When Jennifer Haskins recently met up with her two aunts at the Northwest Branch of the Jefferson County Library, little did she know she would soon uncover a treasure trove of family history.
Through her research at the library, Haskins, who lives in Byrnes Mill, discovered that her maternal family, the Dippel-Mahlers, lived on a large swath of land the King of Spain had deeded to them more than two centuries earlier.
Jennifer Haskins
The Villa Antonio Winery now operates on that property.
When Haskins’ great-great-grandmother, Augusta Mahler, married her great-great-grandfather, Henry Dippel, the two inherited about 1,000 acres in the Pevely area and lived in a simple log cabin. Nearby is a small, private cemetery where generations of Dippels and Mahlers have been buried.
Haskins lived in St. Louis County until 10 years ago when she moved to Byrnes Mill with her husband, Ben, the son of Jefferson County Councilman Brian Haskins.
She said she never realized until this summer how deep her mother’s side of the family was rooted in Jefferson County. Before then, all she knew was that some of her family members were buried in that cemetery.
“Growing up, I never asked why we had a family cemetery in (the Pevely area),” Haskins said. “One day, I said, I’m just going to go to the library and look at their collections. I married a Haskins, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m coming to Jefferson County.’ It’s been very interesting to learn that I have a bigger connection to Jefferson County.”
Haskins, along with her aunts, Anita Wheelehon and Betty Andrieu, spent the better half of a day in August with the library’s Genealogy Department head Ginger Brickey at the library in High Ridge, uncovering documents proving her family’s surprising connection to the county.
They pored over plat maps dating back to before the Louisiana Purchase; scoured microfilm of probates and newspaper clippings; and perused the shelves for family histories mentioning their ancestors.
For those trying to fill in their family tree, Brickey recommends stopping by the library for a one-on-one session with a genealogist who can help pick through the department’s records.
“It’s kind of like playing a game of telephone,” she said. “When stories get passed down through generations, there are small details that can get added or taken out or twisted a little bit, just enough to where it changes the story and makes it just a family story. I like to take these family stories that patrons bring in and find clues through recorded history that can tie all the pieces together and verify whether it’s true or not.”
Vacant to vino
While most of the Dippels and Mahlers eventually left the county, another Jefferson County family saw opportunity and potential in the property left behind. The Polesols purchased about 40 acres of the property in 1996 to live on, grow grapes for winemaking and open a winery called Villa Antonio.
Owner Tom Polesol, son of Antonio “Tony” Polesol, who first owned and operated the winery, said he was visiting his parents on a weekend home from college when he first saw the property.
“They told me they found a piece of property and they put an offer in, but they wanted to show me first,” Polesol said. “We got out there, and we had to park along the road, I think because there was a gate. We start walking through the woods to where the cabin is, now the older building on the winery property.”
Polesol said they met Henry Dippel, Haskins’ uncle, on the property, and he shared a little bit of background about the cabin. It had no electricity or central heating, and the upstairs included one bunkroom for the girls and another for the boys.
The winery uses the cabin, now renovated, for wedding parties, Polesol said.
“It was a true farm homestead,” he said. “If you ever come out to the winery, if you go into the old cabin, it’s actually three log cabins tied together with breezeways and porches. You can see the way the cabin was in its original state.”
As she became more immersed in her family history, Haskins and her husband began taking care of her family’s cemetery, cutting grass and ensuring the graves stayed in good shape. One time, she walked to the winery and asked if she could take a tour of the ancestral home.
“I thought, ‘Am I going to be that crazy girl who asks, ‘Can I walk through the house?’ I sounded crazy, saying ‘This was my grandfather’s house back in the day,’” she said. “And they were so nice about it. Walking through, it gave me that feeling of connection.”
Haskins’ grandfather, George Dippel, who was born in 1898, was the last to grow up in the Pevely-area cabin, along with his three sisters.
Haskins said she was 3 when her grandfather died, and she doesn’t remember him or his siblings very well.
As an adult, George left the Pevely area to work for AT&T in St. Louis setting up telephone poles.
“I hate to bring in the local politics, but there are a lot of people who say there are no jobs in Jefferson County or it’s hard to find jobs here,” Haskins said. “But here’s the thing that hasn’t changed. I found out everybody left looking for jobs – my grandfather left to get a job at AT&T.
“I had no idea that my family ties originally are from Jefferson County.”
Becoming rooted in history
When attempting to fill in the missing pieces of a family history, Brickey said it can be important to understand the environment in which some ancestors lived. When looking at an old Leader article from 1997 about the Polesol’s new winery, Haskins said she was surprised to see a small line about how the Dippels acquired the property, astonishingly, from the King of Spain himself.
Genealogy Library Associate Ginger Brickey flips through old county maps available at the Jefferson County Genealogy Department, with some dating back to before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Brickey said the king probably didn’t personally bequeath the family with the land, but rather the family most likely applied for a land grant with the Spanish government.
“When they acquired the property, it could have been when the whole area was under Spanish control,” she said. “Before the Louisiana Purchase (in 1803), this land was under French control, and before that, it was under Spanish control, all the way down to the Gulf.”
Oftentimes mistakes made hundreds of years ago can lead present-day researchers down pointless rabbit holes, Brickey said.
Spelling errors on official ledgers are unfortunately common, she said.
Haskins said her research was slowed by old documents misspelling Dippel as “Dipple.”
Ancestors with common names can also trip up researchers, Brickey said.
For example, two men both named Patrick Byrnes – who have no familial connection – both immigrated to the U.S. and settled in the western portion of the county. One Patrick founded Byrnes Mill and the other founded Byrnesville, just miles apart from the other.
“We try to make sure that we lead people in the right direction,” Brickey said. “It can really put a full stop to your research when you have to backtrack two or three generations to get back to the one person you thought was the right one but just happened to have the same name.”
Thanks to newspaper clippings saved to microfilm, Haskins said she learned that her great-great-grandfather had four wives during his lifetime, and when his first wife left him, he put an advertisement in the local paper to find potential brides.
“It was so cool because you can actually see what was in the paper so long ago (at the library),” Haskins said. “I was thinking, ‘Was this guy a jerk?’”
When her great-great-grandfather died, Haskins said his fourth wife took out another advertisement in the paper.
“It said there, ‘I have no wheat, I have no meat, and I have no fruits and vegetables, and I request $100.’”
While her family tree is nowhere near complete, Haskins said she’s been able to make many connections with her ancestors and with the county, thanks in part to the library’s genealogy collection.
“I’ve got to say kudos to Ginger and the department,” she said. “We were going pretty deep. It’s been fascinating to learn about my family. Even though with these people, you can’t meet them, you feel a connection to them.”
To learn more about the genealogy department, call 636-677-8186.