The Lorenz Family
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1884 – 1963Single user treewhat does this mean?

Henry August Lorenz

Oldest son of August and Ottilie. Born in Elkhart, Indiana. Married Emma Rodde March 15, 1911 — they moved into the 811 Oakland Avenue house in 1911 (Jim says 1905 or 1906 elsewhere; the deed predates 1908). After Emma died of TB in 1917, he hired Fannie Mae Shafer to care for his daughter Lorena. He married Mae on February 14, 1919. The grocery store was sold to a Mr. Nelson, who was later killed by a robber in the store. Became seriously ill with anemia around 1935 and was bed-ridden for a year; Buescher's kept him on payroll, then gave him a night watchman job until 1949 retirement. Never owned a car after a Model T accident before Jim was born — rode a bicycle around town and got groceries once a week.

Occupations

  • grocery store owner (Kunkel & Lorenz Grocery, 9th and Harrison Streets, Elkhart)
  • apprentice mouthpiece maker, Buescher Band Instrument Company
  • night watchman, Buescher Band Instrument Company (until retirement 1949)

Events in this life

  1. 1908 · construction

    Henry built the family house at 811 Oakland Avenue around 1908. Deed traces to Potowatomi land.

    Place: 811 Oakland Avenue, Elkhart, Indiana, USA

  2. 1911 · marriage

    With: Emma Rodde

  3. 1919 · marriage

    With: Fanny Mae Shafer

  4. 1929 · historical-personal

    The 1929-1932 financial crash. Mom and Dad did not have stocks but had savings in a home mortgage company that went bankrupt. Lost their money but received a small house on Mishawaka Street as settlement, which they rented out. House was paid for.

    With: Fanny Mae Shafer

  5. 1963 · death

Stories

811 Oakland Avenue and the Potowatomi deed

ca. 1908
Dad built this house around 1908; our deed on the land indicates it was part of an area bought from a chief of the Potowatomi Indians, who actually signed the deed with his mark. The house was two stories with a full attic and full basement, wood siding and asphalt shingles, AND no insulation!
Source: Jim Lorenz Reminiscences · page 3

The factory where Henry made saxophone mouthpieces was a piece of American music history

1912-1949 (Henry's working years at Buescher)
Henry Lorenz spent his industrial career at the Buescher Band Instrument Company Building at 225 East Jackson Boulevard, Elkhart, Indiana. He started there around 1912 as an apprentice mouthpiece maker. He stayed until his retirement in 1949 — 37 years at the same factory. What the family didn't know was that the building Henry worked in was nationally significant. Ferdinand August Buescher had started his factory in 1904 with backing from John W. Fieldhouse, having previously worked for the rival C. G. Conn company. At its peak the Buescher factory employed over 300 people and made Elkhart the 'Band Instrument Capital of the World.' Buescher's most famous product was the 'C' Melody Saxophone, which drove the saxophone craze of the 1920s. At one point Buescher instruments accounted for 95% of all saxophones sold in the United States. They were the instruments of choice for Paul Whiteman, Fred Waring, and Rudy Vallee. Henry, as a mouthpiece maker, made the parts that produced the iconic 1920s saxophone sound. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 22, 1986. It was demolished entirely in March 1993. The site became a vacant lot. Jim Lorenz, writing in 1995, said the building was 'still standing on Jackson Blvd, but will be demolished for apartments soon' — but the demolition had in fact happened 2.5 years before he wrote that.
Source: NARA Catalog API v2 queries for Lorenz family WWII and Buescher Building records

Documents and artifacts

civil-record
National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Buescher Band Instrument Company Building
Current location: NARA Catalog NAID 137889443; digital PDF preserved
photograph
Black-and-white photographs of the Buescher Band Instrument Company Building, 1986
Current location: Embedded in NARA NAID 137889443 PDF; extracted as individual JPGs
Black-and-white photographs of the Buescher Band Instrument Company Building, 1986: Exterior Jackson Boulevard (1986)Black-and-white photographs of the Buescher Band Instrument Company Building, 1986: Exterior Southeast Corner (1986)Black-and-white photographs of the Buescher Band Instrument Company Building, 1986: East Elevation Windows (1986)
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