Abstract of an interview with Otto Hohnerlein

Benjamin Van Clark Neighborhood Documentation Project
Neighborhood Oral History Project
Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs
Oral History # 9
Joint Interview
Mr. & Mrs. Otto Hohnerlein
May20, 2003
Savannah, Georgia
Otto Hohnerlein was born on Wheaton Street in 1919, and his family ran Hohnerlein's meat market on
Wheaton Street and Waters Avenue from 1919 unti/1961 when the meat market closed permanently.
The Hohnerleins' father and mother were German immigrants.
The following is an abstract of the interview, for a complete recording of the interview please see the
corresponding tape:
Joseph Hohnerlain was my father, and Augusta Grafe Hohnerlein was my mother. My father
came from a small town in Germany that was located near Frankfort, Germany. My mother was also
bom in Germany. My father came to America to Ellis Island, New York, in 1912. He then came on a
steamer from New York to Savannah in 1912. In 1912, his first job in Savannah was washing bottles at
a beer brewery located on Indian Street in the Yamacraw section of Savannah near Bay Street. In
Germany, my father was a certified meat cutter, sausage, and cheese maker. He was a chief cook on a
German ship at one time. My dad recollected seeing pieces of the Titanic when it sank in 1912, during
his time at sea. He saved enough money to buy his ticket on a steamship to American in 1912. After he
left the beer brewery, he got a job at a meat market and sausage place run by a Mr. Hester in Bay
Street Lane.
When my father left the meat market on Bay Street Lane, he and George Scrubs, a black man
who was so white looking in appearance that he could possibly pass for white, opened a slaughter
house on Louisville Road by the Central of Georgia Railroad. Papa then want to the old City Market,
with George Scrubs, and opened up a butcher stall in about 1915 or 1916. He moved out of the City
Market in 1919 and relocated his meat market to Wheaton Street and Waters Avenue. George Scrubs
came to Wheaton Street with my father and they remained friends all of their lives. My brother was
Joseph Hohnerlein, born in 1917, and he died in the 1960s. My oldest sibling is my sister Anna, born in
1916, who is presently eighty-seven years old. Augusta "Mickey" Hohnerlein, my youngest sister, was
born in 1924, and is seventy-nine years old.
There were seven tenant houses on Wheaton Street, as I can remember from childhood, and
all the families were black in those houses. Emma "Cookie" Green was a black woman who worked for
my parents. She cooked, cleaned, babysat, and cared for us. She was one of the family. "Cookie" was
there at the house working when I was born in 1919. Blacks also lived on Waters Avenue near out
meat market. Colored people lived on 3'd and 4th Streets. John Rousakis' family had a store on 4th
Street by Harmon Street. The Rousakis who owned the meat store was called "Nick the Greek." From
Harmon to Pounder Slreets all colored people lived there and on 6"' Street. The while people on
Wheaton Street lived in row houses on the side of the street across from the blacks between Harmon
and Wheaton Streets to Waters Avenue.
Mr. Grotheer (white) lived in the first house on the right hand side of Wheaton Street near our
market. We called Sammy, the youngest of the black Dixon brothers, "Chink" (Herbert and Devereaux
Page2of2 August27,2003
Dixon- Herbert died in 2003). Mr. Dixon, their father, drove a horse and buggy taxi. The white families
that lived on 7th Street were the Parkers, next to them on 7th Street was another white family, the
McGuires lived next to them on 7th Street, and the O'Hares also lived on 7th Street. It was mostly while
people living from Wheaton Street and Waters Avenue to Bee Road and also on Culver Street. The
Miller Carpet Company was on Live Oak and 'Mleaton Streets.
I married Emma November 12, 1939. After we married we moved to 9 Bouhan Street and
John White and Mrs. Marion Simmons, black neighbors, lived on Bouhan Street. We lived on Bouhan
Street from 1939 unlil1951. We moved because we had five children at that lime, and we needed a
larger house. We also left because I wanted to live by the water, and we bought our current house here
at 2829 Aimar Street in 1951. When we moved, many of the whites had moved from the Wheaton
Street area. I do not think white people moved because of any animosity towards blacks.
We (Emma and Otto) ran the Hohnerlein's meat market after my father became ill in 1959. We
moved Papa to our house here at Aimar Street until he died in 1960 when he was in his eighties. We
closed the store in 1961 because competition from big chain supermarkets forcad us to close for lack of
business. His friends, while and black, called Otto Hohnerlein by the fond name of "Mooker''
throughout his life. From Harmon Street, coming towards Waters Avenue on Wheaton Street was a
servica station owned by Bonner (white), the white Clantons (one was a policaman), Mrs. Wallaca
(white), and Professor Philander Moore who worked at Georgia State College (now Savannah State
University) was the only black family on that side of Wheaton Street. The while Hardens also lived on
that side of Wheaton Street.
-End of interviewAbstract prepared by:
Charles J. Elmore
Project Historian