Draft:Oscar C. Wehle

Oscar C. Wehle (1859–1921), also known as O. C. Wehle, was a Kentucky born architect who practiced primarily in north central Kentucky and in Chicago Illinois. He was active as an architect or an engineer from 1883 to 1905, however, the historical record is not clear as to whether he maintained work or licensing, specifically as an architect, after 1895.

Early life: family, formation, and fraternity
Oscar Charles Wehle was born in Louisville Kentucky ten years after his father, Wilhelm Wehle (1809-1881), emigrated to the United States from Prague Bohemia. Wilhelm, later William, was with a party of over twenty kin arriving together in New York City in May 1849, in the wake of the failed Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire. Several of the Wehle extended family had participated in the Prague insurrection. "The Wehles were one of the aristocratic old Jewish families of Prague [who] took a leading part in the Sabbateans group", a small and short-lived, messianic and reformist offshoot from Judaism at the time. Oscar's grandfather Aaron Beer Wehle (1759-1825) was a leading rabbi of the Prague sect. The Wehles proceeded from New York to the Ohio valley, first settling at Madison IN before moving on to Louisville KY. Oscar's mother, Rosa Tachau (1831-1884), also Jewish, was born in the Danish/German border region. Besides Oscar, there were five other children in the family: Alice, Emma, Bertha, Edwin H. and Ernest C, all born in Kentucky and all but Alice were younger than Oscar. The Wehle children attended the Louisville public schools but nothing is known of Oscar's formal education beyond high school.

Mother Rosa died in 1884 and subsequently her friends published a tribute to her in the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper, Feb. 14, 1884, pg 5:

"... If life is but a 'duty,' and the   performance of duty is payment for     the boon of existence, then the sub-    ject of this sketch [Rosa] has more    than paid her every debt in full.     Her lot it was, not as widow, but as    wife and mother to be the 'Bread Winner'    for a large family. She performed more    than a man's part, and her energy, tact,    and industry made her a bright illustra-     tion of woman's capacity & capability...    Sweet flowers will deck her grave. None    were ever strewn along her path in life.    She has richly earned the quiet rest    which never before she had enjoyed."

Does this text shed light on the circumstances of the Wehle family life? From this excerpt a reader would likely infer that Rosa's contemporaries viewed the Wehles as a large family without the means for an easy life and that Wilhelm, then dead only three years (1881), had not been a reliable primary bread winner for the household.

The American Civil War (1861-1865) brought as many as 100,000 Union troops through the city of Louisville Kentucky. A Union army presence would remain in Louisville after the war through the end of the same decade and into the early 1870s to recruit and train African American men at the Taylor Barracks (Kentucky) for soldering out in the western plains. For young Oscar Wehle, growing up only blocks away from the Taylor Barracks would have made a military presence a matter of fact. In fact, in 1861, then Wilhelm Wehle, a merchant of wines, liquors, and Hungarian cigars was implicated in the smuggling of a valise full of contraband (pistols) on the railroad from Cincinnati to Louisville. Wilhelm was identified as being "of the Hebrew fraternity" and having fled on being confronted by authorities. Thus, the fortunes of war.

From age 18 onward, Oscar Wehle identifies and associates himself with available militia culture through enlistment or employment, whether sporadic or continuous is not yet known, in the Kentucky State Guard, Kentucky Federal Militia, Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Army regular infantry during the War with Spain, this final enlistment seeming especially odd as he was nearly 40 years old in 1898. (He was immediately felled by serious illness and unable to serve in action.) As a confirmed bachelor and man of his times, the adult Oscar's life outlines a preference for the manly world of the military regiment, the outdoor sportsman's life & homosocial fraternal societies like the German Gymnastic Association or Turners, or The Brotherhood of Commercial Travelers, for example.

Career
In Louisville, Oscar apprenticed as a draughtsman in the offices of architects C.S. Mergell (1877-78) and C. A. Curtain (1881), and his first employment as an architect was for the L&N Railroad (1882-84). He had three professional partnerships in Kentucky: with C.S. Mergell (Mergell & Wehle 1884-85), with William J. Dodd (Wehle & Dodd 1886-88) and, after a hiatus in his practice because of bad health, with E.M. Camp (Wehle & Camp 1893-94). He joined the A.I.A. in 1890 but resigned from same organization five years later, not reinstating active membership after 1895. In Chicago, Wehle worked in the firm of Holabird & Roche (dates not yet determined) and in the early 19-aughts, Wehle was employed in the firm of Patton & Miller.

Numerous sources from the 1880s through 1890s cite chronic illness as a burden on Wehle's well-being and career. The nature of the affliction is not identified but in seeking relief Oscar traveled to the American west and to New York for extended periods, returning to Louisville and Chicago. Whatever was the underlying condition, it did not significantly shorten his life. He died at age 62, suddenly, at his residence, a boarding house, on Ridgewood Court in Hyde Park Chicago Oct. 27, 1921.

Known work


Wehle & Dodd
 * Max Selliger residence (mid 1886), 1022 S. 3rd St. Old Louisville-Limerick Historic District.

Wehle & Dodd
 * Lewis Witherspoon & Eliza Irwin McKee residence (Autumn 1886), 1224 Harrodsburg Rd. Lawrenceburg, KY.

Wehle & Dodd
 * The Standard Club of Louisville (1887) 500 blk of 5th street (demolished ca 1915).

Wehle & Dodd
 * Louis Seelbach residence (1888), also known as Seelbach/Parrish House, 926 S. 6th St. Old Louisville-Limerick Historic District.