The following post was published in the Cosmopolite Herald on July 18, 1984, in a twice-monthly column called “Twice Around the Township.”
PART ONE
There is a group hard at work trying to save an old house in Fairview Township called “West County Preservation.” The group, which is a spin-off of the Northwest Jaycees, would like to rescue the Dobler mansion from a tragic destiny. The mansion has been featured many times in the Cosmopolite Herald, so this column will also focus on the family who inhabited it.
Albert Frederick Dobler, nee Frederick Albert Fink, was born in Germany in 1844. When he was four his parents, Jacob John and Cristina Leopold Fink, emigrated to the United States with him and his three-year-old sister Pauline Later that same year Henry, his only brother was born. Four more sisters followed after that in the next eight years.
There are shades of Citizen Kane in Albert’s story for at the age of five he left his parents’ home to live with his rich Uncle John Dobler in New England. B the time he was 21 he had been legally adopted changed his name and was the manager of his uncle’s brewery, located in Albany. The beer was Dobler PON (Pride of New York) and continued in business until about 1954. When John Dobler died in 1885, Albert bought out the brewery and all its properties to become sole owner and manager.
Unlike the fictional Mr. Kane, Albert did not lose all contact with his parents. He visited them in their McKean home often enough to meet Miss Emma Mott of Fairview Township and they were married in 1870. They had two children, Emma Catherine and John Frederick.
In the late 1880s Albert bought a large portion of the old Daggett land in the area with the idea of establishing a farm. He had noted that the climate here was similar to that of the area across the lake in Canada where barley was successfully grown. It was his intention to grow his own choice barley for his brewery and in fact, his was the first successful barley crop in Erie County. He also kept cattle and developed a strain of Red Polled swine that he housed in one of his many barns on the property.
By 1894 the large home he had commissioned to be built was completed. Some say it was only meant to be his summer residence, but it was grand enough to be called a mansion. The money he poured into all the buildings on his property was considerable, which makes it even more surprising that he would try to save a little on the bricks at the back of the house. They are a cheaper grade, painted yellow to match the front.
Judging by the size of the house, its extravagant interior and exterior decor and the photographs taken at the time, Albert and his family lived in a luxurious way. The mansion is huge, a classic Queen Anne style with turrets, bays and porticos. To maintain his farm and landscaping Albert hired a large staff, many of whom lived on the grounds. (Two houses used by the staff were bulldozed in April 1974.)
The house servants had their quarters within the mansion at the back and off the kitchen. Part of the third floor of the main house was used as a sewing room where local women came in to sew apparel for the ladies in the family and various items for the residence.
The Doblers lived with all the modern conveniences. The house had hot water heating, gas for lights and plumbing, with hot and cold running water.
Two years after the house was completed the Doblers’ daughter Emma married Dr. A. F. Baldinger of Albany and they later moved to Denver, Colorado. The Doblers’ son John married Mildred Loveridge of Defiance, Ohio, in 1899, but remained in the Erie-Fairview area. A niece Clara Mott also lived with the family, although little is known about her adult life.
Albert and his wife lived in the Fairview mansion a little longer than a decade. While there their community support was directed more toward Girard than Fairview. They assisted the Girard fire department, which afterward changed its name to the Dobler Hose and Ladder Company.
TO BE CONTINUED