schwegmann family tomb report

Schwegmann Family Tomb

St. Roch Cemetery No. 1 New Orleans, Louisiana

Anthony DelRosario

Studio in Building Preservation

Professors Gene Cizek, Mark Thomas, Heather Knight

Master in Preservation Studies

Tulane School of Architecture

1 PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010

Anthony DelRosario – Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture

St. Roch Cemetery No. 1 is located at 1725 St. Roch Avenue in the New Marigny

neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. The cemetery was started by Father Peter

Leonard Thevis when his largely German Catholic congregation at Holy Trinity Church

was spared from the yellow fever epidemic after having prayed for intervention from St.

Roch, one of the “Fourteen Holy Helpers” and was reported to have performed cures of

the plague during the 14th century. Father Thevis designed the cemetery after Campo

Santo dei Tedeschi in Rome and the cemetery opened in 1874. He also designed a

chapel as a shrine to St. Roch and constructed it with the help of his congregation. A

second part of the cemetery opened in 1895.

The Schwegmann Family Tomb (Figs. 1 & 2) can be found in St. Roch Cemetery

No. 1. The tomb is in plot numbers 8 and 9 in Square C on St. Bonifice Walk. The tomb

is adjacent to the Screwmen’s Benevolent Association Society Tomb.

The Schwegmann Family Tomb is a pediment tomb which, according to Dead

Space : Defining the New Orleans Creole Cemetery : St. Louis Cemetery No. 1:

Guidelines for Preservation & Restoration, is “a multiple vault tomb whose height is

greater than its width and whose top is surmounted by an integrated front gable end

pediment or flat, triangular or segmented design.” The tomb is constructed of Dorian

Gray granite according to the specifications from the Albert Weiblen Marble and Granite

Company contract with the family. Three variations of the granite are on the tomb:

rusticated, polished, and flame cut. The granite probably came from the Albert Weiblen

Marble and Granite Company stone quarry in Stone Mountain, Georgia. According to

the tomb contract found in the company records, the specifications state that the

“Granite is to be set on a full bed of Mortar [sic], composed of Portland cement, and



clean sharp sand, and along the outer edge, sheet lead, set in a careful and workman

like manner, plumb and straight.” The original mortar has been replaced with neoprene

or rubberized caulk. The specifications also state that “All granite work to be solid piece

and to have the proper drip all the way aroung [sic].” Professor Knight noticed the drip

edge (Fig. 3) when she happened to look up at me while on top of the tomb taking

measurements. The drip edge keeps rain water from eroding the side of the tomb by

causing the running water to drip about two inches from the sides. Other than some

slight discoloration of the polished granite on the door and pilasters, the Schwegmann

Tomb is in great shape and is maintained through Perpetual Care Program with the

Archdiocese of New Orleans paid by the George August Schwegmann family. The

tomb has settled slightly in the back so that it leans back about one degree off vertical.

A number of North German tribes used the word "schwegman" which apparently

descended from antiquity. As used by the Jutes, the word "schweg" means axe. The

modern English word "wedge" is derived from it. (Lauler)

The Schwegmann Tomb is the burial place of seven members of the family:

patriarch Garret Schwegmann (Fig. 4); his wife Mary Henke (Fig. 5); four of their five

children George August (Fig. 7), John William (Fig. 8), Mary, and Theresa; and George

August’s wife Annie Emmer. This Schwegmann family can be traced back to John

Gerhrd (Garret/George/Gerald) Schwegmann’s arrival in Louisiana on October 29,

1860, according to Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New Orleans, Louisiana,

1820-1902 (Ancestry.com) (Fig. 6). The passenger list notes that the port of departure

was Bremerhaven, Germany, that the ship name was Senator Iken, and that the port of

arrival was New Orleans. According to a family tree on Ancestry.com constructed by



one of Garret’s great-granddaughters, Garret’s older brother Bernh came to New

Orleans from Germany on February 13, 1881. They had a sister Catherine who

remained in Germany.

In 1969, grandson John G. Schwegmann wrote a series of three articles for The

Times-Picayune entitled “Just Like Meeting an Old Friend” which he expanded to a

fourteen part series in 1978. In the first of the expanded series, John G. related a short

biography of his grandfather, John George (Garret) Schwegmann, who was born

August 2, 1839 in Osnabruck, Hanover, Germany. After arriving in New Orleans,

Garret, a carpenter by trade, took a job cleaning privies. He enlisted in the Union Army

– Company “D” of the Second Regiment, Louisiana Infantry – on August 29, 1862. He

was wounded in battle at Marksville, Louisiana in May 1864 and was honorably

discharged in September 1865. After the war, Garret worked as a butter clerk at a

grocery run by two German brothers, Ferdinand and Henry Henke. On April 27, 1869,

Garret married one of the Henke’s sisters, Mary. The ceremony was performed by

Father Thevis at Holy Trinity Church.

Garret Schwegmann opened his own counter service grocery store in 1869 after

apprenticing under the Henke brothers. In the years following, Garret and Mary had five

children: George August in 1870, Henry J. in 1873, Mary in 1876, Theresa in 1879, and

John William (John G.’s father) in 1883. According to John G., Garret would sell the

grocery business and take the family to California then return and begin business again.

In 1891 after a five year non-compete clause with F. B. Thriffiley, he established a

grocery at 901 Piety Street at the corner of Burgundy Street (Fig. 11), with the family's

living quarters above the store. Once of age, the sons worked in the family business.



Garret and George August had a falling out over Garret’s excessive drinking and

George went to work for Mr. Olstein at the corner of Poydras and Baronne. In 1895

after several years of estrangement, George heard that his father was thinking of selling

the family store. When George met with Garret about possible purchase, Garret was

unaware that it was his own son. After realizing, he offered to sell the store for a lower

price but George would not buy it for a penny less. Garret died in New Orleans on

November 23, 1924 and his wife Mary Henke died October 8, 1923.

According to John G., mothers would bring their daughters to the shop in search

of an “outstanding grocery clerk.” George August met his wife Annie Emmer in this

manner and married her on February 16, 1898. George and Annie lived at 912 Pauline

Street with their two sons Leo Benjamin and George August, Jr. Leo attended Loyola

University and remained in New Orleans. George, Jr. attended law school at

Georgetown and remained in Washington, D. C. where he was chief of the union

catalog division of the Library of Congress. George, Sr. died October 10, 1959 and his

wife Annie died July 15, 1916, becoming the first to be entombed in the Schwegmann

Family Tomb.

Henry joined his brother George in the grocery business in 1895. Within five

years, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where he married Katherine Dietrich and had six

children and opened a saloon called Schwegmann's Cafe.

Theresa Schwegmann was married twice. In 1906, she married Charles Henry

Uter who died only two years later. She later married G. A. Newald. Theresa died

October 2, 1966. Mary Schwegmann never married and died on August 12, 1942.



John William joined his brother George in the grocery business in 1898.

(Ancestry.com) On June 19, 1909, John W. married Marie Margaretha Frey (Fig. 9)

who was the daughter of Anton Frey who ran a meat stall in the French Market for over

fifty years. John W. and Marie had six children: John G. in 1911, Anthony Joseph in

1913, Paul G. in 1914, Odilea Marie (Mrs. Charles Thomas Acquistapace) in 1915,

Francis August in 1919, and Marguerite (Mrs. Oneil Barrios). Francis died of cancer in

lymph glands in 1940 and is entombed in the Frey Family Tomb (Fig. 10) with his

mother Marie who died on Mardi Gras day 1932. The Frey Family Tomb is also in St.

Roch Cemetery No. 1 and is near the Schwegmann Family Tomb.

In 1939, John W. rented the business from George, Sr. when he became ill.

Later that year John W. revolutionized grocery shopping in New Orleans by making the

store self-service. Also that year, son John G. joined John W. in the grocery business.

In 1946, John G. left the small family store, while brother Anthony stayed at 901 Piety

Street, and joined with his brother Paul to open the first Schwegmann Brothers Giant

Super Market at Elysian Fields Avenue and St. Claude Avenue. John W. eventually

sold the store at 901 Piety Street in 1950 and joined his three sons in the super market

business becoming an active partner in the chain’s latest store on Airline Highway (Fig.

17). John W. died August 29, 1955.

Under John G., the Schwegmann operation grew to eighteen stores including the

world’s largest super market at the time in 1957. Schwegmann stores revolutionized

the way people shopped with innovations such as in-store banks and gas pumps in the

parking lot. In addition to these, John G. led the fight for trade rights such as opposing

a law requiring a minimum mark up on alcohol and opposing milk price-fixing. This



brush with the legal system led to an unsuccessful race for a Jefferson Parish seat in

the state Senate. After an unsuccessful campaign in 1959 for the Jefferson Parish

presidency, he won a seat in the state House in 1961. Seven years later, he was

elected to the state Senate, and in 1975, he was elected to the Public Service

Commission.

John G. died in 1995 before the Schwegmann business was sold in 1997 by his

son John F. Schwegmann. John G. Schwegmann is entombed in Metairie Cemetery in

a large granite tomb (Fig. 19) designed by the Albert Weiblen Marble and Granite

Company.

Gathering Research Materials

Research of tomb began with Google where the tomb’s inscription was found at

http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/orleans/cemeteries/roch/1/square-c/10-boniface/t-008-

009.txt which had copyright info of http://usgwarchives.org/la/lafiles.htm and lead to

http://www.usgwarchives.org/la/orleans.htm and to

http://www.usgwarchives.org/la/orleans/cemroch.htm.

Also via Google John G. Schwegmann’s obituary was found at

http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/orleans/newspapers/00000145.txt which lead to

searching New Orleans Public Library for other obituaries in Louisiana Biography and

Obituary Index at http://nutrias.org/~nopl/obits/obits.htm.

Information from here was used to find copies of obituaries of all of those in the tomb in



The Times-Picayune via a database called America's Historical Newspapers and via

microfillm at Tulane. In the index, names of immediate relatives not interred in the tomb

were also found - Henry Schwegmann, Marie Frey, and Charles Uter - and found

obituaries. The obituary for Theresa's second husband, G. A. Newald, could not be

found.

At the Latter library, Ancestry.Com Library Edition was used to find a copy of the

arrival passenger list for John Gerhrd Schwegmann. Also found were copies of several

of the original documents used on http://www.usgwarchives.org/la/orleans.htm.

At the Louisiana Division of New Orleans Public Library, the vertical file on

Schwegmann stores was requested which was very useful. It contained copies of a

series of three articles written by John G. July 28, August 1, and August 4, 1969,

entitled "Just Like Meeting an Old Friend." The vertical file also contained copies of

some of the articles that were rerun in 1978 with additional information as a fourteen

part series on Wednesdays from June 28 to September 27. The rest of the series was

found on microfilm at Tulane.

The New Orleans Public Library website was searched where found pictures of

901 Piety Street from 1978 were found in the Mark J. Cooper Collection.

The Tulane library catalog was searched with keywords Germans and New

Orleans which provided some books and a DVD called German New Orleans, a WYES

production from 2004. Screenshots from the DVD were taken. The DVD mentioned

German Albert Weiblen who was a tomb and memorial builder. The documentary

showed Weiblen's tomb (Fig. 18) in Metairie Cemetery which looked very similar to the



Schwegmann tomb. Google was searched for Albert Weiblen and information was

found that the Southeastern Architectural Archives (SEAA) at Tulane had an exhibit in

2007. Kevin Williams of SEAA was consulted to ask if he thought that Weiblen had

created the tomb. He thought so and found the tomb contract signed by G. A.

Schwegmann in the Albert Weiblen Marble and Granite Company Office Records.

At Special Collections in Jones Hall, the vertical file for Schwegmann store was

requested and was found to contain transparencies of two of the screenshots from the

DVD. They had some information typed below picture.

The author signed up for a fourteen day trial with Ancestry.com and was able to

find Garret Schwegmann’s great-granddaughter, Nancy Lauler. Mrs. Lauler was

contacted to ask for access to her family tree which provided extremely useful

information. She was also very pleased with the information that was provided to her by

the author.

Jody Rome at the Archdiocese of New Orleans Cemeteries was contacted to

inquire about the date of construction of the tomb. Unfortunately their database did not

have that information.

Also the Tulane library catalog was searched for "St Roch" and found to contain

Life of Saint Roch : Followed by an Historical Notice on the Pilgrimage to St. Roch's

Shrine, Campo Santo Cemetery, New Orleans, La. The Tulane library catalog was

searched for "St Roch's" and found to contain St. Roch's Campo Santo and World-

famed Shrine. These two books were accessed in Jones Hall and photographed to

make PDFs for the class. The Tulane library catalog was searched for "Saint Roch"



and found to contain A Christmas Masque of Saint Roch, Père Dagobert and Throwing

the Wanga. In the catalog record, a link to Google books with the full text was found.

i PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Sources

Albert Weiblen Marble and Granite Company Records. Collection 39, Southeastern

Architectural Archive. Jones Hall. Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118.

Ancestry.com Library Edition. Milton H. Latter Memorial Branch. New Orleans Public

Library. New Orleans, LA 70115.

Dead Space : Defining the New Orleans Creole cemetery : St. Louis Cemetery No. 1:

Guidelines for Preservation & Restoration. Graduate Program in Historic

Preservation, Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, 2002.

Florence, Robert, and Mason Florence. New Orleans Cemeteries: Life in the Cities of

the Dead. Batture Press, 1997.

German New Orleans. Greater New Orleans Educational Television Foundation, 2004.

Huber, Leonard Victor, Mary Louise Christovich, Peggy McDowell, Betsy Swanson,

Edith Elliott Long, Bernard Lemann, and Doyle Gertjejansen. New Orleans

Architecture, Volume III: The Cemeteries. Pelican Publishing, 1974.

Lauler, Nancy. Schwegmann Family Tree. Ancestry.com.

Louisiana Archives. USGen Web Project. http://usgwarchives.org/la/lafiles.htm.

Merrill, Ellen C. Germans of Louisiana. Pelican Publishing, 2005.

Obituaries. The Times-Picayune. Various years. America's Historical Newspapers.

Online database. Tulane University.

ii PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Obituaries. The Times-Picayune. Various years. Microfilm. Tulane University.

Schwegmann Vertical File. Louisiana Division. New Orleans Public Library. New

Orleans, LA 70112.

Schwegmann Vertical File. Louisiana Research Collection. Jones Hall. Tulane

University. New Orleans, LA 70118.

Schwegmann, John G. “Just Like Meeting an Old Friend” fourteen part series. The

Times-Picayune. June 28 to September 27, 1978.

Where New Orleans Shopped. Greater New Orleans Educational Television

Foundation, 2002.

iii PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Figure 1: Schwegmann tomb, east elevation

Figure 2: Schwegmann tomb, southeast corner

Figure 3: Drip edge on Schwegmann family tomb

iv PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Figure 4: Garret (John Gerhrd) Schwegmann

Figure 5: Mary Henke with Henry and John W.

Figure 6: passenger list with John Gerhrd Schwegmann’s arrival in 1860

v PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Figure 7: George August Schwegmann

Figure 9: Marie Frey, wife of John W. Schwegmann

Figure 8: John William Schwegmann

Figure 10: Frey family tomb in St. Roch

vi PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Figure 13: 901 Piety in 2010

Figure 11: drawing of 901 Piety

Figure 12: Deluxe Bell Super Market at 901 Piety in 1978

vii PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Schwegmann Brothers (sons of John William Schwegmann)

Figures 14, 15, & 16: John G., Paul, and Anthony Schwegmann

Figure 17: Schwegmann Brothers Giant Super Market on Airline Highway

viii PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Figure 18: Albert Weiblen tomb in Metairie Cemetery

Figure 19: John G. Schwegmann tomb in Metairie Cemetery

ix PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Figure 20: Drawing of east elevation

Figure 21: Drawing of south elevation

x PRST 6510 - Studio in Building Preservation – G. Cizek, M. Thomas, H. Knight – Feb. 12, 2010


Image Credits

Figure 1 – photograph by the author



Figure 4 – Ancestry.com, <http://ancestry.com>







Figure 11 – Screenshot from Germans of New Orleans

Figure 12 – Marc J. Cooper Collection New Orleans Public Library,

<http://nutrias.org/~nopl/photos/cooper/cooper.htm>



Figure 15 – photograph provided by Randy Schwegmann, son of Paul Schwegmann


Figure 17 – Charles Franck, LOUISiana Digital Library,

<http://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/u?/CLF,3991>

Figure 18 – Screenshot from Germans of New Orleans

Figure 19 – Aleta Obrien, <https://plus.google.com/photos/113070628309306971861/albums/5354445366832013057/5354460335621721554>

Figure 20 – drawing by the author

Figure 21 – drawing by the author

schwegmann family tomb report

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