You’ll have to forgive the weak pun in the title, but we are always happy to celebrate artistic talent in all its forms. Our ancestor Clara Welp was a talented seamstress and a master with a crochet hook (as the photos below will attest). Clara’s parents came to St. Louis from their respective regions of Germany around 1854, as part of a wave of German immigrants in the mid-19th Century. Clara’s father, Herman Henry Welp, enlisted briefly during the early months of the Civil War, and was stationed at the St. Louis Arsenal. After his discharge, the family moved to a farm in southern Illinois about 60 miles east of St. Louis. It was during this time that Clara was born in 1878. But when she was 14, her parents moved her and her siblings back to St. Louis and lived in a lovely brick home.
Clara was still living in this house when she met and married Henry Fedder in May of 1902. Between 1903 and 1913, Henry and Clara had three children. We don’t know exactly when she began crocheting lace, but we do know that she was both patient and prolific. The sheer magnitude of her creations suggests that this was a lifelong hobby. She made a lace tablecloth for a large dining room table (the pattern of which is pictured above), and dozens of doilies in various sizes (a sampling of these is pictured below). Although this is painstaking work (watch this YouTube video for an example), it is clear that this craft brought her joy, and was likely a diversion during times of adversity. Clara was only 49 (and her youngest daughter was 14) when her husband Henry passed away. She took over the management of the family’s properties throughout the city (including at least two bakeries), and spent the next 10 years selling off Henry’s extensive real estate holdings. We like to believe that this hobby offered her a respite from her demanding life, but the truth is we just don’t know. We do know that Clara had just turned 66 when her oldest son died from burns he suffered working in one of the family bakeries. Perhaps she once again turned to her craft to ease her pain.
Clara lived to see her surviving daughters marry and have children of their own. Clara passed in 1956. She and her husband are buried at New Bethlehem Cemetery in St. Louis.
