Our great great grandfather Simon Abeles arrived in St. Louis from Bohemia in 1844 (although I can't find the ship records).  He, his mother, and his only sibling, Kate, came to join an uncle and cousin, Nathan and Adolph Abeles, who had arrived in St. Louis in the 1830's. There is some vague evidence that his father, Susman, died in St. Louis shortly after their arrival, or perhaps on the voyage. Adolph married a Taussig and eventually established a very successful vertical business; he was killed in the Gascogne Rail Bridge disaster in 1855.  Simon Abeles scrabbled and scraped to establish himself as a dry goods and/or clothing merchant, but luck - or his nature and bad judgment - were against him. His sister, Kate, married Simon Kohn (also from a St. Louis merchant family) in 1846. Simon A. suffered many set-backs, not least of which was the terrible fire of 1849.  After his little store was wiped out, he went to live with the Abeles/Taussigs, and in the 1850 Federal census was listed as 'insane.'  He recovered, reopened a store (in different places) and bought property at 6th and Morgan and 2nd and Market.  He was always a land speculator but was not always successful.

 

He went back to Carlsbad in 1852 (no passport, no ship records) and married Amalia Loewenstein; how brave of her to come to the New World with an essentially unknown man, and alone (although her brother Wolf seems to have come to NY around the same time).  When he returned to St. Louis, Simon advertised for 300 (!) skilled tailors to work in his clothing store at 186 Main Street (is this the same as 2nd and Market?  Or is Main Street the same at First at this time?). He was leaping over the hard work and methodical investments that made his Abeles relatives so successful. He was not a patient man.   Simon A. and Simon K. were both struggling to make room for themselves in St. Louis; they (I surmise) felt that they had missed the 'peak' - had failed to get in on the ground floor, like Abeles and Taussig.  And both were involved in legal hassles in St. Louis.  What drove Simon K. to take on (1856) Hyacinthe Renard, who had married into the Papin family, I don't know.  They lived a few doors apart on Locust Street. Simon A. from the very start was resistant (politely put) to paying taxes - refused to pay the tax levied after the big fire; refused to pay the sewer taxes on 6th and Morgan; owed money to William Patrick for work on 6th and Morgan; was sued by Patrick Morris and Co., sued Henly and Papin for unknown (to me) reasons.  Time to find new ground!  Leavenworth in the mid 1850's seemed to be what St. Louis had been in the 1830's.  Soldiers at the Fort were a captive audience (like sailors); the city was a place for settlers heading west to stop and resupply; in 1854 vast tracts of land were stolen from the Delaware Indians and made available to settlers.  You know I am sure the story of Bloody Kansas and the slave state issue.  Simon probably didn't care one way or the other.  

 

Simon A. talked Simon K. into a move to Leavenworth (there is evidence that Simon A. had some kind of financial hold over Simon K.) - and one can imagine that they hoped to duplicate the success of the Abeles/Taussig establishments.  Anyway Simon K., with his four young children, went ahead to Leavenworth at the end of 1856, and established a dry goods emporium on Cherokee and 3rd.  Advertisements in the newspapers name the partners: Simon Abeles, St. Louis; Simon Kohn, Leavenworth.  By early spring 1857, the partnership was over - Simon K. moved to another store and Simon A. brought his young family to Leavenworth, and the established store at 3rd and Cherokee, in the fall of 1857. Simon K. suffered major losses in several devastating fires; but also became a solid citizen in Leavenworth: a Mason, a councilman, a Vice President of the Unconditional Union party, and a delegate to the Republican County Convention of 1863.  He died in the spring of 1864.

 

And the real story belongs to Simon Abeles.  He fought mightily to gain a foothold in Leavenworth, buffeted by the frequent financial storms of the 1860's; he was a founding member (and at one point president) of the first synagogue in Leavenworth, but his business never really prospered.  So he decided to build a luxurious mansion, and to open his very own bank.  Like many people nowadays, he figured that the best way to become rich was to look rich.  The German Savings Bank was chartered in the late summer of 1871, around the time the mansion was completed. Simon was the president.  What a great way to make money!  But then came another financial storm; and some very murky manipulations that resulted in Simon being (discreetly) ousted as president, and subject to almost endless law suits, both as plaintiff and defendant.  As far as I can tell he bought shares in the bank on credit, and then tried to sell them for full price.  He was ahead of his time!  He also tried to get in on the railroad bonanza - but never made the right choices; his children recalled that he absolutely refused to talk about what happened.  Now comes the best part. 

 

In order to repair his finances and his reputation, Simon proposed a Grand Gift Enterprise, to raise money for a juvenile reform school in Leavenworth; there would be almost $450,000 worth of prizes, and the main prize, worth $100,000 (or in some papers $150,000) was the mansion!  The drawing for the lottery was put off several times - the tickets were not selling like hot cakes, despite the advertisements all over the country.  Finally the drawing took place at the beginning of July, 1874.  A man named Simon Heiter (an umbrella manufacturer from New York) won the mansion!  But Simon and his wife and eight children remained in the house until the last sibling died, in 1948.  The audacity! The newspapers, and everyone else, turned on Simon, but as he always managed to do, he faced down, defied, the opprobrium.  Eventually he was indicted for mail fraud in the Supreme Court of Kansas - and retired a bit from business - but still fought the city over taxes, property lines, in various law suits - and refused to admit any questionable acts connected to the lottery.  He was, he claimed in writing, the aggrieved party.  He had lost money, had to pay out of pocket for the ads, the agents, the mailings.  He was furious.  He was not repentant.

 

None of his four sons married, and eventually all the land Simon had accumulated was donated to the city of Leavenworth - a large part made up the athletic buildings and fields for the high school, Abeles Field; a few years ago bought by a developer.  One of the most interesting things about this story is how Simon himself, and especially his one unmarried daughter, Tillie, the last to die, transformed his story, and particularly the story of the lottery, into a sort of amusing family anecdote.  It was not until I began really looking into Simon's life that I began to see how difficult he was, how very close to illegal his schemes were, how he pursued what he considered his rights by any means possible.  There are many more incidents and reports that attest to his volatile nature.