My Home is said to be one of the ten most haunted places in America, The Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, Missouri, continues to play host to my family's tragic lives. Over the years, the mansion was transformed from the stately home that I remember, into office spaces,and a decaying run-down boarding house. Thankfully I am proud to say that it has been restored to its current state as a fine dinner theatre, restaurant and bed and breakfast.My family experienced the first of many tragedies when my brother Frederick Lemp, died in 1901 at the age of 28. Frederick, who had never been in extremely good health, died of heart failure. This devastated my father and he was never the same, beginning a slow withdrawal; he was rarely went out in public. On January 1, 1904, Father’s closest friend, Frederick Pabst, also died. On February 13, 1904, my father, being comsumed with grief fatally shot himself in the head with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson. He was the first but sadly not the last.In November 1904, I took over as the new president of the William J. Lemp Brewing Company. Inheriting the family business and a vast fortune,My wife, Lillian,and I enjoyed spending the inheritance. We filled the house with servants, expensive furniture, clothing and art.I enjoyed the wealthy life and quickly grew tired of being married.I filed for divorce in 1908.I had the Mansion remodeled in 1911 and partially converted into offices for the brewery. In 1915 I married for a second time to Ellie Limberg, widowed daughter of the late St. Louis brewer Casper Koehler. Then Prohibition came along in 1919. Much to the dismay of my heart,I had to close the brewery that my family had owned for three generations.It would never reopen.On March 20, 1920, my dear sister Elsa Lemp Wright, shot herself just like my father had years before. Elsa was despondent over a failing marriage.Shortly after my sister's death, I had to liquidate the assets of the plant and auctioning the buildings, I sold the famous Lemp “Falstaff†logo to brewer Joseph Griesedieck for $25,000 in 1922. The brewery buildings were sold to the International Shoe Co. for $588,000, a fraction of its estimated worth of $7 million in the years before Prohibition. After that many people became concerned about my health and mental status. I was slipping into a deep depression I became increasingly nervous and erratic, I withdrew from public life. On the morning of December 29, 1922, I could not bare the pain of living no longer. I went to my office in the front of the mansion removed a .38 caliber revolver and with the longing for the great peace of death I shot myself, in the heart. I was interred in the family mausoleum at Bellefontaine Cemetery, in the crypt just above my sister Elsa.In 1943, yet another tragedy occurred when my son William Lemp III died of a heart attack at the age of forty-two.My Brother Charles was the last of my family to live in the mansion. He remolded it back into a residence and lived in the house along with two servants. Charles, too, became an odd figure, as he grew older. For what ever reason Charles became the fourth member of my family to commit suicide. He was discovered on May 10, 1949 by one of the staff, still holding a .38 caliber Army Colt revolver in his right hand. Only my brother Edwin Lemp, who had long avoided the life that had turned so tragic for the rest of our family, remained. Edwin passed away quietly of natural causes at age 90 in 1970.My family’s line died out with him and now finally, we are together. Forever entombed in the cold marble of our family mausoleum resting in peace, but some would disagree.
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