NOTES ON THE BUENA VISTA HOUSE (October 2009)
My daughter, Suzanne Kauss, asked me about the name of the Buena Vista House, the hotel that Wilhelm Wiggenhorn owned in Watertown. How did it happen to be called the Buena Vista House? The original story on page 6, Volume VII, in October 2002 in the article titled “The Buena Vista House – A Family Survivor” briefly answers her question. However, in my records I found a little more information, which might be interesting historically. The article was sent to me many years ago without a date but it adds a little more to answer her question.
BUENA VISTA HOUSE SURVIVOR OF CITY’S EARLY HOTELS
BY EVELYN ROSE
For the Daily Times
Buena Vista House can well be called a survivor. During the 1840s and 50s Watertown (ed. Wisconsin) had extravagant plans for growth. The 1855 population was 8,512, a jump of 7,000 from 1843. It was then the second largest city in the state. New settlers required housing and eating places until they could build their own homes. This growth caused hotels to be built with livery stables as necessary additions… but Buena Vista House, 300 North Fourth Street, still operates... An excerpt in the Jefferson County History of 1879 reads “before the days of the railway the man who couldn’t keep a hotel in Watertown and make money at it, was considered to be a very poor stick indeed.”
Henry Boegel built the Buena Vista House in 1847... The name Buena Vista was fresh in Boegel’s memory. In early 1847 he had served under General Zachary Taylor in the hard fought two-day battle of Buena Vista against the forces of General Santa Ana in the annexation by the United States of Texas in 1845. Boegel built his hotel as a “rendezvous for the Latin farmers.” Other sources say it was a popular gathering place for Germans and Young men about town” and “the first men’s club for the nobility or related to nobility from Europe.”...
For the Daily Times
Buena Vista House can well be called a survivor. During the 1840s and 50s Watertown (ed. Wisconsin) had extravagant plans for growth. The 1855 population was 8,512, a jump of 7,000 from 1843. It was then the second largest city in the state. New settlers required housing and eating places until they could build their own homes. This growth caused hotels to be built with livery stables as necessary additions… but Buena Vista House, 300 North Fourth Street, still operates... An excerpt in the Jefferson County History of 1879 reads “before the days of the railway the man who couldn’t keep a hotel in Watertown and make money at it, was considered to be a very poor stick indeed.”
Henry Boegel built the Buena Vista House in 1847... The name Buena Vista was fresh in Boegel’s memory. In early 1847 he had served under General Zachary Taylor in the hard fought two-day battle of Buena Vista against the forces of General Santa Ana in the annexation by the United States of Texas in 1845. Boegel built his hotel as a “rendezvous for the Latin farmers.” Other sources say it was a popular gathering place for Germans and Young men about town” and “the first men’s club for the nobility or related to nobility from Europe.”...
The October newsletter just published is the story about our ancestor William Wiggenhorn, how much he paid for the Buena Vista House, and how it became famous as a German hotel.