25 - The Merkel Tobacconists
The Merkel family at household 25 proved to be quite a challenge to research due to the various ways that the head of the household recorded his name.
In 1871 the Tobacconist's shop was lived in and run by Louis George Merkel and his wife Hannah whose maiden name also had multiple spellings.
Hannah was born in Stockport in 1850 and her surname was Bettney or Betteney. She and her family lived on Welcroft Street in what is now Shaw Heath, where her father George worked as a "Rag Picker". Her mother was called Mary and her sister was Sarah Anne. George died in 1852, leaving Mary widowed with 2 very young children.
3 years after George Betteney died, Mary had an illegitimate son named George, followed by another son out of wedlock in 1857 named Samuel Stansfield. We know from the 1861 census that Mary was not working but had 2 lodgers; Samuel Stansfield, a joiner and John Broadhurst, a hatter. Hannah was 10 by this point and not listed as being in work.
In 1864 Hannah's sister Sarah Anne died aged just 16.
Mary went on to marry John Broadhurst, her lodger, in 1872. She lost another child in 1876 when Samuel died aged 19 due to a disease of the digestive organs. He had married just a year earlier and had a daughter and a son on the way.
Meanwhile, in 1870 Hannah Betteney had married George Lewis Merkel. He was working as a finisher and was born in Germany to George Merkel, a baker. Confusingly, in the 1871 census he was listed as Louis George Merkil and Hannah seems to appear twice, on Romiley Road but also still living with her mother.
In 1873 the tobacconist's business failed and a creditors meeting was set up where they agreed to take 3s 6d in the £ from the Merkels. They couple decided to leave Romiley behind, moving to Widnes. They started a new business as hosier, hatter and general dealer.
Then in 1876 when Samuel died, his daughter Sarah Ann went to live with her grandmother Mary and step grandfather John Broadhurst. The baby that Samuel never met was named after him, and was adopted by Hannah and George Louis. They lived on 39 Widnes Road where they ran their draper and hatter shop.
By 1884 the Merkels had opened two more shops, one at Waterloo Road and one in Padiham. However, by July 1885 George Louis had declared bankruptcy, owing over £262. It appears he had bought too much stock for his first shop so decided to open the new shops to try to sell it. Unfortunately, fashions were constantly changing and his stock was outmoded. When questioned about the efforts he had gone to to remedy the situation, the newspaper mentioned that he spoke in a "strong foreign accent".
An article about theft from the Merkel shop tells us that they had moved to number 84 Widnes Road and ran a shop from there. However, by the 1891 census it seems that whilst Hannah was working selling hats, George was working as a hatter. At the age of 13 their adopted son Samuel worked as a Cooper's apprentice. This is the last record I was able to find for George.
The next evidence I could find for the family was in 1895 where Hannah was living alone on Widnes Road and working as a hatter. However, I also found evidence that Hannah had been admitted to the Rainhill Lunatic Asylum in 1894. There was certainly a H Merkel at the asylum in 1901 during the census. I found a death record for a Hannah Merkell in Liverpool in 1911.
Meanwhile Samuel had returned to Stockport where he lived with his grandmother Mary. He was married to Gertrude Faulkner in 1899 and they had 5 children in total. He worked as a hatter warehouseman.
By 1921 Samuel was working for Battersby and Co, one of the most famous hatters that made 12,000 hats a week. 3 of his children were working for Messrs H Faulder Ltd, which was a Chocolate and confectionary business. It later became known as Squirrel Chocolate and Confectionary Company. His son Stanley remained in the chocolate business, finding work as a Boiler Fireman at Cadbury's by 1939.
Son Wilfred was working as a painter and decorator in 1939 but the war changed that. In 1942, whilst fighting in Libya, he was captured and taken to a German Prisoner of War camp. It was later discovered that he had been transferred to a camp in Italy and Samuel and Gertrude heard nothing at all from him for 18 months. They must have been incredibly relieved to receive a postcard in March 1944. He wrote that he was in "the best of health" and "being treated very well". Later that year he was transferred to Oflag VIII F camp in Germany. He was finally released in 1945.
Samuel's eldest daughter Doris had already died by then, in 1940 at the age of 40, leaving a husband and a 9 year old son behind.
Samuel died on 22nd October 1950.