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TILIW - Dennis Nadler part 2

Updated: Dec 20

TILIW - Dennis Nadler part 2 - Leonard - Roberta - Oscar and his cello – Kevin – Bernie – Genuine Stradivarius, 1720? – carried it under his arm, riding horseback – never locked our door – the TNT plant - I remember Lowell well – Jackie – the Baler Guru 

 

Gentle readers, at the close of Dennis Nadler, part 1, Dennis revealed that he had a brief musical career with his first cousin, Leonard. You see, after Leonard’s somewhat legendary father, Oscar Nadler, died, the cello position was filled by Leonard’s wife, Roberta. But then Roberta died, and Dennis Nadler took up the cello because Leonard asked him to.  

 


Dennis, of course, demurred a little because he had no previous experience. But Leonard told him it was easy, and he would help Dennis get started. So, Dennis played with the Nadler band for a few years. And I could drop the whole topic now except for the fact that I’ve always been a little fascinated by the tales of Oscar and his cello. So, I asked Dennis’ son, Kevin, to point me in the right direction. 

 


Kevin Nadler (via text): I did find out the cello is now in the possession of Bernie Nadler, Leonard’s son and Oscar’s grandson. I’ll send your (contact) info to him as soon as I get a chance.  

 


Gentle readers, when a Nadler says he’s going to do something, believe it. Before long I had a photo of the cello on my phone, soon to be followed by Bernie, himself, on the line. 

 

pO: Hey Bernie, how old are you and what type of work do you do? 

Bernie Nadler: I’m 59…I own a farm up here (20 mi. north of Jeff City), raise cattle, but that’s on the side. I work up at the MU Hospital during the day, and farm in the evenings. 


pO: What do you do at the hospital? 


BN: Distribution…I order stuff, and deliver it to different departments, and my main one is labor and delivery, and maternal newborn. I worked at the water district up here almost 10 years…then I went to work up there (MU Hospital).  


pO: Okay. Well, anything you want to tell me about the cello is great, and also, anything that sheds light on Dennis, since the story is about him.  


BN: Well, the cello itself…I don’t know if you’re familiar with instruments, but violins, cellos, bass…they all have a sticker in them saying what year they were made. Now, this one says Genuine Stradivarius, 1720. 


pO: Whoa! 


BN: BUT, that’s not accurate…because Stradivarius didn’t start making them…if I’m not mistaken…until 1724. So, I did some research and found out that they were making them in Germany, and putting those tags in them…like, in the 1870s. It’s still old, but it ain’t that old.  


pO: Well, that is interesting. 


BN: Yeah, and they’re good cellos. There’s nothing wrong with them, but it’s not a Stradivarius. 

 


Okay, my friends, let’s see what Benning Violins, of Studio City, CA has to say about these labels:  

Old violins containing an official looking “Stradivarius” label often surface, for instance, while digging through a yard sale or a deceased relative’s attic. The label may mean that Antonio Stradivari, the legendary violinmaker from Cremona, Italy, whose violins are now worth millions, crafted the instrument, though odds are greatly against that possibility. 

Imitations of the original label began to be manufactured throughout Europe in the 19th-Century.  The labels were not at all intended to be a trick or forgery but actually pay homage to the violinmaker and even a specific instrument. The labels were meant to indicate that the violin was in the fashion of Stradivari’s work and that the size and dimensions are copied from a particular instrument, made during a particular year. 

 

BN: But about Dennis…I don’t remember what year…it was probably very early 2000s. She (Bernie’s mom, Roberta) died in 2000. That following year…they asked Dennis to play it, and he did. He enjoyed it. But when my grandpa Oscar played…my dad always said he carried it under his arm, riding horseback on his way to the dance. It’s a wonder it’s still in one piece!  

About Dennis…him and my dad are first cousins. They were cousins both ways. His dad and my grandpa were brothers, and his mom (Carrie Tuepker Nadler) and my grandma (Erna Tuepker Nadler) were sisters. And they always joked that they were related, whether they wanted to be or not. (We laugh.)  

Dennis was a riot, all the time. I mean he was always a lot of fun to be around. My dad and him…they really enjoyed playing at dances. Well, they played at different things. They played at Old Threshers in Montgomery City one time. http://www.montgomerycountyoldthreshers.org/  

When my grandpa (Oscar) was around…he was in his 90s, but still playing…they played down at the Arch…I can’t remember…whether it was a bluegrass thing…an old folk festival…but I remember it was very hot. I was not there, but other people were worried about my grandpa…it was like 95 degrees. He probably withstood it better than a lot of the younger ones. 

pO: Do you have any pictures of your grandfather or your dad…? 

BN: Ahhh… Yeah, the problem is laying my hands on them…I’ll text my sisters… 

 


Gentle readers, ask and you shall receive. About a half hour later the photos started arriving on my iPhone.  

 


 At the Arch: (left to right) Jeanette Nadler Stelzer, Leonard, Oscar. 



(Left to right) Leonard, Oscar, and Bernie Nadler. 

 



Many Nadlers, a Struckhoff, a Sehrt, but alas, no Dennis Nadler. 

 

Gentle readers, I’m ready to get back to the Dennis Nadler interview of 10/11/24. As my GPS is fond of saying, proceed to the route, proceed to the route. 

pO: I guess now I want to know a little bit more about Matson and Defiance…how they looked to you and what you remember about them. Let’s start with Matson. 

DN: I don’t think they’ve changed a whole lot. 

pO: Okay. Of course, there was a train that used to stop there… 

DN: Right, and a depot. 

pO: Stuff like that…a water tower and a grain elevator. 

DN: When we lived on the farm in Matson, we’d…my mother had an aunt that lived in Wellston. That was a pretty plush neighborhood at that time. And we’d go down there and stay with her for a week. We’d drive our car to the (Matson) depot, park it, leave the keys in it, get on the train, and go to St. Louis. When we came back, the car was always there.  

pO: Hah. That’s nice! 

DN: We didn’t worry at all, in fact, we never locked our house. I don’t think we could. And Defiance, there was a few new houses built in there but not much. It’s pretty much still the same it was. 

pO: I guess a lot has disappeared…like in Matson, Buemer had a sawmill. And Matson once had a water tower for the train. 

DN: And that reservoir for that water tower, that’s up on the Daniel Boone farm. 

pO: I’ve seen that. The Koenigs let me come up there and take pictures. That was interesting, plus the Koenigs are interesting. Kimberly knows some intriguing history, and she was well aware of the Daniel Boone aspect of living there. 

 

pO: When you were growing up, was there much use of mules or draft horses for farming?  

DN: We had some on the farm yet, but the last guy to do much was Paul Fuhr, Melvin’s dad. And Walter and Berthold Knoernschild who lived out on Schluersburg Road. They farmed down in the lower bottoms with horses. (On Find a Grave I noticed Walter and Berthold had the same birthday…twins? Dennis and Jackie couldn’t confirm this, but acknowledged Walter and Berthold were bachelor brothers.)  

DN: And we always said…Berthold, we called Beps…he always walked behind them horses, all the way from the top of the hill of Schluersburg, all the way down to the Augusta Bottoms, some 6-7 miles each way. He walked behind them all day and then walked behind them all the way back at night. 

pO: What? 

DN: And I’d say the philosophy was…you get a horse to work all day, he doesn’t have to carry you! 

pO: Arthur Berg’s grandson, Brent, told me that Arthur farmed with his mules longer than most people. 

DN: He might have, I really don’t know. The only thing I know about Arthur was…his youngest daughter, Leona, was in the same class I was in grade school. And they went to the same church. 

 

pO: When did you start working at the Defiance Garage? Did you work for the Tuepkers first? 

DN: Right. There was a time between there I worked for atomic energy…in Weldon Spring…the TNT plant…when they built that Mallinckrodt facility. I worked there for the construction company for a year, and then I transferred over to Mallinckrodt. And I worked there, right at 10 years. And when they decided to shut down, I guess I was the only guy that was happy because I didn’t like working there, but I had too much time in to quit. When they shut down, I told them to lay me off first. 

pO: The highway was closed, but I guess you could drive all the way to the TNT zone. 

DN: In World War II it was all closed. You’d have a special pass to get through. Like people that worked in St. Louis…well my uncle would driver ever so often to St. Louis with a truck and get a load of machinery…he could go through. Others had to go through Wentzville. 

My uncle had a ’35 Ford truck, and he had a ’39 Chevrolet car. Him and his wife, would take my mom, my sister, and me…like Sunday afternoon drives. And we’d go through the area there because he had a pass. I guess it was with him and his family that I was at my first drive-in movie…in the Manchester area or Ballwin. 

pO: Do you remember what movie it was? 

DN: (Big sigh.) Something Timberlane…Cass Timberlane? (Starring Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner.) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039250/  We did that quite often; we’d go for a ride on Sundays…just prowling around places that he knew, being in the business that he was in…selling equipment to places he traveled…that none of us had ever seen or heard of. 

 

pO: When you went to work at Mallinckrodt…did you carpool with other guys?  

DN: Yeah, Melvin Fuhr and myself rode together. And then there was a group from Washington…Leo Kuchem    https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/62943761/leo_anthony-kuchem   and Agnes Bryan https://www.emissourian.com/obituaries/obits/agnes-l-bryan/article_ae3ccf0e-199a-521b-ae22-4a64ccbbd3cf.html and somebody else. 

 

pO: So, then you worked for the Tuepkers. At what point did you own the garage? 

DN: When they retired in ’71, I took over and bought them out. I started in my name, July the 1st of ’71. 

pO: And tell me, do the Tuepkers go back to the blacksmithing days? 

DN: Well, not really, but that was an old blacksmith shop. In fact, I got a picture inside of it here…laying on the table there.  

 


The former blacksmith shop in Defiance, but already the place of business for Tuepker Brothers. 

 

pO: Who are these 4 guys? 

DN: This is Lee Parsons on the left. That’s Lowell’s dad. (I remember Lowell well from when I owned the Salem Schoolhouse. He is buried in the Parsons’ cemetery in Defiance.) And this is my uncle, Waldo Tuepker (continuing to the right). This is Ed Dickens, Charlie Dickens’ son. This is another guy that lived around here. His name was Walters, I think. They had just bought this big lathe, and it was run off the line shaft. 

pO: So, the Tuepkers had just bought a metal lathe? Was it powered by a gasoline motor? 

DN: No, it was electric. It was 220. And that cabinet…was made out of old boards that came out of the TNT plant. There’s print on there…I think it was Schmidt…a blacksmith in Hamburg. 

 

pO: So, now you own the shop. Was your specialty, tractors? Did you work on cars very often? 

DN: Didn’t work on cars at all. I didn’t even change my own oil. 

pO: One time you repaired a chainsaw for me. Did you do that out of kindness, or did you… 

DN: We sold chainsaws for a while, too.  

 


This John Deere chainsaw resides in Kevin’s ultimate man-cave, the former Defiance Garage.  

pO: So, sometimes you did repair…  And you sold gasoline. So, that would be another reason why I would stop there. Now, I’m gonna mention something…I’m sure the EPA would never allow you to do now…but I remember you had a huge wood burning furnace…but you had this system that would drip a drop of motor oil. Drip…drop…drip – to keep it burning real hot. Did you invent that, or was that just something people did? 

DN: As far as I know, that was all my idea. I knew of others that had an oil drop system, but I made my own…it didn’t work real well, so, I didn’t use it too long. The furnace worked great. It had an 18” by 22” door, and it was 63” deep. So, anything I could lift would fit in. We made a lot of wood. We’d go around, and clean up…well, like Fred Kamphoefner’s woods…he had a bunch of down trees…we burned off that for a couple years. 

 


Wood burning furnace at Defiance Garage. Photo by Angela Stephens. 


pO: Did your sons work much at the garage? I remember Kevin was there. 

DN: Kevin was the main employee. Curt had a lawnmowing business, and whenever he wasn’t cutting grass, he’d be at the shop. And he was with me a lot. We always said I had to be careful I  didn’t break his nose if I stopped and turned. He just hung on to my pocket.  

 

pO: Tell me about the tractor that’s loaded on a trailer in front of your shop in this photo. 

  


Jackie (Gerdiman) Nadler: That’s actually 2 tractors, but the one in the rear, a 1934 A, is the first row crop tractor that Tuepker Bros. sold. 


DN: This is the first tractor…the brothers sold. It’s now sitting down here at the edge of the woods (at Jackie and Dennis’ house). That’s owned by Bill Kessler, of Martinsburg.  

pO: Is it the very one they sold, or just like it? 

JN: It’s the very one. 

DN: It was purchased at the Tuepker Bros. Garage in Augusta by Louis Sehrt. Tuepker Bros. had a location in Defiance and Augusta.  

 


This building on Jackson St. was once the home of Tuepker Bros. Augusta shop. They sold John Deere, of course. 


DN: Then Eldon Osthoff bought it from Sehrt. Next, it was owned by Jule Kessler, who had the Kessler Store in Defiance. Years later, Jule’s son, Bill, had Kevin restore the tractor. Jule Kessler told Kevin just to take it to pulls and whatever he wanted to do with it. So, we keep it here, and it’s been here ever since…but that’s been a number of years ago already. They did take that tractor to pulls. I guess not a lot because it’s not convenient to haul with those steel wheels. You can’t take those steel wheels just anywhere. It’s more dangerous to load, too.  

 

pO: Did you serve in the military? 

DN: Yeah. I was in the reserve program…Fort Leonard Wood. I had to train there. I was there the whole 6 months of my active duty. 

pO: When was that? 

DN: I went in…I think September the 19th of ’59. And then my 6-month active-duty time was up the 20th of March of ’60. And every summer I had to go to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin for 2 weeks…for 5 ½ years. And when the Cuban blockade…when Kennedy…I was just one step away from being activated for that. Earl Mallinckrodt was.  

 

pO: And after that you were in the tractor business.  

JN: Did you tell him you were known as the Baler Guru

DN: No! (Exploding with laughter.) Now you’re going to start another whole story. 

pO: This might turn into a 3-part story. 

DN: I…kinda took on…square balers as my pet project. And if you ever talk to Max Bade… 

pO: That’s a thought… 

DN: He’ll tell you how they felt about me. He was just here the other day…brought…with the UCC church circuit…brought us a dinner…Sunday. He said he always remembered that…before his dad died, they had a baler problem. They called me, and I came out there…and he says ‘you climbed on the back…and you fixed it…20 minutes, we were back in business’. 

But…a couple weeks ago…Leonard’s boy (Bernie), north of Jeff City…he bought a used baler, and he was having trouble with it, and he called me…it wasn’t wiping the knot off the bill hook…and wanted to know what he should do. So, I told him what to do and fixed it over the telephone. 

 

 

Gentle friends of tractors, what’s a bill hook? Oh, never mind. But know this: in Dennis Nadler part 3, we’ll take a closer look at Dennis’ family. We won’t stray far from tractors because antique tractors is a pastime the whole family embraces. As a matter of fact, Dennis founded an organization known as MOSAC TPA which translates to Missouri Stock Antique Classics Tractor Pulling Association. Dennis, Kevin, Craig, Curtis, and even Jackie’s mother, Doris Bergsicker Gerdiman all participated in MOSAC events. In fact, there are even more Nadler/Gerdiman relatives involved in these events, and I’ll address that in the next installment of TILIW.  

So, stayed tuned for part 3, but if you just can’t get enough of tractors, you can look back at 3 TILIW stories that focused on tractors in our neighborhood. https://www.augustamomuseum.com/post/tell-it-like-it-was-men-women-tractors 

Sincerely curious, 

paulO 

 


Photo by Angela Stephens, president of Friends of Historic Augusta. 

 

The Friends of Historic Augusta's S.A.G.E project (Stories of Augusta's German Evolution) is sponsoring this program (TILIW stories) in partnership with the Missouri Humanities and with support from the Missouri Humanities Trust Fund. If you wish to read more stories, or want to make a donation to Friends of Historic Augusta and Tell It Like It Was, please use this link: https://www.augustamomuseum.com/tell-it-like-it-was-stories 

 

 

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