FUELSCHER, Jr., KARL "CHARLES"

Copyright 2011-2018 John N. Lupia, III

Karl "Charles" J. H. Fuelscher (1863-1936), was born on October 20, 1863, in Germany son of Karl Fuelscher and Wilhelmina Dyske Fuelscher .

He immigrated to America as a teenager of seventeen in 1880.

In 1885 he worked as a clerk in the drugstore of Alban Treutler on the corner of Biddle and 13th Streets.

He soon made a start of coin dealing having published a twenty page Fixed Price List averring to be the most complete book of its kind ever for just ten cents in either silver coin or in postage stamps.

Fig. Fuelscher's advertisement in The Collectors Companion, September (1885) : 85

In 1888, he advertised in Curiosity World, large display ads selling postage stamps.

About 1890 he married Emeline J. Fuelscher (1870-1898). They had three children.

In 1898, his wife died shortly after the birth of their third child, Clara.

In June 1893, he began trading as The Anchor Stamp Company and notice was given in the June issue of The Post Office : A Monthly Journal for Stamp Collectors, on page 34.

In 1900, in the U. S. Census he is listed as a Dairy Solicitor, a widower, living at 150 Lee Avenue, St. Louis, with his mother-in-law and three children : Arthur (1892-), Helen (1895-1986), and Clara (1897-).

In 1910, in the U. S. Census he is listed working in the Tobacco and Cigar trade, living at 425 Athlone Avenue, St. Louis, with his three children.

About 1914 he married his second wife Hulda (1866-1956).

Apparently he became a career tobacconist selling cigars since he is listed as a partner with A. Otto Wiedmann in the firm of Fuelscher - Wiedmann Cigar Company with three stores in the 1920 St. Louis City Directory.

In the 1929 St. Louis City Directory he is listed as a cigar dealer working for the Jacob Lampert Cigar Company.

On March 21, 1936, at St. Louis, Missouri, he was found dead of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide poisoning either by accident or as an act of suicide which has never been determined. Perhaps his death was similar to that by accidental gassing of a fellow German dealer Ernst Franz Gambs. Otherwise he was like another German dealer, Wilhem Von Bergen, who took his own life in a similar way. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Bibliography :

St. Louis City Directory (1885) : 422

Charles Fuelscher, Coin Catalogue (1885) [listed but not seen by me]

The Collectors Companion, Vol. 1, No. 9, September (1885) : 85