Fehlmann Family Story

The lavish parties that once filled the rooms of Avoca Lodge languished when Molly and J.J. legally separated.  The beloved land that J.J. and Molly had labored over with love was sold in parcels, and from 1906 to 1930 Avoca became a dairy and produce farm for various families that attempted to make a success of the stately property. 

The Fehlmann Family purchases Avoca Lodge in 1928

In 1928 Robert V. Fehlmann and his beloved wife Rose purchased the legendary summer home of Molly and J.J. Brown, and the Fehlmann family’s legacy of love for Avoca Lodge began.  Born in Chicago, IL and forced to leave school in the fifth grade to help support the family, Robert Fehlmann became a man of determination, fortitude and spirit.  The Fehlmann’s oldest daughter, Ferne (Fehlmann) Kurtz, has fond memories of the first Fehlmann home located at 2805 W. Ninth Street in Denver.  “We owned a square block in Denver, and dad grew celery,” claims Ferne.  “Mother was a contemporary city woman, but she donned her overalls to help trim and pack celery.  Every stalk had to be trimmed, packed and sent to the railroad where it was shipped to markets in the East.  Our Denver home had electricity, and all the modern conveniences of the time,” recalls Ferne, “but when a virus attacked dad’s celery crop, the Stock Market crashed in 1929 and the depression set in, Dad knew he could support us by farming. 

We moved to Avoca Lodge when I was seventeen years-old or so, and I remember being disappointed that we didn’t have electricity in our country home.”  The Fehlmann's made their way without electricity until 1941, and Ferne recalls her dad asking the Rural Electric Association (REA) for a quote, but pennies were precious and the quote too high.  “During World War II, REA made a deal to hook up farmers for $5.00 because it was imperative to grow more crops to feed our country and abroad during the war.”

The Fehlmann fortitude was foundational, and working the lands of Avoca became a family affair as Robert, Rose, Rose's mother Mary Malmberg and their four children (Bill, Mary, Ferne and Jane) grew celery, alfalfa hay, onions, carrots, radishes, tomatoes, apples, cantaloupe and a variety of livestock.  Ferne fondly remembers glorious feasts during the days of the Great Depression, as she shares, “Mother learned to can, she churned milk into butter and we always had food on the table in those desperate times.”  In the basement that once bustled with servants preparing and serving scrumptious foods for the Browns in the dining room above, Robert Fehlman was building racks from floor to ceiling to store his unsold onions.  “Mother would rant and rave about the smell of those onions, and we had onions cooked every which way for dinner.”  Rose canned her incredibly delicious apple butter, and the Fehlmann’s will tell you they still smell a whiff of the fragrant aroma in the kitchen pantry.  Perhaps that was Rose’s way to combat the stench of onions that seeped from the basement below.

Rose Raises Her Flock

There are many parodies between the opulent Browns and financially challenged Fehlmanns, and perhaps the most apparent similarity, which likened Rose to J.J., was when the industrious woman propagated her own poultry business.  “My parents were people who used their imagination to make things happen.  They were courageous and it’s remarkable to see what they did with their lives.  Mom raised ducks, chickens, turkeys and geese.  She took her flock and eggs to market, and her poultry business became a big part of the farm.”  One has to think that J.J. Brown planted his own poultry business ideas to Rose’s mind. The rooms of Avoca Lodge were once again filled with love and laughter that perhaps were reminiscent of the Brown family in happier times.

A baby girl, Jane (Fehlmann) Garland, was born, and older sister Ferne boasts to this day, “Jane was the most beautiful baby you ever saw.  She looked like a little doll.   The doctor said she wasn’t thriving on cow’s milk, and recommend we buy a goat, so dad bought Little Brownie for $13.00.  Our family didn’t have much money, but we had plenty of fresh food, including milk and cottage cheese.”

Jane and Ferne worked the farm alongside their parents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  “My parents never had a vacation after moving to Avoca,” Jane proclaims, who remembers the same entrepreneurial spirit possessed Rose Felhmann as it had J.J. Brown.  “Mom’s poultry business was round the clock.  There were times she had to move baby chickens, goslings and turkeys into the kitchen for warmth.  A box full of baby birds could be found under the coal stove, and a wet bird smell mixed with cheep, cheep, cheeps penetrated the air.  Mom saved her money and bought an incubator, which cut down the smell and sounds of the baby birds, and they were moved from under the stove to the dining room table as the incubator was probably seven-feet long.”

An Inventive Family

The Fehlmann sisters loved the family home.  Molly and J.J. Brown’s former servants dropped in to visit with Rose from time to time, and Jane recalls they asked to see the house.  “I remember hearing them tell mom they were Molly’s upstairs maid or carriage driver, and they always wanted to tour or home.  Mom loved showing them the house.  As a child, I knew it was a special house, not because the Brown’s had lived there, but because it was our farm and the Fehlmann home.”

Former Brown servant’s graced the Fehlmann table, but to young Jane, she was more impressed by her father’s ability to call in the family Guernsey cow at the end of the day.  “Around 5:00 PM every night, dad would carry a bucket of grain and call ‘Susie,’ in a long and drawn out song.  Susie would call back to him with an amiable ‘moooo.’  It’s one of my fondest childhood memories.”

Ferne likens the Fehlmann family to the Brown family  because “the Browns and the Fehlmanns were courageous people.  Dad and J.J. were innovative farmers, and the Fehlmann’s picked up where the Brown’s left off to make Avoca Lodge a productive farm.  The Fehlmanns didn’t have money like the Browns, but we were rich in how we used our minds.  Mom and Dad were both inventive, and by their own willpower and determination, they saved the farm.  I’ve never met another man like my dad.  He could fix anything with bailing wire.  My mom and dad were a team.”

Jane echoes her sister’s sentiments, and she adds, “I think Molly and J.J. would be proud  how the Fehlmann family has kept, restored and takes pleasure in owning their once beloved property.  They obviously created Avoca Lodge with love, and they loved the surroundings as much as we do.  This is one of the last historical building in this area, and the Fehlmann’s have worked hard to preserve it.”

A House Preserved

The majestic house is now surrounded by strip malls, subdivisions, busy intersections and the hustle-bustle lifestyle of new millennium living, but the historical treasure found at 2690 South Wadsworth Boulevard in Denver, Colorado links past to present because of the Fehlmann family fortitude.  “I think Avoca teaches what life was like in the past as we preserve it for the future.”

Mary Rose “Mo” (Garland) Shearer represents the third generation of the Fehlmann family women, and her passion to preserve the house is as strong and indomitable as was the unsinkable Molly Brown’s, and that of Fehlmann women past and present.  “I never lived in Avoca, but our family home was just a field away, and there was a well-worn footpath from my door to Grandma Rose’s,” Mo remembers.  “There were oceans of wheat that were as tall as I was, and I danced through the field on a daily basis to go see grandma.”

Robert V. Fehlmann died when his beloved granddaughter was six-years old, and Mo remembers going to Avoca Lodge following the funeral services.  “My dad moved a heavy chair in the parlor, claiming there was a birthday surprise for me under the carpet.  A $5 bill was neatly tucked in a sandwich bag, as if grandpa had purposely left it there for me.  It was a sad day, but I remember being delighted that grandpa remembered my birthday.” 

Holiday festivities are fond family memories for the Fehlmann’s, as Ferne, Jane and Mo recall Rose’s culinary cuisine that made any mouth water.  “Mother put an uncooked pastry shell over the turkey to keep in the moisture.  She’d baste the turkey through the shell, and the shell and turkey browned together.  You never tasted anything as good as that pastry shell that captured the taste of that scrumptious turkey.”

Ferne remembers holiday festivities taking place by Molly’s beloved fireplace with the Italian tile.  “The last thing mom and dad would buy at Christmas was a tree, because trees were cheaper if you waited until the last minute to buy them.  Jimmy, who was a lineman for the telephone company, and he bought us a tree one year.  We were so excited because we had a tree earlier to enjoy longer.  Mother would cook a Christmas goose or turkey, and everything on the table was homegrown.”

Mo’s contemporary holiday memories include “a house full of relatives, and Grandma Rose’s homemade pies.  There were no less than three homemade pies, and the smell of her cooking lingered in the air for days.”

Avoca Lodge holds lasting memories for the three Fehlmann women.  From the stately roofline with the curious crowns atop, to Ferne’s fond memories of a field full of neighborhood children playing baseball in the cow pasture.  “Those games never lasted long,” Ferne laughs, “because the balls would land in fresh piles of cow dung, and we tired of cleaning the ball.”

J.J. Brown’s beloved maple trees that lined his property are gone, but they live on in Ferne’s memory.  “Looking over the valley was the most beautiful sight you ever saw,” recalls Ferne of the now solidly developed area.  “Fall colors of gold and green cascaded throughout the fields, and the Union Pioneer Ditch freely flowed.”

Mo recalls taking baths in Molly Brown’s claw-footed tub that is still a treasure of Avoca.  “After my bath, Grandma Rose would bundle me up to sit on the glider that sat on the south porch.  The squeak and squawk of that glider remains to this day as the beloved glider adorns my porch, and everyone knows never to touch it with an oilcan.  That squeak and squawk reminds me of being with Grandma Rose.”

When Debbie Reynold’s and MGM made Molly Brown a household name through the release of  “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” the Fehlmann family knew their treasured home was a public icon.  “Molly Brown had written her name on the second floor landing, and their signatures are in the downstairs bookcase.  I found jars of coins and a cement horse head hitching post under the back steps,” claims Mo, who is captivated with the historical treasure Molly Brown fondly named Avoca.  “Preserving this house is preserving my heritage.  I think J.J. and Molly looked down and protected my grandparents during the depression.  They struggled to keep a roof over their heads, and I think the Brown’s would be proud of how the Fehlmann’s struggled and sacrificed to keep the house.”

Rose Fehlmann died at Avoca in 1977.  Rose was 90 yeas old, and insisted on caring for Avoca in much the same manner she had alongside her beloved husband, Robert.  As shopping malls, subdivisions and traffic surrounded her,  Rose could be found in the front yard, attired in a wide brimmed straw hat and mid-calf skirt covered by a striped apron chopping wood.  The old coal stove that Jane once filled and cleaned its ashes remained in use. And as her predecessor Molly Brown had done, Rose Fehlmann had a spirit of giving.  No one went away from her table hungry, and if someone was without, and Rose had the power to give. . .it was done.  The Browns and the Fehlmann’s have learned to stand on their own two feet, to work hard and to make their dreams come true under the roof of Avoca Lodge.

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