Charles Henry Wolfsberger, 1882–1962

Charles Henry Wolfsberger, known as Henry, was born 10 October 1882 in Old Orchard near Webster Groves, St. Louis County, Missouri, the son of Charles Wolfsberger, (3 May 1857–3 November 1918), and Anna Maria Elizabeth Menke, (1 October 1859–3 April 1944). Henry was baptized 3 December 1882 at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Des Peres, St. Louis County. He married Frances Elizabeth Wilson on 23 May 1922 in St. Charles, St. Charles County, Missouri. He died 26 June 1962 in St. Louis City and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Kirkwood, St Louis County. Frances Wilson was born 14 October 1896 in St. Louis City and died 16 September 1966 in Sunset Hills, St. Louis County. She is buried next to Henry.

Henry graduated from Webster Groves High School on 2 June 1898. In 1900, Henry worked as a bottler in a dairy in Webster Groves. Before 1910, Henry owned and operated Crescent Cleaning and Dyeing Shop, 7328 Manchester Road, Maplewood. By 1925, Henry began building homes and real estate in Maplewood and Richmond Heights. He and his business partner, Charles Otto Borth, operated Wolfsberger–Borth Realty Company from 7346a Manchester Road, Maplewood, until Henry’s death in 1962. Henry built 7344–46–48 Manchester Road and lived in a large apartment in the building until 1940. Despite a fire in 1931 causing $50,000 damage, the Manchester building is still standing. Henry was an active member of Maplewood Fats and Leans and Maplewood Optimists Club.

Henry loved to travel. In 1925, he and Frances, and his step-daughter, Eugenia L. Mason, took a three-month driving trip to Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, British Columbia, and Nebraska to visit National Parks along the route. It took three days to drive out of Missouri. The family camped out all but five nights during the three-month trip. Family pictures document each stage of the trip. In January 1931, Henry and Frances sailed with Eugenia to Havana, Cuba, on the SS Munargo for a week-long excursion. Every year, the family took at least a six-week trip to Florida during the winter, staying first in tourist camps and then purchasing a trailer for the trip. After World War II, Henry and Frances traveled to Florida each year right after Christmas and did not return to St. Louis until a week before Easter. In the late-fifties they built a house at 1510 NE 33, Pompano Beach, Florida, where they lived for four months every winter until Frances’s death.

In 1940, Henry built a home at 8 Fox Meadows, in what was then Sappington in St. Louis County. Raised by a farmer and the grandson of a gardener, Henry had a lifelong love of gardening. On his acre-and-one-fifth, he nurtured that love. He planted more than 500 rose bushes in the back yard with other flowers, bushes, and trees. He retired to part time in 1945 and spent the rest of his life traveling and tending his garden.

Sources: census, newspapers, city directories, passenger lists, personal knowledge

Written by Viki Fagyal
September 2021

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