Oysters to Angus: Three Generations of the St. Louis Faust Family

In Oysters to Angus, Tony Faust entered rough and rowdy St. Louis in the mid-nineteenth century. As patriarch of the Faust family, he lived lavishly while rebelling against those who wished to shut down his saloon. Tony’s savvy son, Edward, rose to the top of the St. Louis business elite, and in so doing, shunned his German-American heritage. In contrast, Tony Faust’s steady grandson Leicester quietly built his farm in rural St. Louis County. That land became his legacy: a park built upon the proud Faust name. Through it all, the Fausts navigate the timeline alongside the iconic Busch family, firmly entrenching themselves as movers and shakers of the St. Louis scene. A narrative that has never been told, Oysters to Angus is historically important to both St. Louis as well as greater Missouri, where German immigration and rural growth developed in its own right.

Germans, Beer & Methodism

When German immigrant Ludwig Jacoby rode his horse into St. Louis in 1841, he couldn’t have possibly known the chaos that would ensue. The Methodist minister’s pursuit of building a church was met with challenges so extreme it’s amazing he had the will to push forward: race riots, violence, and hatred came from varying directions. Set in the context of St. Louis struggling with the influx of humanity of immigration, this minister and his congregation navigate a timeline of turmoil. St. Louis Germans encountered a clash of cultures each step of the way, facing unrest during the Temperance Movement, the turmoil of World War I, and the confusion of Prohibition. “Germans, Beer & Methodism” is a look at how German Americans traversed the rocky path of religion, politics, and yes, beer.