George Husmann. Photo courtesy of Vicki Shepperd Chin
Born in Meyenberg, Germany, on November 4, 1827, to Martin Husmann, schoolmaster of Meyenberg, and Louise Charlotte Wesselhoeft Husmann, George Husmann was a small and sickly child. Until the age of 8 he was educated at home by his father and his older brother, Friedrich, who was known as “Fritz.” Even after he was healthy enough to begin attending school, Martin oversaw his continued religious and ecological education, taking George on walks in nature and telling him to “look from nature up to nature’s God.” This imprinted on young George an appreciation for the natural world which he carried with him through his whole life. In 1836, before George had even reached 10 years of age, his father and brother purchased stock in the German Settlement Society of Philadelphia with the intention to make the long journey to America. Attracted both by Gottfried Duden’s romantic accounts of the abundant landscape and opportunities that awaited German immigrants to Missouri, as well as existing family connections in Pennsylvania (George’s eldest sister, Marianne, and his maternal uncle, Johann Georg Wesselhaft, had moved there in 1832), the Husmann family boarded the ship Clementine from Bremerhaven in the summer of 1837 and arrived in Philadelphia in September of that year.
While in Pennsylvania, George took up a seven-month residence with his sister, Marianne, and brother-in-law, Constantin Hering, a homeopathic doctor who treated the poor of Pennsylvania when no one else would and educated Black doctors who were turned away from other medical schools. George grew immediately attached to this new brother-in-law, and it seems much of what he learned from him stayed with Husmann throughout his life, including the idea that wine served as a natural health aid. Hering and George’s uncle, J.G. Wesselhoeft, planted Pennsylvania’s first commercial vineyard at Allentown, very likely giving Husmann his first introduction to viticulture.
In March of 1838 the Husmann family made their way westward and arrived in St. Louis after almost a month of travel. Rather than going immediately to their land in Hermann, Martin Husmann rented a 10-acre farm outside of St. Louis, which allowed him to earn a bit of money selling farm products and ease the family into the farming lifestyle that awaited them in the wilderness of Hermann. Finally, about a year after getting to St. Louis, the family arrived in Hermann, greeted by a ragged but friendly crowd of settlers, ready to begin their new lives.
Beginnings in Hermann
George Husmann’s first years in Hermann were plagued by near-constant farm labor and homesickness. His only respites from work were the Sunday afternoons he had free, which he spent wandering through the natural world, taking note of the wild fruits and berries, including grapes. When he was not on these nature walks, George found joy in spending time with his family. However, his beloved brother returned to Philadelphia to join their brother-in-law’s medical practice, and when George turned 13 on November 4, 1840, his mother Louise passed away. George came to depend on his sister, Josephine, to help him and his father get through the loss of his mother.
1847 proved to be a significant year in young George’s life, for good and for bad. Aged 19, he planted his first vineyard of Catawba and Isabella grapes on his father’s property. In September, Josephine married Charles Teubner, who was also growing grapes and running a successful commercial nursery here on what we today call Hermann Farm. In November of 1847, Martin Husmann, George’s father, died tragically while working at the town’s mill, which still stands on 1st Street and houses the Tin Mill Restaurant. His father’s death led 20-year-old George to move into the newly-built Greek Revival home that is the centerpiece of Hermann Farm with Charles and Josephine. George would soon become Charles’ apprentice, and for the next two years developed his love for nursery work, and particularly for viticulture. The apprenticeship ended, however, when the still young and romantic Husmann was seduced by the prospect of gold in California, but his adventure was not to last long. He was only in California for about a year before the unexpected death of Charles Teubner called him back to Hermann to take over the nursery business and help Josephine raise her two young sons.
Louise Kielmann Husmann. Photo courtesy of Vicki Shepperd Chin
Success in the Nursery and Missouri Wine Industry
Grape growing and winemaking were popular enterprises in Hermann thanks to early efforts by a few of the town’s settlers and the subsequent encouragement from the city trustees, who offered town lots to grape growers for only $50, interest free for five years (later increased to 10 years). Although many of his neighbors were cultivating vineyards, Husmann noticed that there were great variations in fruit quality due to a lack of grape growing knowledge and training in the winemaking process. Husmann resolved to train and educate himself extensively and then share that knowledge with his fellow Missouri winemakers. A fierce advocate for native American grape varieties, Husmann dedicated himself to the propagation of the Norton grape in particular. This occurred in spite of well-circulated criticism of Norton from Cincinnati-based Nicholas Longworth, a wildly successful winemaker who, despite his lamentation of the lack of a red-wine-producing American grape that could rival those of France, heavily criticized Norton wines and Missourians’ efforts to distribute it. Longworth’s criticisms were popular enough to create a general air of hesitancy around the grape, but Husmann and a few other determined growers worked long and hard to produce Nortons that eventually took gold medals in international competitions. Even Longworth himself, the great critic of the Norton grape, caved and in 1863 applied to Husmann for a shipment of Norton vines.
After the creation of a state winegrowers organization in 1853, Hermann launched a local branch called the Gasconade County Agricultural Society, of which George Husmann was elected the first president. Unfortunately, at the time of his burgeoning success, Husmann suffered another tragedy with the death of his sister, Josephine, who succumbed to a cholera epidemic after treating some of the people who had taken ill in Hermann. Suddenly, Husmann was the sole guardian to his two young nephews. Within two months he was married to Louise Kielmann and preparing to have children of his own.
George Husmann in his Union uniform during the Civil War. Photo courtesy of Vicki Shepperd Chin
After this brief but pivotal time in his personal life, Husmann’s professional success continued to grow. His introduction of the Concord grape to Hermann in the mid-1850s proved influential, if not controversial; he was forced to engage in a years-long debate defending the grape against vocal detractors. Husmann’s stark defense of Missouri wines and his expertise in wine production launched Hermann to national winemaking fame. In 1857, Husmann produced his first published work, Weinbau in Amerika (Viticulture in America), extolling the virtues of growing native and hybrid grapes as well as the necessity of finding different varieties for each region, rather than one “universally” American grape. During this time, his enthusiasm and passion came through as he envisioned a future in which “all our hills are transformed into the future full of good hope, when we will be victorious over all obstacles.”
His fortunes continued to rise when in 1858, Husmann greeted a new partner in his nursery business: Charles Manwaring of Geneva, New York. The nursery and vineyards thrived with Husmann and Manwaring at the helm, and just a few years after his arrival, Manwaring became George Husmann’s brother-in-law, marrying Louise’s sister, Amalie.
The Civil War Era
It seems George Husmann could only have so much good luck and only for so long. With the outbreak of the Civil War, both Husmann and Manwaring volunteered to join the Union Army in the fall of 1861. Like most Germans, Husmann was vehemently anti-slavery, and he and Manwaring (who was not of German descent but nevertheless held like ideals) were adamant in their ideologies of freedom for all.
While Husmann saw little action during his time as a soldier, Manwaring could not say the same. On May 14, 1864, Manwaring was shot by Confederate bushwhackers and Husmann lost a business partner and brother. In his 1864 purchasing catalogue for the Hermann Nursery, Husmann asked for understanding from his customers that his service may be altered “by the unfortunate death of my late partner and friend – who was killed in the prime of his life by a band of guerillas whom he tried to arrest.” Nevertheless, this loss did not cause Husmann to lose hope in the cause, and in 1865 while serving as a delegate to the Missouri State Constitutional Convention, Husmann proudly added his signature to the Ordinance Abolishing Slavery. He described this accomplishment as “the proudest day of my life– fulfilling the claims of my youth.” Husmann also voted not to adopt Missouri’s new constitution on the grounds that it did not grant Black men equal rights with white men, a condition which he considered vital along with the abolition of slavery. He was, however, in the minority on this, and the constitution was adopted without ensuring equal rights under law.
Post-War Enterprises in Missouri
While Husmann continued his involvement in the wine industry during the Civil War – indeed in 1863 he published An Essay on the Culture of the Grape in the West – it was after the War was over that he was able to regain steam and dive into a variety of enterprises.
In 1865 he became the first ever vice president of the newly-formed Missouri State Board of Agriculture; in 1866 he began organizing the Bluffton Wine Company over on the north side of the Missouri River; and in 1869 he started publishing The Grape Culturist, a monthly journal dedicated to viticulture and winemaking.
With the ups, though, came the downs. After selling his Hermann property and moving his family across the river to Bluffton to devote himself to the new wine company (into which he had invested $30,000, which is the equivalent of more than $980,000 today) a combination of factors, including a flood of Missouri wines into the market and growth of the California wine industry, led to Bluffton Wine Company’s collapse. At the same time, the popular but financially unsustainable Grape Culturist published its final edition. These failures did not discourage George Husmann, though, and he even withheld his personal financial claim to Bluffton so the remaining shareholders could regain their shares as much as was possible.
Following the downfall of two of his major projects, Husmann and his family moved to Sedalia, Missouri, where he started a new nursery business. It was at this time that France was struggling with the Phylloxera epidemic. The Phylloxera louse, which is native to North America, attacks the roots of vinifera vines growing in Europe, and the French wine industry was desperate for a solution. While George Husmann was not the one to realize that the problem could be solved by grafting European vines onto Phylloxera-resistant American rootstocks — that distinction belongs to Charles Valentine Riley, Missouri’s state entymologist — his Sedalia nursery provided millions of native American rootstocks to European vineyards.
While he described this international commerce of rootstock as a “short gleam of light” at this time in his life, there was little else to celebrate until 1878, when Husmann was asked to become the University of Missouri’s first Professor of Pomology and Forestry. Husmann was hesitant at first due to his lack of formal education, but he was convinced to take the position when the governing board expressed its desire for someone with practical, real-life experience rather than solely academic training. Husmann’s eldest son, Carl Georg, and his twin daughters, Johanna and Josephine, all enrolled in the School of Agriculture. A man ahead of his time in many ways, Husmann had already expressed his beliefs that women were well-suited to the work and demands of viticulture.
Image courtesy of Vicki Shepperd Chin
Going to California
In 1880, during his time at the University of Missouri, Husmann published his second book, American Grape Growing and Wine Making, which contained a section devoted to California wines, in which Husmann was taking a significant interest. A variety of circumstances led Husmann toward a future in California, not least of which was the tragic death of his 8-year-old son, Charlie, who was accidentally shot by a teenage boy. Adding to this grief was dissatisfaction with his role at Mizzou and a sense that he was underappreciated by the Missouri wine industry. In contrast, California growers and winemakers had great interest in one of Husmann’s particular areas of expertise: Phylloxera. Because their vineyards were full of vinifera vines, the same louse from which Husmann had helped to save France just a few years earlier was a problem in California vineyards as well. A few bold California growers had purchased Phylloxera-resistant rootstocks from Husmann’s Sedalia nursery, as the French growers had done, and now his knowledge was in high demand. This combination of push and pull factors led Husmann in September of 1881 to move to Napa Valley, California.
James Simonton, one of the early buyers of Husmann’s rootstock, took Husmann on as manager of his 2,200-acre Talcoa Ranch. During a five-year stint at Talcoa Ranch, Husmann wrote his 1883 book, American Grape Growing and Winemaking. With Several Added Chapters on the Grape Industries of California. In 1884, Husmann and two of his sons, George and Fred, bought land in the Chiles Valley which would become the site of Oak Glen Winery. If that winery name sounds familiar, here in Hermann, there is a winery named Oak Glenn in honor of Husmann’s California vineyard.
Husmann’s career and influence continued to grow. In 1886, he was appointed the State Statistical Agent for California. During his tenure he wrote his third and final book, Grape Culture and Wine Making in California. During that time, he also attended the first National Viticultural Convention in Washington, D.C., chose which California wines to send to the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris (winning California 34 awards), and served as a delegate for the California wine industry to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
Work never ended and contributions to the grape and wine industry never ceased for the man known as the father of the Missouri wine industry. He died the day after his 75th birthday, on November 5, 1902. He published his final article on wine the day before. Today he and his wife, Louise, are buried in the Tulocay Cemetery in Napa, California.