William Mohs
People are Complicated - the Story of William Mohs and Lady Spray
William Mohs was born in 1852 in Sonnenberg, Germany. When he was sixteen years old, he immigrated to the United States with his father and brother. By the time Mohs was thirty-two years old, he was an established property and business owner in Fountain Square…before it was Fountain Square. Mohs owned what was known as Mohs Block or Mohs Hall, a community gathering place with an open market, several storefronts, and a Masonic Lodge. In addition to owning the building, Mohs owned a saloon within, a contemporary to Sam’s Saloon, and a retail shoe business in Mohs Block. He was, by most accounts, a successful and wealthy businessman.
William Mohs was born in 1852 in Sonnenberg, Germany. When he was sixteen years old, he immigrated to the United States with his father and brother. By the time Mohs was thirty-two years old, he was an established property and business owner in Fountain Square…before it was Fountain Square. Mohs owned what was known as Mohs Block or Mohs Hall, a community gathering place with an open market, several storefronts, and a Masonic Lodge. In addition to owning the building, Mohs owned a saloon within, a contemporary to Sam’s Saloon, and a retail shoe business in Mohs Block. He was, by most accounts, a successful and wealthy businessman.
As his success grew, so did his willingness to skirt the law. More than once police arrested Mohs for violating temperance laws related to serving liquor after a certain nighttime hour or in a certain manner. In one account, police investigated Mohs’ saloon on a report it was not operating pursuant to the Nicholson Act, which was a temperance movement era law requiring saloon owners to be very explicit regarding the location of their alcohol sales prior to receiving a liquor license. Mohs was allegedly operating a speakeasy of sorts in the cellar of his saloon, where police found “a keg of beer on tap, an improvised counter, and some nickels upon it.” During that particular police visit, Mohs “rushed out of the door, and tore down the street” and police were unable to immediately locate him. Police surmised Mohs would return to the saloon eventually “as he owns property in this city.” News stories frequently reported Mohs’ run ins with the law, however, the public record also indicated many of the charges against him were “nullified.”
Unfortunately, Mohs’ interaction with local police was not limited to his disregard for alcohol laws. He was also abused his wife and family. Mohs married his wife, Anna, in 1873 and the couple had nine children together. On August 8, 1898, newspapers reported police were called to Fountain Square and found Anna barefoot in the street, surrounded about approximately 150 people, after she had fled her residence after Mohs attacked her. Mohs was charged with drunkenness and disturbing the peace, for which he was convicted and assessed an aggregate $6 fine. In 1912, shortly after he and Anna were divorced, Mohs attacked his adult daughter, Mabel, with such force it was, for a time, unclear whether she would live or die. Interestingly, as with his alcohol law-related charges, Mohs was acquitted of any wrongdoing in Mabel’s attack because the doctors who examined Mabel immediately after the incident “admitted they could not tell how the injuries were received.”
Despite his general disregard for the law and the terror he wrought upon his family, Mohs seemed to value his community. Mohs Hall was often the location of southside community rallies during which then-Mayor Taggart would speak about improvements to the southside, including a new southside marketplace in Mohs Hall and expansion of Garfield Park. Perhaps the most significant contribution Mohs made to the area was our beloved Lady Spray, in her original form. In 1885, Mohs chaired a committee to erect a drinking fountain near Mohs Hall. In April 1885, newspapers reported the project had stalled because the committee had failed to reach its goal of $800 to purchase a fountain. However, it would seem the delay was temporary, as on July 31, 1885, over 4,000 southside residents gathered in front of Mohs Hall for the unveiling of the Subscription Fountain, or Lady Spray. In the article about the celebration, it was noted Mohs “deserved public credit for engineering the project through to its completion.” Judge John Caves spoke at the celebration and opined the new fountain would “make property on the Southside more valuable than at present.” The fountain, by all accounts, was a welcome addition to the area and remains so today in its current iteration.
Mohs died in April 1915 and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery. Shortly after his death, in October 1915, an “automobile truck” broke Lady Spray “into more than a dozen pieces” when it ran into “the feed wires, strung across the street” as part of a Halloween celebration. (NOTE: this is a correction to the earlier article from FSNA). After Mohs’ death, his heirs fought over his property, which had been deeded to them via Mohs’ will with certain conditions. Eventually, the Mohs family leased out Mohs Hall, which would be subsequently torn down become the site for another jewel of Fountain Square, the Fountain Square Theatre. But that’s a story for another month.
