Louisa M. Briel (Keul)

Submitted by Mo Olsen:

In the photo of the Keul sisters - Louisa was the oldest (at the top). Facing the picture - on the far right - is my grandmother, the second oldest of the Keul children, Anna ('Nanz'). On the far left is the third oldest, Mae and in the middle is the youngest in this picture, Irene ('Babe', 'Babs'). Missing are those not born when this picture was taken - Joseph ('Joe') and Loretta ('Tootz'). As Irene was born in 1983 and Joe was born in 1897, we know that this photo was taken sometime in the 4 years between 1893 and 1897. As my grandmother, born in 1890, looks to be about 4 or 5 years old, I suspect the photo was taken between 1894 and 1895.

Louisa led a short but eventful life. The family story told to me by my grandmother was that Louisa was cut off from her family because her "father didn't approve of her choice of her husband" (Harry Otto Briel). But, my grandmother wouldn't say why. And, I mean to say, Louisa was really cut off. They weren't allowed to speak to her - or of her - even though she lived just down the street. I was told she only had one child in this marriage, a daughter named Anna. (This little girl's name may actually have been Anna Gertrude Briel - TBD,)

Anna was an infant when poor Louisa died, in 1909, of TB at the age of 21. Story was that Louisa's father approached the young husband when Louisa died and demanded the child be given to him to be raised and educated. Even offered the poor young guy money to go away. Or so I was told. The husband refused even when he was told that refusal would mean the child would not then inherit her mother's money when Louisa's father died someday. To his credit, the young widowed husband said no - he would not give up his child. That then cut off the child from the family completely, per Louisa's father's edict. When she was in her teens, young Anna stopped by my grandmother's house and asked to get to know her mother's family. But, the grandfather was still alive and my grandmother would not cross her father even though she was an adult and a married woman by then. She turned the young teen away. When Louisa's father died in 1934, the child was included in the will, despite what he told her young father years before. They had one year to find Louisa's daughter. After that, if she couldn't be found, all her money was to be split between Louisa's adults siblings - this child's aunts and uncle. They claim they hired a P.I. to find her and he came back and said she had died sometime in her teens. So, without even asking how and where she had died, per my grandmother, they split the loot and didn't look back.

Seemed awfully harsh to me - all this. And, I could tell that my grandmother, in her later years, felt sorry about it all. But, even then, she was keeping something back and I could tell. So, now I finally know the answer. Louisa didn't get married at age 20 and didn't have just one child. She ran off and eloped at age 16 and was pregnant at the time of the marriage in 1904. For the marriage license. she lied about her age and gave it as 19. Her groom was 20 but said he was 22. They were married in the City Hall in Wilmington, DE by the Mayor of Wilmington on July 30, 1904. Their first child was born less than two months later.

All told they had three kids - the first, son Harry, was born on Sept. 10, 1904 and died 7 weeks later on October 31, 1904. The second, son John Franklin, was born on Nov. 26, 1905 and died 7 months later on June 14, 1906. The third, a daughter, Anna, was born sometime in 1908. They were living with her husband's parents/family at 135 E. Rockland St. in Philadelphia, just up a few blocks from Louisa's family. I'm sure the Keul family never laid eyes on any of these little babies. Louisa died, at age 21, of TB on May 1, 1909. Looks like she died in her father's house at 106 E. Rockland Ave. in Philadelphia. So, in the end, her father must have taken her in when she fell ill. And, it appears she died in his house.

After Louisa's death, Anna's father stayed a while with his parents, raising his child and then in about 1911, he remarried a gal name Marie. They eventually moved to Scranton. Anna, age 12, was living in Scranton with them on the 1920 Census. And, if she truly died in her teens, then she died sometime between 1920 and 1930, probably in Scranton. I have yet to find her death notice. One does have to wonder if the aunts and the uncle really did try to find her prior to them splitting that money that would have gone to her from her grandfather. We'll only know if I find she survived into adulthood.

Louisa must have had quite a spirit to her. One only has to be privy to some of the stories about her father and his iron will and forceful, stoic, German personality to know that it took sheer guts to defy him - something her siblings never, ever dared to do, even after he died! And here she did at the tender young age of 16. So, the rest of the story is now clear. Louisa got pregnant at about 15 (or just barley after having turned 16), ran off and eloped and didn't marry in the Catholic Church. These were all major, major sins in the John Keul family, and I'm sure caused quite a scandal. In addition, her husband and his family were German Lutherans, not Catholics. That alone would have been the kiss of death for her with her father. And, for all these reasons, that's why the story was never told. All of it - sinful and scandalous in their eyes, I'm sure. Poor little Louisa. She paid a high price for being John Keul's daughter. And so did her daughter, Anna. How sad that Louisa died so young and had to lose her immediate family and two of her children at such a young age. I think her husband, young as he was, must have been a good guy. He didn't give in to her father's demands and extortion and raised his daughter - financially tough as it may have been. Louisa would have been very pleased with her young husband.

I tried to find the graves of the two male babies but the cemertery listed on their death certificates claims they are not there. Perhaps, the bodies were moved but, if so, one would assume the cemetery would have that record and it does not. I know they aren't buried with Louisa at Holy Redeemer. They are definitely not buried in the Keul family plot at Holy Sepluchre. And, I am still searching for Anna's records. I owe it to Louisa to find her daughter and will not stop until she's found and the rest of her story told.