Huldah Wellauer Morgan called me when she read I planned to do a article about Koenig's Point. She recounted her memories of living in “Augie” (August) Koenig's tenant home across from the point. Originally called Conklin's Point, the name was changed to Koenig's Point after the Auburn Brewery magnate. He was also the owner of the hotel and pavilion there that became popular in the 1920s. The farm house stood where the sportsman's club is now, and the gravel road was called Koenig's Point Road until it too was changed to Rockefeller.
Huldah's father Walter Jacob Wellauer Sr. was a tenant/crop farmer for C. August Koenig who lived in Auburn. The farm acreage included pasture for the horses and cows and a large corn lot. Her father was Swiss, and he and Koenig would speak “high German” to each other when they transacted business together. She recalls he was a “big man” and would give her mother his discarded shirts. She would sew clothing for the children from the ample material.
Huldah relates: “My father worked the farm from 1921 to 1928. On March 17, 1923, the day I was born, there was a bad snow storm and the doctor could not get down the road to the house. My father hitched a team and sleigh and met him at the corner of Route 38A where George Sherry had a stand for groceries and candies.” The doctor arrived after Huldah was born. She was her parents second child.
She continues, “I was 5 years old when Pa purchased his own property in West Niles on Harter Road. My brother, Herman, lives there now. I remember moving in March of 1928 and the ruts in the road were deep.”
Walter Wellauer's duties after working on the farm in the daytime also included tending the many strings of lights in the evening for the dances at Koenig's “Summer Hotel” at the point. She recalls the hotel as “big with porches all around it” and remembers running around the porches and peering in the many windows .
The steady summer traffic going to the hotel necessitated building a fence around the farmhouse with a large wooden gate to keep the children away from the road.
Huldah laughingly remembers she and her older brother, Henry (Hank ), still climbed over the gate !
A popular summer spot, the hotel did a brisk business during the summer so August Koenig ran two steamers daily. Passengers would get to the point on “The City of Auburn” and the “Nymph” from the park at the foot of the lake. The route involved stopping at Ensenore first and Koenig's Point last. A early picture of Koenig's Point shows the mooring dock where the passengers would disembark.
In the winter, Walter J. Wellauer would supplement his income by cutting ice on the lake and delivering it by horse and wagon to customers in Auburn. His faithful horse, Prince, brought with him from Wisconsin in 1919, would follow the familiar seven mile route home to the point when Walter would fall asleep in the wagon.
C. August Koenig was the son of William Koenig who started his brewery in Auburn in 1868 at the corner of State and Grant streets. The brewery was later at 245 State St. and Union Street, with the bottling works located at 6-14 Grant St. Many bottle collectors possess the bottles today.
August took over the business in 1891 and continued until 1925. By then, the Brewery was making 25,000 barrels of beer a year and employed 35 men.
He was the Democratic Mayor of Auburn in 1908 and 1909.
He died June 6, 1926 at the age of 59 and is buried in Soule Cemetery in Sennett with his father and family.
Prohibition, during the years of 1920 to 1933, and the Depression, beginning with the Stock Market crash in 1929 to 1934, began the impetus for the demise of the several profitable breweries in Auburn and gradually canceled the Steamer boat runs to the hotels on Owasco Lake.
The dates mentioned coincide and document the oral history of the Wellauer family and their business relationship with “Augie” or C. August Koenig.
Sources: Wellauer family oral history through an interview with Huldah Morgan; Soule Cemetery Records; Auburn City Directories Cayuga County Historians Office; Auburn Daily Advertiser Semi-Centennial issue page 39; Koenig's Brewery
Laurel Auchampaugh is the Owasco Historian and welcomes family stories, pictures and history about Owasco. She can be reached at the Owasco Town Hall from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoons
Huldah relates: “My father worked the farm from 1921 to 1928. On March 17, 1923, the day I was born, there was a bad snow storm and the doctor could not get down the road to the house. My father hitched a team and sleigh and met him at the corner of Route 38A where George Sherry had a stand for groceries and candies.” The doctor arrived after Huldah was born. She was her parents second child.
She continues, “I was 5 years old when Pa purchased his own property in West Niles on Harter Road. My brother, Herman, lives there now. I remember moving in March of 1928 and the ruts in the road were deep.”
Walter Wellauer's duties after working on the farm in the daytime also included tending the many strings of lights in the evening for the dances at Koenig's “Summer Hotel” at the point. She recalls the hotel as “big with porches all around it” and remembers running around the porches and peering in the many windows .
The steady summer traffic going to the hotel necessitated building a fence around the farmhouse with a large wooden gate to keep the children away from the road.
Huldah laughingly remembers she and her older brother, Henry (Hank ), still climbed over the gate !
A popular summer spot, the hotel did a brisk business during the summer so August Koenig ran two steamers daily. Passengers would get to the point on “The City of Auburn” and the “Nymph” from the park at the foot of the lake. The route involved stopping at Ensenore first and Koenig's Point last. A early picture of Koenig's Point shows the mooring dock where the passengers would disembark.
In the winter, Walter J. Wellauer would supplement his income by cutting ice on the lake and delivering it by horse and wagon to customers in Auburn. His faithful horse, Prince, brought with him from Wisconsin in 1919, would follow the familiar seven mile route home to the point when Walter would fall asleep in the wagon.
C. August Koenig was the son of William Koenig who started his brewery in Auburn in 1868 at the corner of State and Grant streets. The brewery was later at 245 State St. and Union Street, with the bottling works located at 6-14 Grant St. Many bottle collectors possess the bottles today.
August took over the business in 1891 and continued until 1925. By then, the Brewery was making 25,000 barrels of beer a year and employed 35 men.
He was the Democratic Mayor of Auburn in 1908 and 1909.
He died June 6, 1926 at the age of 59 and is buried in Soule Cemetery in Sennett with his father and family.
Prohibition, during the years of 1920 to 1933, and the Depression, beginning with the Stock Market crash in 1929 to 1934, began the impetus for the demise of the several profitable breweries in Auburn and gradually canceled the Steamer boat runs to the hotels on Owasco Lake.
The dates mentioned coincide and document the oral history of the Wellauer family and their business relationship with “Augie” or C. August Koenig.
Sources: Wellauer family oral history through an interview with Huldah Morgan; Soule Cemetery Records; Auburn City Directories Cayuga County Historians Office; Auburn Daily Advertiser Semi-Centennial issue page 39; Koenig's Brewery
Laurel Auchampaugh is the Owasco Historian and welcomes family stories, pictures and history about Owasco. She can be reached at the Owasco Town Hall from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoons
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