John Jacob Blauner (1869–1944)

John Jacob Blauner was born on 8 January 1869 in Bern, Switzerland, to Anna Moser and Jakob Blauner. The family immigrated to Newark, New Jersey around 1874 and relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, by 1876.

The Blauner family lived at 2124 Carondelet Avenue in St. Louis in 1877 and at 1413 Kosciusko Street in 1880. John’s father, Jakob Blauner, died in St. Louis City Hospital on 27 November 1876. It appears that sometime in the 1880s, John and his two older brothers, Robert and Fred, and three younger sisters, Caroline, Louisa, and Bertha, also lost their mother. The boys went to work at C. Hager and Sons Hinge Company. By 1885, John was working as an engraver for the Haskell Engraving Company. He worked there off and on until at least 1908, and his occupation during these years was sometimes listed as machinist. By 1910, John was a foreman at S. G. Adams Metal Works, and he continued working there until at least 1940.

In 1892, John married Ida Schubert, daughter of Christiana Seabright and Ferdinand John Schubert. Ida was born on 10 September 1872 in Wheeling, West Virginia. Like the Blauners, the Schubert family also moved to St. Louis in the 1870s.

John and Ida Blauner had three children:

• • Ida Viola “Vi” Blauner (21 February 1894–1 June 1979)
  • Walter J. Blauner (10 October 1895–17 June 1897)
  • Clara E. Blauner (20 June 1904–9 September 1988)

From at least 1894 until 1920, the Blauner family lived at 4218A Iowa Avenue in the city of St. Louis with Schubert relatives as their neighbors. By 1925, the Blauners had moved into their home at 4528 S. Grand Boulevard. Ida died there on 25 April 1925 and was buried in Old St. Marcus Cemetery.

Clara Blauner and her husband Ludwig “Louis” Wilhelm Martin Knippenberg and their daughter Rhoda lived with John Blauner for a time. Rhoda Knippenberg (1927–2016) described her grandfather as a gentle, quiet man who smoked a pipe. After supper, Rhoda and her grandfather would sit at the kitchen table and listen to the radio together. John Blauner and his son-in-law Louis Knippenberg made home brew in the basement of the house on Grand Boulevard during Prohibition. Rhoda’s job was to put caps on the bottles. John had an aluminum bucket that would hold a bottle of beer. He would drink that one bottle and eat crackers and raw oysters. Rhoda had a little mug that would hold a couple of swallows of beer.

On 20 June 1939, John married his second wife, Mary Lewis Horridge (1886–1962). Mary was a widow with one daughter, Margaret. John died on 18 March 1944 in his Grand Boulevard home and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Written by Barbara Quigley, great-granddaughter
February 2025

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