This is a follow-up to the November 9, 2024 post identifying the four residences on West 8th and Vine Streets shown in this J.B. Hostetler panoramic photograph. As promised, information about the families who first lived in these homes is here provided!
728 Vine Street: Mausnest
Gabriel and Anna Mausnest likely built this home in 1874, when the family moved from a farm in Walcott, Iowa into the city. Gabriel was born in Albershausen, Germany to Cornelius and Catharina (Falkenstein) Mausnest on March 22, 1829. He came to the United States in 1852, settling first in Mercer County, Illinois. There he married Anna Hausmann (b. 1831 in Ulm, Germany) in 1856; daughters Matilda, Anna, and Pauline soon followed. Sons Albert and Charles were born in Walcott. Anna’s father, Jacob Hausmann, was living at 728 Vine when he passed away in September 1885. All five children remained in Davenport for the rest of their lives, with Miss Anna Mausnest occupying the house until her death in 1933. All are buried in Fairmount Cemetery; Gabriel, Anna, Matilda, and Albert Mausnest share the same plot. [1]
1013-1015 West 8th Street
The residents of this property changed continually from about the turn of the twentieth century (according to the city directories), though the architectural style suggests it was built well before then. There is no one family associated with these addresses.
1019/1023 West 8th Street: Cawiezell, Hamann
This was first the home of the Cawiezell family, possibly built as early as the 1840s. (Christian) Anton Cawiezell and his wife Mary Ursula Willey hailed from Switzerland and were among the first farmers to settle in Scott County. Anton passed away in July 1874, leaving his widow and seven children. Mary lived in the house until her sudden death in February 1893; [2] after that it was the home of her daughter Mary Valborga and son-in-law August Charles Hamman.
August C. Hamann was a Davenport-born ambulance driver for the Police Department and later also worked as a driver for the Martin-Woods Company. He passed away in 1914 at the age of 51. [3] His eldest son Charles lived at home, working at the the Rock Island Arsenal and the Tri-City Lithographic Company until his death by drowning in the Mississippi River (possibly a suicide). [4] Daughters Edna and Ida also lived at home as adults, working as telephone operators in the years before they married. The youngest son, Robert Hamann, an employee at the Bramer Manufacturing Company, resided at 1023 West 8th until his death in 1970. [5]
1025/1031 West 8th Street: Moss
This house was likely built in the late 1890s, possibly by a man named T. Richter. George Heinrich Moss and family lived here starting about 1906. He was born in April 1864 to Bernard Heinrich, a tailor from Hanover, Germany and Catharina Otten. He married Catherine Amelia Heim (b. 1873, Bavaria, Germany) at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in 1897, and became a father to five children. He founded the Moss Clothing Company, 317-319 West 2nd Street in the late 1880s. [6] The family lived in the home until the mid-1920s. It is the only one of the four properties still standing.
Please let us know if you have any further information about these families or properties to share!
(Posted by Katie)
[1] Democrat and Leader, 20 Nov 1908, page 15.
[2 ] Daily Times, 13 Feb 1893, page 4.
[3] Daily Times, 27 Jan 1914, page 7.
[4] Daily Times, 30 Sep 1926, page 6.
[5] Quad City Times, 14 Sep 1970, page 16.
[6] Daily Times, 7 Nov 1936, page 2.
