Discovering Emma Koehler

Four generations of my family have lived in San Antonio. Though I claim it as my birth town, I grew up in Denver. At the time, everyone I knew was from Colorado, so when someone asked where I was from, I proudly said, “I was born in Texas.” There was something exotic about it back then. Like I came from cowboy country.

We took annual trips to the Alamo City. A twenty-four hour drive at the time, due mostly to my dad’s smoke breaks and his aversion to picking up fast food and eating it in the car. But we got there eventually and did our regular pilgrimage to visit extended family and see familiar sites.

One of my favorite places to drive by was the defunct Pearl Brewery. Before I even knew what historical fiction was, I would see the shell of the old brewery from Broadway Street and imagine the things that might have happened there.

Fast forward a few decades, a few careers, and four kids later, and San Antonio was once again my home. I still drove by – this time it was me behind the wheel – that Pearl area and wondered about its history.

Around the time I was writing my first book, The Memory of Us, something began to happen at Pearl. There were signs of life. Real estate around it was improving. Construction vehicles were appearing. I watched and watched. And fell in love.

Eventually, the developer who bought the land turned it into the best area of San Antonio – a spectacular farmers’ market and collection of boutiques. But the crown jewel – the brewery itself – remained elusive. Some time later, black paint went up announcing – Hotel Emma.

When the hotel was finally unveiled, it drew gasps of marvel, and was, in fact, named one of the Best New Hotels in the World by Conde Nast. Keeping the integrity of the brewery – with its tall smokestacks, railroad tracks, and industrial feel, it was truly sensational.

But I was left with one question: Who is “Emma” to have had such an incredible place named after her?

Remember, I have a long history with San Antonio and no one I knew had any idea who Emma was. So I dug in.  By this time, I had finished my fourth historical fiction book and was well-versed in writing and research.

Emma Koehler was married to Otto Koehler, one of the most wealthy men in America. Though he owned and ran Pearl Brewery, his interests were divided among mining and railroad interests as well. When Emma was handicapped in an automobile accident, her husband hired two nurses to care for her – each also named Emma.

And Otto ended up having affairs with both of them.

One of the Emmas murdered him.

After Otto’s death, Emma-the-wife took over the brewery, quickly doubling business and successfully leading it through Prohibition and the Great Depression.

It had all the makings of a terrific story. 

And that’s where everything stopped. That’s nearly all I could find out about Emma Koehler. Despite attempts to find relatives, journals, documents, etc., my efforts came up short. Even a visit with the hotel’s historian produced little more than what I’d found out on my own. So now, I was faced with a particular crossroads – either radically fictionalize Emma’s story and fill in the gaps with imagination, create a secondary character with her own story, or scrap the idea.

I almost scrapped the idea. 

I revisited other book ideas I had, but somehow Emma kept calling me back.

The reason some of these incredible women are lost to history is that we know too little of their stories to even tell them. But we can’t let that happen. We can’t let their voices – already muffled through decades and centuries of silencing – go unheard. 

So I pressed on. I dug deeper for any shred of fact so that I could make her story as accurate as possible. I visited breweries and learned about the process of beer-making. I created a character with a modern girl in mind – one who needed – as we all do – the strength of a pioneer woman to press on with today’s challenges.

Maybe that’s what it was meant to be all along. We need the stories of the women before us help us become the women we need to be. And that is exactly what The First Emma is. The inspiration of Emma Koehler told to an everyday girl whose life changes as soon as she realizes that she, too, has wells of strength she didn’t realize.

That is the true power of historical fiction. We magnify the quieted voices and give them the pedestals that they deserve. 

So I’m happy to introduce you to Emma Bentzen Koehler.

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Camille Di Maio recently left an award-winning real estate career in San Antonio to become a full-time writer. Along with her husband of twenty-one years, she enjoys raising their four children. She has a bucket list that is never-ending, and uses her adventures to inspire her writing. She’s lived in Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and California, and spends enough time in Hawai’i to feel like a local. She’s traveled to four continents (so far), and met Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II. She just about fainted when she had a chance to meet her musical idol, Paul McCartney, too.

Camille studied political science in college, but found working on actual campaigns much more fun. She overdoses on goodies at farmers markets (justifying them by her support for local bakeries) and belts out Broadway tunes whenever the moment strikes. There’s almost nothing she wouldn’t try, so long as it doesn’t involve heights, roller skates, or anything illegal.

Connect with her at http://camilledimaio.com/

Follow her on Twitter  @CamilleDiMaio

THE FIRST EMMA

Inspired by true events

1914 – Young bride Emma Koehler dreams of a happy marriage and a simple life with her husband, but her hopes are quickly dashed by Otto’s obsession with his business. Though they become one of the wealthiest couples in the country – a fortune made on beer, mining, and hospitality – Emma is lonely in their stone mansion, unable to have children and unable to keep his attentions at home. When a tragic accident changes everything, Otto presents a new betrayal – and Emma must choose between loyalty and independence in a world that demands convention.

1943 – Mabel Hartley flees Baltimore after the war leaves her broken and alone. She answers the advertisement of a dying woman in San Antonio, with an urgent plea to come write her memoirs. In Emma Koehler, Mabel discovers astounding resilience – a pioneer who weathered personal devastation and navigated her large brewery through the storm of Prohibition. Soon Mabel realizes that Texas holds more for her than this new friendship. Romance blooms even as she’s given up on love, and an unexpected phone call gives her hope that not all goodbyes are final.

The First Emma is a moving story of love, hope, and murder that captures one woman’s journey to make her mark on history and another’s desire to preserve it.

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips