Emanuel William Gnaedinger, son of Ludwig Karl Gnaedinger (by E.L.Gnaedinger – 1931)

His stations in his life: Montreal - Leipzig - Montreal - Brussels - London - Montreal - Westmount

Emanuel was born on April 13th 1852, married 15th June 1876 and died March 13th 1913. We know very little of the incidents connected with his life as a child, but may be sure that the neighborhood in which he lived had the average quota of small children who would have indulged in the same pastimes as do those of today, only it is difficult to picture how the days could have been spent on St. Peter. St. between Notre Dame St. and St. Paul St. when we look at the locality today and try to picture what it may have been like before 1858. We know there were a few warehouses already stuck in between residences, and a couple of churches were in the neighborhood. One of these was St. Andrew’s in front of which the children of this vicinity were found to gather and play on the steps. One summer’s evening as dusk was gathering and children’s bedtime had arrived, mother called from her doorstep on St. Peter St. for Bella and Emanuel, but got no reply, she set off on a hunt for her wee ones and found them along with a bunch of other children huddled together in a corner of the church steps, all too afraid to go home in the dark. The church stood just around the corner, at the corner of Notre Dame and St. Helen Streets. After moving from St. Peter to Bertholet St. in 1857, Emanuel’s school life began, as father’s policy was that his children should start their schooling at the age of six. It is not known at which school he began, but he did go for some time to a Mr. Bell’s school and in all probability his next school was one conducted by the Revd. Mr. Woods, of the St. John’s Episcopal church, which had a boy’s choir and in which Emanuel sang soprano until an event occurred that disgusted him and he arrived home one day all worked up and excited, and told mother he was not going back to sing anymore. When questioned as to why not, he replied that he would not sing anywhere with a nightshirt on. This was his way of describing Father Wood’s introduction of surplices for his choirboys. This was probably the reason for father removing him from this school and sending him to the Montreal High School, which he attended till he went over to Leipzig to finish his education. It is not known whether as a boy he was called by his second name William or not; but mother had preserved a schoolboy’s letter to her, signed “your affectionate son William”. The handwriting was good and the composition better than one would expect from a boy 9 or 10 years old. It had probably been written in school as a test exercise.

Emanuel must have been what one would call a nice boy, a boy of good manners showing respect to his teachers, which impressed them. The evidence is found in the case of Mr. George Murray one of the masters in the High School at the time Emanuel left in 1866, and where seven years later tow of his brothers attended, and the elder of the two, having developed what he imagined to be the popular spirit of the school, became smart one day and fell in line with several of the unruly scholars who were in the habit of annoying the master. These others received punishment, but to Gnaedinger Mr. Murray said, “Gnaedinger, I would like to speak to you after class.” At this interview he continued. “Emanuel was a very nice boy; don’t you think you could be one too?” From this little incident one clearly sees an outstanding trait that remained in evidence throughout his entire life. He always was a very pleasant man.

In January 1866 father sat one evening discussing with his partner a proposed buying trip that Mr. Haeusgen was about to start on, and talking about Germany must have pulled on some of the home tie cords that still vibrated in father’s heart and prompted him to express the desire to send Emanuel at some time to finish his education in Germany. Mr. Haeusgen asked, why not now with me. This suggestion was at once acted upon and inside of a week the boy left home for a three year’s sojourn at Leipzig, Germany. Mother had a task before her to get him ready on such short notice, but she accomplished it and even had time for a long talk with her boy, giving him some motherly advice as she thought would benefit him while away from home influence. At its conclusion he said he thought he understood and would do his best and was also able to realize the extent of the great opportunity father was giving him in his education, and that he intended to do his very best in every way so that father would be satisfied when he came home and he stuck well to his resolution.

Among the accumulation of a boy’s treasurers left at home was a very large connection of marbles and allies; his winnings at the game. There were thousands of them neatly stored in small boxes and bags, so many in fact for a good many years his tree brothers, who were not as expert players as he, were kept well supplied from the stock on hand, even after a bagful apiece had been distributed to each boy guest at a children’s party. In his pastime of playing marbles we see illustrated early in his life his aptitude to excel in what he undertook to do.

In Leipzig he entered the Zille’s Gesamt Gymnazium, a school of high standing, and was one of the very few pupils who boarded at the institution in Dr. Zille’s family. His stay there was marked by his keen application to studies which gained for him high approval from his masters as was shown by the reports that came from time to time from the school to father. His amiable disposition developed a bound of affection between him and the whole Zille familly where he soon became as one of themselves. Mr. Theodore Thorer was a raw and dressed fur merchant in Leipzig with whom Haeusgen & Gnaedinger had had large dealings, in fact it was through the volume of business that Haeusgen & Gnaedinger had entrusted to his care on a commission basis annually, that induced him to give up his business as a furrier in Goerlitz and locate in Leipzig as a skin merchant. As a son of a good business friend, Emanuel was taken charge of by Mr. Thorer who looked after all pecuniary matters incidental to his three year sojourn there and he was welcomed into the Thorer family among whom he soon became a general favorite, Mrs. Thorer called him “Mein Manuel”; and later when his European trips as buyer for his firm took him to Leipzig, his visit there was celebrated the same as if one of the family was home for his annual visit.

After returning in 1869 he entered the employ of Haeusgen & Gnaedinger as an apprentice to learn the fur trade and worked two years in the factory at the bench. In this time he gained sufficient knowledge of the trade as enabling him to comprehend most of the requirements necessary in the carrying on of a wholesale manufacturing establishment; but he lacked fluency in the French language, so necessary in the Province of Quebec, so father once more sent him to Europe and he located at Brussels in Belgium in the employ of a furrier named Schlobach. His duty there was as a sales clerk and attending to the correspondence and books. Among the several duties that he preformed to the satisfaction of his employer there stood out one that pleased the boss above all others. It was when he sold a hunter’s cap made from a hedgehog’s skin and priced to be sold at fifty franc; but as the purchaser was the Duke of Connaught he realized two hundred francs.

His evenings were devoted principally to studying the French language which he mastered and also kept up playing piano, in which he became fairly proficient while in Leipzig. In the summer he was afforded the opportunity of a holiday for several weeks and spent them in Germany, visiting the scene of his schooldays in Leipzig, where his sister Bella and Dora Haeusgen were living. From here the three in company with Max Walter an old friend, made a very pleasant walking tour through Theuringen. The following summer father and the girls, then on their way home, visited him and together they visited the principal points of interest of Belgium. Just as he was leaving Brussels for home, father put his ability to a very severe test by instructing him to proceed to the London Fur Auction Sales and purchase 200 small beavers like the sample skin that would be found waiting his arrival in London. He had had no previous experience as a buyer of raw furs and this staggered him for the moment, so he went at the job but could find no lots whose contents were at all like the sample, and he was stuck again until his good friend from Leipzig, Mr. Theodore Thorer who was also attending the sale, came to his aid with the result that the most suitable lot was secured, and father was well pleased with the young buyer’s first purchase. After his arrival back home he again entered the employ of Haeusgen & Gnaedinger in the warehouse and office.

Mr. Haeusgen department in the firm was the office and its attendant financing, and upon his death early in 1876 his duties fell upon father’s shoulders, who knowing that his ability lay in the operating of the factory and not as a competent office man, he placed the office management and finances in charge of Emanuel, who took over these duties together with attending to his own department as formally. As remuneration for his release, father drew from his personal account one thousand dollars a year, which Emanuel received in addition to his salary. This augmentation to his yearly salary income may have swept away any existing obstacles to his getting married, because on June 15th of the same year he was joined in wedlock with Johanna Maria Reinhardt and went into housekeeping at 323 Bleury St. near Bertholet St., where they lived for two years. In the meantime he bought a block of four houses on St. George St. (now Mance St.) on the corner of Plateau St., and on May 1st 1878 he moved into the corner house, being No. 25 Plateau St., and resided there for the next eight years. By this time accommodation for the growing family had become more cramped, and he moved to N. 10 Durocher St. to a villa he had built for himself during the previous year and where he lived for twenty three years. During the latter portion to these years his wife had not been enjoying the best of health so it was decided to remove to smaller quarters where the housekeeping cares would not be so trying to her. An apartment flat was rented at the corner of Sherbrooke and University Streets where such arrangements were possible as eliminated most of the kitchen and dining room worries, most meals being taken at a nearby boarding house. These arrangements, however beneficial they seemed at first, became monotonous, so after a trial of two years, housekeeping was again taken up at N. 330 Roslyn Avenue, Westmount. Here his wife died in 1912, and here he passed away one year and seven months later, on March 13th, 1913.

A more loving son and better brother never lived. His widowed mother, two sisters and three brothers felt his love and care throughout his life.

While standing alone beside his father’s coffin he made a vow to take his place and always care for his sisters and brothers. This vow he kept.