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Near the year 1800, my great grandfather, Daniel Augustus Scheele and his brother left Saxony in northern Europe and traveled to the United States, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean and up the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River. Their five-week voyage had been paid by a miller in Georgetown and to repay him they had to work for a prescribed period of time in his mill as indentured servants. Little is known about Daniel's brother except that later he went west in the direction of Detroit. Daniel, however, remained in Georgetown.
Daniel was a short, stout man with a firm jaw and a predisposition to hard work. It is said that in the mill he regularly carried three bundles of wheat up the stairs whereas others carried one. Having worked off his initial debt, he set out to manage a mill on his own for several years. In 1812 he was summoned to Captain Jones farm to manage his mill, slaves, and 3,000 acres of land while the Captain was off to war. One of the minute-men in the war of 1812 himself, Daniel walked to Bladensburg twice weekly for drills. The story is told that on one occasion, the British, penetrating from the Chesapeake Bay, surprised the small company to such an extent that they fled in all directions. This skirmish later became known, appropriately, as the "Bladensburg Races". For serving in the militia, he received a land grant of 160 acres from the government. This land was located near Cincinnati, Ohio .
Daniel did not marry until he was 48 years old. His wife, Margaret (Peter Coulter's daughter), was only 19. Indeed, it is said he had rocked her in the cradle in Saxony before he left for America. Originally Lutheran, he converted to Catholicism when he married and thereafter attended mass daily. He and his wife had two sons, Andrew Frederick and Augustus Daniel. The land grant near Cincinnati was given to Gus (he sold it in turn). When Daniel died in 1859, he left a tract of land which he had acquired along Wisconsin Avenue (near the present location of the Calvert liquor Store) to Andrew.
ANDREW , FRANCES AND A LARGE FAMILY
Andrew Frederick, Daniel's oldest son, was a successful butcher and operated a stand in the Old Center Market. He was married at age 26. His wife, the former Frances Ann Scott, was 15. Spanning the 22 years from the birth of their first son, David Francis, to the birth of their last, George Augustus, they had 10 children. Each was spaced at rather even intervals of two to three years. It is interesting that the spacing and duration probably related to the natural contraception afforded by breast-feeding each child. Each of the children is listed in chronological order by birth dates. Two sons died as infants, John H., in his 22nd day and George W. in his 23rd month. The cause of John's death is unknown. George W. had been playing with Dave's pet dog, when the dog developed distemper and apparently as a result both the dog and baby George died. Out of the eight children that survived into adult life, seven were married; of these, five raised families, giving rise to 19 grandchildren. Lillian was lame and never married. In childhood she had dislocated her ankle while jumping and by hesitating to inform her mother and be taken to a doctor, it set, causing her to walk with a limp, despite the aid of special shoes. She seems to have been the most well behaved and religious of all her brothers and sisters. George Augustus, the youngest child, and grandfather to me, remains today the sole survivor at 92 years. He was named after the younger son that died in childhood.
During the years that Andrew and Frances were raising their family they lived in a number of places in the Washington area and twice moved to Kansas City. Frances lived in 12 separate houses during her married lifetime. Each of these locations is listed by separate page. Initially, they lived on the land that Andrew had received from his father and their first three children, David, Mary Ellen and Fred were born there. Later, however, they sold this land to a man named Weaver and moved into a house on Foxhall Road. For reasons that are not entirely clear he then lent this house to his brother Gus and moved into another house located in the present day Tunlaw Road area. Because this house was not accessible by road and because city plans to build one failed to materialize, the family moved again, this time into Tenley Town. Although the exact dates are unknown, they lived in Tenley Town some time after the Civil War and sometime before my grandfather was born in 1876.
In order to understand subsequent changes in address it is important to note several factors which figured prominently in the need for these later moves. First, their family had grown by this time to a considerable size (it is likely that eight of the children had been born with only two others yet to come). Second, during the Civil War, Andrew's butcher stand was relocated from the Old Center Market and business subsequently fell off. That the family fell into a time of limited resources and excessive demands is substantiated by the fact that their house was lost through foreclosure. Monies were not available to pay the payments on a $2,000 loan. By necessity, then, the family took up quarters in the house on Foxhall Road, which had previously been lent to Gus. It is in this location in 1876 (the year of the Independence Centennial in Philadelphia) that grandfather was born. At this time Dave, the oldest son, was 22 years old and had begun to play a major role in supporting the family.
Dave wanted to farm and in 1879 the family rented a 65 acre farm up Rock Creek, made improvements, and moved in. By 1884, however, Dave had become restless and responding to the call "Go west young man", he set out for Kansas City where he initially worked in the stock yards and later opened a butcher shop. Indicating the influential role he played, he was able to persuade the family to join him in Kansas City in 1886. Two years later, however, when his father became ill, the family felt the need to return to Washington . Dave did not return until after his father's death in 1888. In Washington he took to dairy farming and the family moved with him to Greenwood Farm. However, he became restless, gave up the dairy farm to his sister Ada and her husband, William Cannon and returned to Kansas City. Again the family followed him. But this time he contracted an acute illness. Upon returning to Washington Dave started Scheele's market in 1891. In 1906 he married at 42 years of age and spent his remaining years working at the market.
The main stream of family life followed brother Dave during these years, but many of the other children were beginning to develop their own lives. Mary Ellen, the second child and the eldest daughter, married Charles Colburn. Although she had eight children, only the last four lived: Walter, Maurice, Lawrence, and David. She was married by a Baptist minister, which seems to have caused a great deal of concern in the family. She returned to the Catholic church after her first four children died. Mary Ellen lived in the apartment over Scheele's Market for a number of years prior to her older brother's death in 1922.
Fred William, the third child and second son, married Nannie Baker. They had two sons, Clifton and Russell ("Peanuts"). Fred was a successful butcher and later in life acquired a substantial amount of land in Virginia . One of his outside interests was horseracing. He owned several horses and raced them at the Old Benning's Tract in northeast Washington . All of the Scheele boys were apparently handsome, but Fred sported a red handlebar mustache. He was evidently short, muscular and as "strong as a bull." Grandfather recalls that once Fred engaged a fight with a negro man in the stock yard and having licked him, the Negro said, "Boss, let me shake your hand, you're the strongest man I've ever met"!
Ada , the sixth child and second daughter, was married to William Cannon. They had no children. Spinal meningitis caused her untimely death at 33 years of age.
William Edward, the seventh child and fifth son, married Helen Beatrice Boyle. They had five children, Frances, Joseph, Eugene, Andrew and Catherine. Prior to marrying, William had accompanied the family to Kansas City but then traveled further to Burlington and Desmoine, Iowa . He returned after the death of his father in 1888. After Dave had died in 1922 William, known as Uncle Will, joined grandfather at Scheele's Market. Possibly the most spirited of all the boys, he worked until he was nearly seventy years old.
Ardelia, the ninth child and youngest daughter, married William Dante and had three children, Lee, John and Alice.
Despite the size of this family it remained a functionally cohesive unit for over fifty years. That this was the case is due, in large part, to the strength and resourcefulness of Andrew's wife, Frances Ann. Marrying at a remarkably young age and rearing a very large family, she must have had amazing fortitude and adaptability. Grandfather speaks very highly of her. As a housekeeper, mother and wife, she displayed an enormous capacity for work making all of the children's clothes, cooking, cleaning, washing, and ironing. She was evidently a smart woman with a knack for managing family affairs. In 1879 when Dave and his father were engaged in farming she persuaded a neighbor to lease a small plot of land to the count so that a school could be built and the children could continue their education.
Grandfather says she looked a bit like Frances (William Edward's daughter, now Frances Davies) with a thin figure and auburn hair. She was a very friendly woman and a deeply religious. Indeed it was while making daily early morning visits to church to pray for a mission in her 59th year that she caught a cold. While continuing to make these visits to church and maintaining her full responsibilities at home, she developed pneumonia and shortly thereafter died (January 24, 1898).
SCHEELE'S MARKET - AN ERA
The grocery market, which bears the family name, was established in 1891 by David Francis shortly after his second return from Kansas City. It was initially located on the corner of 28th street and Dunbarton Avenue in Georgetown. Painted a bright red, it displayed "SHEELE'S MARKET" in yellow letters on the window. The painter had forgotten to include the "C". Later the market moved to its present location at the corner of 29th Street and Dunbarton Avenue .
Grandfather was involved in the store from the very beginning. He worked after school and on Saturdays carrying orders, first under his arm, and later by horse and wagon. He made 50 cents per week and gave all of it to his mother. A year later, at age 16, he dropped out of school and began working at the market on a full time basis. It is interesting to note that at 16 he was in the sixth grade (each time the family moved he had been set back a year in school). On a full time basis earning $3.00 per week he managed to put $2.00 per month in the Georgetown Building and Loan Association. He began attending the Spenserian Business College at night to obtain more education but could not continue for long because of the long hours required in the store. At 25 years of age he had serious plans to set out for southern California to enter the orange grove business. It was at this time in order to persuade him from leaving the market that Dave began to share the store's profits on an equal basis.
Several years later in 1909 grandfather married Margaret Riley and by 1911 they moved into their newly built house at 2807 Q Street. At 92, grandfather continues to live there today. He and grandmother had three children, all boys: the first, Lewis, the next George Augustus Jr. (my father) and the last Thomas Fred. Together, Dave and grandfather ran the market until 1922 when Dave died of heart disease. Apparently he had had severe chest pains and almost crippling angina pectoris during the year before his death. Grandfather tells that while the two walked up 29th street after work, Dave would frequently be compelled to stop and while leaning forward with an outstretched arm on a tree, puffing a bit, he would wait until the severe pain in his chest had subsided.
With Dave's death the store passed to his wife and it was not until a year later that grandfather was able to raise the funds to buy it ($2,000). William Edward (Uncle Will) joined grandfather after Dave's death and worked in the market until the end of the second World War (he was in his seventies). George Jr. had begun to work full time in the sore after his marriage to my mother in 1934. Uncle Fred joined in 1952 after he returned from Florida . And it was not until 1964, after 72 years of full time service, that grandfather retired. Even today, four years later, he makes a short visit to the store daily.
Scheele's Market has provided for the livelihood of each of these family members through the years. Grandfather remembers that times were best during the first World War and worst during the depression. Although the depression occurred in 1929, the real effects were not felt until seen in the store until 1930. Grandfather recalls that he could hardly pay his bills. Prices declined to practically nothing and it was not uncommon that an entire day's work would bring in less than $35. He remembers that figs were 50 cents per case and pea beans were 98 cents per 100 pounds.
Although putting in extraordinary numbers of hours at the store, grandfather found time for a limited amount of outside activity. In 1899, the year of the big blizzard, he joined in with 24 other men and formed the Chain and Sprocket Club. Five remain alive today and they still meet regularly.
Having been an ardent supporter of the Georgetown Building and Loan Association, grandfather was asked in 1945 to become Vice President. Two years later he assumed the position of President and served in that capacity for 18 years during which time the assets of the association increased from 500,000 to over 8 million dollars. In 1965 he resigned as President and assumed the position of Chairman of the board of Directors. The association has since presented him a resolution acknowledging his able leadership during his tenure as President.
Aside from these other endeavors, it is remarkable that for over seventy years, through two world wars and the great depression, that grandfather and his brothers (David and Will) and sons (George and Fred) were able to maintain a lively business at the market. In recognition of his success in business and his senior status in the community he was acknowledged as "Honorary Mayor of Georgetown" during Christmas of 1950.
LOCATIONS WHERE ANDREW'S FAMILY LIVED
- Tract of land along Wisconsin Avenue near the present location of Calvert Liquor Store. Andrew received this from his father and later sold it to Mr. Weaver. Daniel, Mary Ellen and Fred William were born there.
- Foxhall Road : House lent to Gus (Augustus Daniel) when the family moved to:
- House near Tunlaw Road - William Edward was born here. The house was two-story, built of red brick and stood in the middle of a large farm located between Tunlaw Road and Foxhall Road .
- House in Tenley Town - Andrew could not make the payments on a $2,000 loan and this house was lost through foreclosure.
- House on Foxhall Road - George Augustus born here in 1876.
- House on grant Road and Connecticut Avenue. Stayed here for less than a year in 1878. From this location it took Frances Ann a whole day to walk to and from Georgetown to carry out her shopping.
- Rented 65-acre farm up Rock Creek near where East West Highway now crosses the park. With the help of a friend, Dave built a log house addition to the frame house that stood there.
- House on K Street - After Dave left for Kansas City, the family moved here because it was near the butcher market in which Fred was working (1884)
- House in what is now 33 rd Street between P Street and Volta Place .
- Family moved to Kansas City for the first time.
- House at 3255 O Street - Family returned to Washington after Andrew became sick and moved into this location (1886).
- Greenwood Dairy Farm - Across the street from the present location of the Mount Alto Hospital.
- Family moves to Kansas City for the second time.
- House at 3255 O Street - After family returned from Kansas City they moved into this house again (1891). Later several members of the family pooled their money and bought this house for $2,800. Frances Ann died here.
Compiled by Dr. George Scheele, Georgetown, 1968 |
