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The Triumphs and Tragedies of Buffalo’s Gilligs

Jack Sullivan / January 5, 2022

Charles Gillig, proprietor of a prosperous Buffalo, New York, liquor house and saloon, on a steamy night in mid-August, 1890, closed up shop at his Washington Street location and with two of his employees rented a boat for a cooling night swim in Lake Erie. What ensued was related by the sole survivor. It was yet another tragedy in the lives of the Gillig family, three generations who had found success and community standing in America by selling whiskey.

Charles’ Father was Lorenz Gillig, born in Baden, Germany, about 1819. At the age of 20, he immigrated to the U.S., settling in Buffalo. He soon returned to Germany, apparently drawn back by his love for Maria Anna Koehler. They married and Charles, the eldest of their six children, was born in Germany. In 1843, Lorenz with Maria and their two-year-old returned to Buffalo. His early employment in that city has gone unrecorded but likely involved acquaintance with the whiskey trade.

In 1848 Lorenz founded his own liquor house in Buffalo, one that apparently met with early profitability. When the Civil War broke out, despite being over 40 with a business and growing family, Lorenz volunteered with the 65th New York Infantry Regiment. Indicating likely earlier Prussian army service, he was commissioned as a major and was third in command. Charles, now of military age, enlisted in the same unit as a private. In June 1863 the 65th was ordered to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, garrisoned as a guard against Confederate incursions. Mustered out of federal service six months later, father and son apparently remained part of the New York militia while returning to manage the liquor business. An early Gillig whiskey jug is shown right.

At the conclusion of the Civil War, Lorenz brought Charles into the business as a full partner. The company became L. Gillig & Son. and moved to 273 Washington Street, the address it would maintain for the remainder of its 50 years in business. The building was five stories including a storage basement and covered an area 27 by 132 feet. The first floor was for retail sales; the upper floors for wholesale. When he arrived at his majority, John Gillig was taken into the firm that subsequently became L. Lorenz and Sons.

Meanwhile Lorenz was making a name for himself, said by one observer to have become “thoroughly identified with the interests of Buffalo, both with reference to its municipal and commercial affairs.” For a number of years, as a Republican, he was elected as a Buffalo alderman. In 1869 he ran for the office of City Assessor. Lorenz was hailed by one publication as “not an office-seeker, but one of those citizens who are solicited to accept these important offices of municipal trust and responsibility as a matter of public duty.” Elected to the position, a subsequent assessment of Lorenz noted that: “…He became widely known for his discernment and probity.”

By this time, two tragic events already had befallen the Gilligs. In 1868, Charles married a local Buffalo woman of 19 named Maria Magdelena Zins. Before long Maria was expecting twins. As the first grandchildren, their impending births likely engendered great excitement in the Gillig family. They were given names: a girl would be Mary Magdelena, after the mother; a boy, Charles after his father. To great sorrow both twins were dead at birth. Moreover, after lingering for about a week, wife Maria died, age 20. The three were buried in adjacent graves. The shock to Charles and his family must have been intense.

Those three deaths were followed two years later by the death of the second of Lorenz and Maria’s three sons, Henry, only 24 years old. That was followed in 1878 by the death of Lorenz himself. Because of an indeterminate birth date his age was estimated at about 61. Lorenz was buried in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery, his monument shown here. Charles and John retained the company name.

Yet another time of sorrow was awaiting the Gilligs. In 1872 John married Louisa Knickenberg of Bufffalo. They would have two sons in quick succession, Henry James born in 1873 and Charles Edward in 1875. Seven years later the young father died leaving behind a grieving widow and the two little boys. Within the space of 13 years the Gilligs had experienced six family deaths.

Of Lorenz’ sons, only Charles remained. After his first wife’s death he married again in 1871. His bride was Mary Anna Knickenberg, likely the sister of John’s wife. They would have one child during their marriage. Charles promptly sought help in running the Gillig liquor house and found it in J. Christ Bernhardt, another Buffalo liquor wholesaler. [See my post on Bernhardt, July 24, 2015]. Their partnership was ill-fated and within two years they went separate ways. Charles remained at the Washington Street address, operating both a liquor house and a saloon to considerable success for the next five years.

Then came that night in August 1895 when Charles and two of his employees opted for a swim in Lake Erie off Buffalo’s Government Pier. It was a moonless pitch black night. They rented a small boat, moved offshore and, without incident, took a dip in the cooling waters. Deciding to move farther into the lake, the swimmers re-entered the boat. Charles held the rudder, his bartender Henry Sacht manned the oars. At some point the two men agreed to change places. In so doing, they upset the skiff, throwing all three occupants into the water. Only the third man, Andrew Lehner, surfaced.

A Buffalo newspaper recounted how Lehner swam back to the boat and looked for his companions: “…Whom he did not see and believes never rose to the surface. His survey of the vicinity occupied, as he thinks, three or four minutes, when he came to the conclusion that the two men were drowned, and realizing his own danger and approaching exhaustion, at once made a loud outcry for help.” His cries were heard by a lifeguard on patrol duty and Lehner was saved.

Amid its grief the Gillig family offered a reward of $100 for anyone recovering the bodies of Charles or Henry Sacht. Three days later two Buffalo men spotted Charles’ body floating near a dock, obtained a boat and brought it ashore. He was buried in the United German and French Cemetery in Cheektowaga, Erie County, New York.

Despite the loss of its proprietor the Gillig liquor house moved on, now operated by John Gillig’s sons, Henry, 22, and Charles, 20, doing business initially as “Gillig Brothers.” Two ceramic jugs bearing that company name are shown below. After only a year or so the young Gilligs changed the name of the liquor company for the sixth time. It now became Gillig Wine Importing Co. (Successors to Gillig Bros.) Emphasis was on the importation of Hungarian wines, said to be “for medicinal purposes.”

The Gillig brothers advertising harkened back to the family patriarch, Lorenz, and his 1849 founding of the liquor house. By 1900, however, the company had ceased appearing in Buffalo city directories, thus ending a half century of family ownership — and times of tragedy.

Note: The 80 year saga of the Gillig family was reconstructed from a host of sources. Most important of these were the biography of Lorenz Gillig in the 1880 publication, “Commerce, Manufacturers & Resources of Buffalo & environs: Historical and Statistical Review;” Buffalo newspaper accounts of the drownings, and genealogical websites. Unfortunately I could find no photos of either Lorenz or Charles Gillig and hope some descendant can help me fill that gap.