By Linda Jones
Black Hawk’s long history is intertwined with the Stroehle family in business and entertainment. When George Stroehle arrived in 1864, his cornet was in his trunk and he was destined to be the leader of the popular Black Hawk brass band.
George was the first-born, born on Dec. 14, 1838, of George and Catherine Stroehle, who lived on the German border with Austria. Eight children were born to the couple while in Austria, but two did not live. After Catherine died, George Stroehle Sr. brought his six children to America. After short stops in New Orleans and St. Louis, they settled in Rock Island, Ill., where many other German families were already living. After one winter of formal schooling, son George, now in his early teens, apprenticed to learn the boiler trade. He was an apt pupil, and his skill would support his family and their heirs for decades.
Stroehle & Son building at the corner of Main and Gregory streets in Black Hawk. Photo courtesy of Gilpin County Historical Society
At the age of 23, George married a fellow German-born American and one month later enlisted in the 45th Illinois Regiment as a First Class Musician. He took part in four battles during the war and when he mustered out of service decided to investigate Colorado. He liked what he found and returned to Rock Island for Christine and their two children.
They rode across the Great Plains in a wagon pulled behind a team of mules. Most of the six-week trip was rough and accompanied by storms and pests, but quite uneventful until they arrived at Cherry Creek. When they crossed that stream, both mules and wagon began sinking in a bed of quicksand, but other teamsters nearby saved the family. When they reached Central City, George traded the mules for a building, which would later become famous as the site of the Chinese laundry where the Great Fire of 1874 began.
The family settled into a house at the mouth of Dory Gulch and George opened a boiler and mining machinery repair and manufacturing business. George helped construct the first boiler used in Gilpin County for the Black Hawk Mining Company. In the mining boomtown he could not have opened a more needed business at a better time. The early boom, which began in 1859, was tapering off because of the difficulty of removing the ore from the surrounding granite, but the savior of the mining business – Nathaniel Peter Hill – arrived the same year, 1864, as the Stroehles. Hill perfected a smelting process that successfully separated the ore and the economy roared back to life in Gilpin County.
The Stroehle home, located at 231 Chase St. in Black Hawk, is used today by the Gilpin County Historical Society for which it was donated to use for historical purposes.
The family moved to their final home at 400 Chase Gulch in 1868. There they welcomed a son, John, born in 1876, the same momentous year Colorado finally gained statehood on Aug. 1. The Stroehles were among those prominent citizens who contributed gold to plate the Capitol dome. George was the leader of the popular Black Hawk Silver Band, an 18-piece band that practiced three times a week and was a regular feature at Central City events and Rocky Mountain Turnverein galas.
George’s biggest contribution, however, was his factory he built in 1895 on the corner of Gregory and Main streets, where the Stroehle gazebo now stands. The factory was reputed to be the largest machine shop in the West built without pillars or posts. The business was crucial to the community and was the place boilers, mining buckets and other equipment were built and repaired. The boiler works was known across the state and its mining buckets were declared the best built in Colorado. After the advent of automobiles, they too were repaired there.
In 1896, George took his 20-yea- old son John in as a partner and the firm was renamed George Stroehle and Son. Six years later John married Matilda Schultheiss in Central City and they lived at 231 Chase Gulch. They loved music enough to go to great expense to bring a large grand piano to their home. In this home four children were born: George, Clarence, William and Marjorie. John would outlive them all. George died in 1912 at the age of 9 and Marjorie in 1918 at the age of 15 months.
Clarence and William both graduated from the Gilpin County High School, now the Gilpin History Museum, and from college. At age 29, Clarence was elected Black Hawk mayor, the youngest mayor in the U.S. at that time. John had also served as mayor. The brothers contributed to the 1932 restoration of the Central City Opera House and a chair was inscribed with their grandfather’s name and the year he arrived in Colorado.
Clarence married Reba Fitzjarrald in 1936 and worked as a mining engineer. William was the principal and band director of the high school; both sons and their father were active Masons. Life seemed complete when a daughter Billie Jean was born to Reba and Clarence. But when Billie Jean was 2 years old, both her father and uncle were buried in a cave-in on Oct. 27, 1940, in their mine, the Manchester. Reba took her daughter and returned to Texas, where she taught for 30 years. Billie Jean earned her BA in Mathematics and a master’s degree from West Texas State Teachers College and later, a medical degree. She married Marvin Smith, who became a college professor. The Stroehle shop burned in February 1972, leaving only the lower portions of the rock walls standing.
The Smiths lived and worked in Houston (Billie Jean worked for NASA) but summered in Gilpin County and moved there after retirement in 1992.
They always loved the home at 231 Chase, where Reba brought her daughter to spend every summer, and left it in their wills to the Gilpin County Historical Society, along with two-dozen family antiques. The historical society is obligated to use the house for historical purposes and consequently, hosts three events a year in the historical parlor and dining room. The grand piano, with a patent date of November 1859, is the focus of the parlor and the opera chair is among the many fascinating antiques left by the Stroehle family.
