Giese Family

This family came to the archive's attention through the research behind the article "An 1892 Souvenir, Two Tailors, and the Mystery of the Missing R." Charles William Giese (1861-1921) was born in Mannheim, Germany, and settled in Poplar Bluff, where he became the city's oldest merchant tailor. He worked first on Fourth Street, at 415 South Fourth by 1909, and in 1912 moved into a renovated storefront at 208 South Main Street. He married Jonnie Cole (1863-1945) in Iron County, Missouri, on December 6, 1882. The family home stood at 625 Poplar Street. Their household appears frequently in local records. A daughter, Nannie, died in 1902 at eighteen. Daughters Mae Elizabeth (Mazo), Bertha, and Lorine were named in a 1913 newspaper account of a reception they hosted for visiting university students. Harry E. Giese is also listed at 625 Poplar Street in city directories, but his precise relationship to Charles has not yet been verified. The Giese name and trade connect closely to the story of Charles Gierse (1883-1974), a cleaning and dyeing proprietor whose surname differed by a single letter. The two men ran similar businesses in downtown Poplar Bluff at the same time and are maintained as separate individuals in this archive.