152 - The Cursed Lemp Family of St Louis/Lemp Mansion

According to Legends of America, "The Lemp Family began with Johann Adam Lemp, who arrived in St Louis from Eschwege, Germany, in 1838. Building a small grocery store at what is now Delmar and 6th Streets, he sold everyday household items, groceries, and homemade beer. The light golden lager was a welcome change from the darker beers that were sold at the time. The recipe, handed down by his father, was so popular that just two years later, he gave up the grocery store and built a small brewery in 1840 at a point close to where the Gateway Arch stands today. Lemp first sold his beer in a pub attached to the brewery, introducing St. Louis to its first lager. Before long, Lemp found that the brewery was too small to handle production and storage and found a limestone cave south of the city limits. The cave, located at the present-day corner of Cherokee and De Menil Place, could be kept cool by chopping ice from the nearby Mississippi River and depositing it inside, providing perfect conditions for the lagering process to run its course. Lemp’s Western Brewing Co. continued to prosper and, by the 1850s, was one of the largest in the city. In 1858, the beer captured first place at the annual St. Louis fair." Now how does someone who made beer to go to being cursed? " Scandals, secret child, and untimely deaths are all things to expect in this show.