Draft:Oscar C. Wehle: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Line 27:

==Early life: family, formation, and fraternity==

Oscar Charles Wehle was born in Louisville Kentucky ten years after his father Wilhelm Wehle (1809 - 1881) emigrated to the United States from [[Prague]] [[Bohemia]]. Wilhelm, later William, was with a party of over twenty kin arriving together inat New York City in May 1849,<ref> Campbell, Scott. The Brandeis Family and Madison Indiana. The Brandeis and Harlan papers at the University of Louisville Law Library. Scott Campbell is archivist of the Brandeis and Harlan papers at the University of Louisville Law Library</ref> <ref>New York, Passenger Lists, 1820 - 1957 [Ancestry.com. database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C. Year: 1849; Arrival: New York, New York (from Bremen and Southhampton); Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 079; Line: 39 (should be 79); List Number: 495.</ref> in the wake of the failed [[Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire]]. Several of the Wehle extended family had participated in the Prague insurrection. "The Wehles were one of the aristocratic old Jewish families of Prague [who] took a leading part in the [[Sabbateans]] group",<ref>Scholem, Gershom. A Sabbathaian Will from New York. From Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England), Vol. 5 (1948), pp. 193-211

Published by: Jewish Historical Society of England</ref> a small and short-lived, messianic and reformist offshoot from Judaism at the time. Oscar's grandfather Aaron Beer Wehle (1759 - 1825) was a leading rabbi of the Prague sect. The Wehles proceeded from New York to the Ohio valley, first settling at Madison IN before moving on to Louisville KY.<ref> Campbell, Scott</ref> Oscar's mother, Rosa Tachau (b. 1831), Jewish and 22 years younger than Oscar

s father, was born in the Danish/German border region.<ref>The Tachau family arrived in Louisville around the year 1848. Rosa's gravestone identifies the city [[Friedrichstadt]] & duchy of Schleswig for her birth.</ref> Besides Oscar, there were five other children in the family: Alice, Emma, Bertha, Edwin H. and Ernest C, all born in Kentucky and all but Alice were younger than Oscar.<ref>1870 US Census</ref> The Wehle children attended the Louisville public schools, however, nothing is known of Oscar's formal education beyond high school.

Line 51:

From this excerpt a reader may infer that Rosa's contemporaries viewed the Wehles as a large family without the means for an easy life and that Wilhelm, then dead only three years (1881), had not been a reliable primary bread winner for the household.

Also formative in Oscar's youth was the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), which brought as many as 100,000 Union troops through the city of Louisville Kentucky.<ref>University of Louisville. Freedom Park, Historical Obelisks, text: ''The Civil War 1863 - 1865'' </ref> A Union army presenceforce would remain in Louisville after the war through the end of the same decade and into the early 1870s to recruit and train African American men at the [[Taylor Barracks (Kentucky)]] for soldiering out in the western plains,. and forFor Oscar, as for most Louisvillians, a military presence would have been a commonplace in city life. Of note, in mid 1861, after a state of insurrection was declared, Oscar's father, Wilhelm, a merchant of wines, liquors, and Hungarian cigars<ref>Daily Courier (Louisville), Feb. 14, 1852 ''Friends of Kossuth''</ref> was implicated in the smuggling of contraband (a load of pistols) on the railroad from Cincinnati to Louisville. Wilhelm was identified as being "of the Hebrew fraternity" and having fled on being confronted by authorities. <ref>LOUISVILLE DAILY JOURNAL - JULY 22, 1861 P. 3</ref>

From age 18 onward, Oscar Wehle identifies and associates himself with available militia culture through enlistment or employment, whether sporadic or continuous is not yet known, in the Kentucky State Guard,<ref>"'Muster Roll of the Louisville Legion"' (State Guard, Co. A)</ref> Kentucky Federal Militia,<ref>History of the Ohio Falls Counties: Militia of 1880; also, 1881 Kentucky Legislative Document No. 11, Report of Adjutant General, p.26</ref> U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,<ref>Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 9, 1881, p.5</ref> and the U.S. Army regular infantry during the [[Spanish-American War with Spain]], this final enlistment seeming especially odd as he was nearly 40 years old in 1898. (Immediately felled by illness, heit wasis unableunlikely tohe serve insaw action.)<ref>The Official Roster of Ohio Soldiers in the War with Spain 1898-1899. Pub. Edward T. Miller Co. Columbus OH. 1916, p. 387</ref> See [[Timeline of the Spanish–American War]].) As a bachelor and sporting man of his times, Oscar's adult life outlines a preference for the manly world of the military regiment, the outdoor sportsman's life<ref>See the magazines Western

Field and Forest & Stream for O.C. Wehle contributions from 1908 through the following decade.</ref> and, as well, homosocial societies like the Young Hebrew Men's Association or YMHA,<ref>The YMHA publication ''The Chronicler,'' Louisville, February 1923, Vol. 10, No. 12, p. 11. Oscar is listed on an archived YMHA public program from July 1, 1879 performing a recitation.</ref> the German Gymnastic Association or [[Turners]], and The Brotherhood of Commercial Travelers,<ref>The American Stationer, Vol. 27, 1890. p. 8. Pub. Howard Lockwood, The BCT is a literary & publishers trade association. </ref> for example.

==Career==

In Louisville, except for a brief stint as a salesman for C. G. Tachau Co., in 1879, Oscar's career proceeded in a customary fashion. He apprenticed as a draughtsman in the offices of architects C.S. Mergell (1877 - 78) and C. A. Curtain (1881),<ref> Caron's Louisville City Directories, years 1877 - 1881</ref> surveyed forwith the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] in 1880,<ref>Cincinnati Enquirer, February 9, 1881. P. 5 “HEADLIGHT FLASHES (Column 2) ''On the Knoxville Road'' </ref> and his first employment as an architect was for the L&N Railroad (1882-84).<ref> Caron's, years 1882-84</ref> He had three professional partnerships in Kentucky: with C.S. Mergell (Mergell & Wehle 1884-85), with [[William J. Dodd]] (Wehle & Dodd 1886-88) and, after a hiatus in his practice because of bad health, with E.M. Camp (Wehle & Camp 1893-94).<ref>Inland Architect & News Record, Vol. XXI, No. 3, April 1893 p. 40</ref> He joined the A.I.A. in 1890 but resigned from same organization five years later, not reinstating active membership after 1895.<ref>Proceedings of the 36th Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects, Volume 36, Gibson Bros. pub. 1903. p. 175</ref> The historical record is not clear as to whether he maintained licensing, specifically as an architect, after 1895. In Chicago, Wehle worked in the firm of [[Holabird & Roche]]<ref>Sylvester, Jeanne “The Beaux-Arts Boys” of Chicago: an architectural genealogy 1890-1930, pg. 22. From The Classicist. The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art 20 West 44th St. Ste. 310, New York, NY. 2019</ref> (dates not determined) and in the early 19-aughts, Wehlehe was employed in the firm of [[Patton & Miller]].<ref>Miami Student, Vol. 24, 1905, pp. 82, 85. Miami University of Ohio. </ref>

Numerous sources from the late 1880s through 1914 cite chronic illness as a burden on Wehle's well-being and career. The nature of the affliction is not identified, but in seeking relief Oscar traveled to the American west and to New York for extended periods, returning to Louisville and Chicago thereafter. Whatever was the underlying condition, it did require hospitalization and medical intervention<ref>The Family Letters of Louis D. Brandeis Edited by Melvin I. Urofsky and David W. Levy, University of Oklahoma Press : Norman. 2002, p. 270</ref> but it did not significantly shorten his life. He died at age 62, "suddenly, at his place of residence," a boarding house, on Ridgewood Court in Hyde Park Chicago Oct. 27, 1921.<ref>Chicago Tribune, Sat. Oct. 29, 1921, p. 11</ref>

==Known work of the short-lived partnership of Wehle & Dodd==

Line 77:

*Residence of Capt. D. Pickney "Pink" Varble and Mary F. Varble, circa 1888, 1423 Everett Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky.<ref>Inland Architect, February 1886 Vol. VII, No. 1, p. 13</ref> Demolished circa 1963 for new construction.

*Wayfarers' Lodge, 1894, at Floyd, Linden (now A. Flexner Way) and Walnut (now Muhamad Ali Blvd.) streets, Louisville, Kentucky.<ref>Courier-Journal Newspaper, Jun 28, 1893, p. 8</ref> '' "The new building is ... three stories in height and built of pressed brick. The front is ornamented with stone trimmings, and over the wide front door is a stone ... inscription "Wayfarers' Lodge".''<ref> Courier-Journal, Feb 15, 1894; p. 5</ref> Demolished circa 1962 for I-65 expressway corridor.

*Country "farm" home of Alfred Brandeis & Frederica Dembitz Brandeis, circa 1898, Ladless Hill, Jefferson County, Kentucky; "a relatively modest clapboard home at the edge of the bluff, [with] a broad porch offering sweeping views of the Ohio River beyond". This "large cottage" burned in 1909.<ref>The Family Letters of [[Louis Dembitz Brandeis]] Edited by Melvin I. Urofsky and David W. Levy. University of Oklahoma Press, p. 120. "Oscar Wehle, a Chicago architect, designed Alfred Brandeis’s farm at Ladless Hill." </ref><ref>Country Houses of Louisville, 1899-1939. Authors, Winfrey P. Blackburn and R. Scott Gill. Contributor, Mark A. Hewitt. Publisher, Butler Books, 2011, p. 232.</ref>

Line 97:

[[:Category: Jews and Judaism in Kentucky]]

[[:Category: Homeless shelters]]

[[:Category: United States Army Corps of Engineers]]

[[:Category: Spanish-American War]]