MATTHIAS AHRENS (1824 - 1897)

Matthias Ahrens and his brother, John, ended up in Racine by mistake.  In 1848 they were passengers on the steamer "Patchin" when it ran aground. After three days of subsisting on potato peelings, the Ahrens brothers ventured ashore, with $35 between then and speaking only German. John eventually enlisted in the Union Army and was killed in the Civil War. Matthias worked a number of odd jobs before he was employed in the fanning-mill shop of A. P. Dickey, where he eventually became foreman. His official biography says that "for six years he kept bachelor’s hall, making his own clothes, knitting his own socks, and wearing wooden shoes," but in 1862 he married Mrs. Maria ( Clausen ) Marquardsen (1826-1911), who was sometimes called Mary and had come to the United States from Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) in 1853.

In 1861 Matthias and a partner, Ernest Brill, opened a grocery store and saloon-not an unusual combination in those days. A few years later they added musical instruments to their stock. Their business was a success but their building stood on Bridge Street, which was just north of the Root River. Both the building and the street were eventually swallowed up by J. I. Case’s expanding company. In 1879 Ahrens built a new building at 622 State Street (now the site of a Case parking lot-see Editor’s Note). For another twenty years he operated another store there, which became primarily a saloon. He stocked his store with the very best musical instruments, including pianos, organs, and a $4,000 orchestrion. "He has always possessed a great fondness for music," reads his biography, "and delights to entertain the friends and lovers of the same art." His store and saloon came to be called "Orchestrion Hall." Ahrens prospered and eventually owned interests both in the banks and factories of Racine. After he died, Orchestrion Hall, ironically, became a settlement house that was established to provide "all the necessary functions of the saloon...without the drink, the gambling, and the criminal teaching." In 1898 Jane Addams of Hull House in Chicago gave a speech at its formal dedication.