{"id":38,"date":"2016-10-08T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T20:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuhlerfamily.wordpress.com\/?p=38"},"modified":"2025-08-16T14:21:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T19:21:44","slug":"bachelor-brothers-george-anton-and-heinrich-buhler-down-by-the-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/2016\/10\/08\/bachelor-brothers-george-anton-and-heinrich-buhler-down-by-the-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Bachelor Brothers: George Anton and Heinrich Buhler, down by the river."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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George Anton Buhler was born 16 March 1874. Heinrich Buhler was born 6 February 1867. The brothers were born in Algiers, Louisiana on the Mississippi River opposite New Orleans. George and Henry were the sons of Peter Anton Buhler and Gertrude Schmidt. Their given names are the first appearance in the Buhler family. Their nephew, George Henry Buhler, was an obvious namesake honor. The name George has since passed through the family to present generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anton Buhler drowned in the Mississippi River in 1874 when George was only a few months old. George, Henry and their older brother, Emile, lived together with Anton\u2019s widow into the early 1900s. Emile married Victoria Clabert, a widow, about 1904. Victoria had four children from a previous marriage living with her and Emile. (1910 census) Gertrude went to live with her son Charles and his wife Martha at 537 Bouny street in Algiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George and Henry worked in the shipyards and dry docks in Algiers, Louisiana. George worked as a ship caulker. Henry was a ship carpenter. The 1910 census finds the bachelor brothers George and Henry sharing a house on Patterson Street along the Mississippi River levee in Algiers. At least that was my initial conclusion from the 1910 census when I analyzed it in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016 I was searching the New Orleans Times-Picayune Historical newspaper collection for \u201cGeorge Buhler\u201d. I discovered an interesting article printed in November 1910 under the caption \u201cTheft Tales\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cTheft Tales,\u201d Times-Picayune, November 21, 1910: 4, accessed August 20, 2016, from http:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/. Reproduced in compliance with NewsBank Inc. Terms of Use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The gist of the story was the theft of George\u2019s jewelry from his home. The fact that caught my attention was George\u2019s home itself, \u201ca houseboat on the river at the foot of Patterson Street\u201d. This led me to re-examine the 1910 census record for George and Henry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1910 U.S. census, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, New Orleans, enumeration district [ED] 228, supervisor\u2019s district [SD] 1, page 11A; National Archives micropublication  T624, roll  525. U.S. Census Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 6 Oct 2016, http:\/\/www.ancestry.com\/. Image republished in compliance with Ancestry.com license and terms and conditions of use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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George and Henry are enumerated on lines 22 and 23 in the census extract above. George is listed as head of household, male, white, 36 years old and single. Henry is counted as George\u2019s brother, male, white, 45 and single. Let\u2019s examine columns 1-4 more closely. Column 1 gives the street name, column 2 the house number on the street, column 3 and 4 is the household number and family number respectively and as enumerated sequentially in the district. We see the street name \u201cPatterson\u201d in column one. Patterson street ran through Algiers parallel to the Mississippi River. George and Henry are household and family number 211. Note that the house number is left blank for George and Henry. If George and Henry were living in a houseboat on the river, it may make sense there was no house number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we look closer at column 1 on lines 22 and 23 we see what appears to be two words that are illegible, perhaps the first letter is an \u201cM\u201d. What has the census taker written here? Lets take a look at adjacent census pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examining the previous page, 10B, all households enumerated have street numbers on either Morgan or Patterson Street, no help here. On page 10A we find two families, the Thackers, without a house number and in the street column it is clearly “Mississippi River”. The entries above and below the Thackers are on Delaronde Street where it intersected the Mississippi upriver from the Canal Street ferry landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"1910<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1910 U.S. census, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, New Orleans, enumeration district [ED] 228, supervisor\u2019s district [SD] 1, page 10A; National Archives micropublication  T624, roll  525. U.S. Census Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 6 Oct 2016, http:\/\/www.ancestry.com\/. Image republished in compliance with Ancestry.com license and terms and conditions of use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two census pages after George and Henry’s entry, on page 12 B, we have another household on the “Mississippi River”. Jeremiah Lynch and John Clark and family are given as family number 221, also on the river at the foot of Delaronde street. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1910 U.S. census, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, New Orleans, enumeration district [ED] 228, supervisor\u2019s district [SD] 1, page 12B; National Archives micropublication  T624, roll  525. U.S. Census Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 6 Oct 2016, http:\/\/www.ancestry.com\/. Image republished in compliance with Ancestry.com license and terms and conditions of use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s now clear that the dwellings not assigned house numbers in this precinct are on the \u201cMississippi River\u201d. George and Henry, and others, had taken up residence on the Mississippi River. They were living on the river batture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Definition of batture :  the alluvial land between a river at low-water stage and a levee \u2014used especially of such land along the lower Mississippi river. From Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Copyright (1909) The Sanborn Map Company, The Sanborn Library, LLC.. All Rights Reserved. Further reproduction prohibited without written permission from The Sanborn Library, LLC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The extract of the 1909 map above depicts the location of the residences enumerated in the 1910 census page that includes George and Henry. We find the only dwellings (D) at 319, 317, 313 and 311 Patterson Avenue. Between Patterson  and the protection levee was the New Orleans Dry Dock & Ship Building Co. The Algiers Point condominiums occupy this site today. Between the levee and the Mississippi River lies the batture. If George and Henry were living in a \u201chouseboat\u201d it would probably have been in the area of the batture between Lavergne and Bermuda streets shown above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were squatters, nearly to a person. Some made their living in town as teachers, musicians, and auto mechanics. Some made their living running trotlines for catfish, setting shrimp traps, and making clothes poles from willow trees. They dragged up old barges and salvaged the planks for siding.\u201d  \u2013 From Houck, Oliver A. 2010. Down on the batture. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 158.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

George and Henry were both out of work on 15 April 1910, the date of the census. Further, George had been unemployed for 12 weeks, Henry for 40 weeks. (1910 census) Previously employed as ship yard carpenters, George and Henry would have possessed the skills required to build a houseboat from a derelict barge or such.  George, listed as head of house, indicates on the census that he owns his home free of mortgage. This all adds up to their situation as batture dwellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George died 11 August 1912 in New Orleans at the age of 38. George\u2019s death certificate states he died at his brother Charles\u2019 house, possibly from an \u201cabscess of the liver\u201d. (illegible).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cGeorge Buhler,\u201d Times-Picayune, August 12, 1912: 12, accessed August 16, 2016, from http:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/. Reproduced in compliance with NewsBank Inc. Terms of Use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Henry Buhler\u2019s name is found in the 1912 New Orleans\u2019 city directory residing at 1128 Brooklyn Ave (Algiers); occupation carpenter. Henry disappears from the record until 1918 when he was hit by a car on Canal Street in New Orleans. The Times Picayune misspelled his name as \u201cBuxler\u201d, however his stated age, occupation and residence on the river in Algiers positively identify him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThree Are Hurt. Two Automobile Accidents Said to Have Been Unavoidable,\u201d Times-Picayune, September 08, 1918: 14, accessed October 02, 2016, from http:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/. Reproduced in compliance with NewsBank Inc. Terms of Use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Henry has not been found in the 1920 or 1930 censuses. Henry was residing at 414 Powder street (Algiers) when he died of throat cancer at Charity Hospital on 6 April 1936 in New Orleans at the age of 69. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Anton Buhler was born 16 March 1874. Heinrich Buhler was born 6 February 1867. The brothers were born in Algiers, Louisiana on the Mississippi River opposite New Orleans. George and Henry were the sons of Peter Anton Buhler and Gertrude Schmidt. Their given names are the first appearance in the Buhler family. Their nephew, George Henry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buhler-family.net\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}