At first I thought I had this article all sorted out, but then I found some new information and had to rethink it. As previously stated, Julius came to the United States in 1881 at the age of 14. He lived in Cincinnati, OH and later moved to St. Louis. I found in a St. Louis city directory from 1882 Julius listed as a "laborer" living at 1021 Allen Ave. The building is still there:
In the 1883 directory, it listed Julius as a "watchmaker" at 3205 Easton Ave. Today there is a senior living center at that address. All of that I still think is correct. Previously I stated that Julius attended the St. Louis Watchmaking School at 5815 Easton Ave (today it is known as Dr Martin Luther King Drive). I think I have found this to only be partially true. The school was ran by a man named Rudolph Jaegermann. I just like saying his name... Rudolph Jaegermann. In a German accent it would be Rudolf Jägermann.
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| Rudolph Jaegermann drawing from St. Louis newspaper |
Prior to running the school, Mr. Jaegermann ran a jewelry store in St. Louis for 10 years. It was located at 415 Pine St. The building has long since been tore down and was located about 2 blocks from where the arch is now. This is where I believe that Julius actually worked for Mr. Jaegermann and may have been considered an apprentice. Julius could have attended Mr. Jaegermann's school during it's first year. Julius may have even given Mr. Jaegermann the idea of starting it in the first place. From what I can find, the jewelry store went out of business owing a lot of money to a bank... and to his mother-in-law. He had a couple court rulings against him in 1885 and the store and assets were auctioned off. This gave Mr. Jaegermann the opportunity to focus entirely on his school.
Mr Jaegermann was an inventor in his own right. I have included a couple of his patents in the photos at the end. One is a clock with a pendulum above the clock face. The other is some sort of winding mechanism for a pocket watch. Here are some advertisements for the school:
I guess daughters need not apply. The address given at 622 Locust St, was the Jaegermann home at the time. Later advertisements had the Easton Ave address. There were many examples, mostly in newspapers, some in magazines. Looking at other advertisements at the time, it seems that St. Louis was a hotbed for various specialty schools.
Their house was also the school. After Rudolph died, I do not think that Otto kept the watchmaking school going. The last advertisement for the watchmaking school I could find was from 1922.
I have also included a photo from a few years ago of the watchmaking school and Jaegermann home known as "Capstick Hall". It is still there today, but I am not sure what it is used for at this point. At one time the local diocese owned it. On September 9, 1947 it was the site of what is now considered a historical event for the St Louis area. You can read about it here.
I wonder if Julius kept in touch with Mr Jaegermann? If he did, I'm sure Mr Jaegermann was very proud of the accomplishments of what was surely one of his star pupils. It is worth noting another student of Mr. Jaegermann's named Joseph B. Vandever. He ran a jewelry store in West Salem, Il, which is north-west of Mt. Carmel.
Rudolph Jaegermann died in St. Louis in 1934 and has no living descendants. His son Otto never married or had children. His daughter, Matlida, had two daughters Lois and Esta Jane and neither had children. Esta Jane was married to Vernon W. Meyer who was a circuit court judge in St. Louis. Ester married but had no children. Maria married, but her husband died young. She moved back to Capstick Hall with Otto and never re-married.
As for his part in Hansen's history, he educated Julius on jewelry,
watch and clock making, and how to file for patents. Who knows, maybe without Mr Jaegermann, Julius
would have never invented the programmable clock.
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