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