With its rich history as a major port on the Mississippi River, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, is known as the town “where the river turns a thousand tales.” One of those stories is of August “Gus” Shivelbine, a native son who returned home to operate the Arcade Saloon, known as the “wettest corner” in the city and who earned a tribute as “one of the best residents Cape Girardeau ever had.”
Shown here in maturity, Gus was born in May 1855 and baptized into the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church as Ferdinand Wilhelm August Schiewelbein (a.k.a. Shivelbine). Shown below is a map of the Cape Girardeau the boy grew up in, at the time the largest port on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Memphis. The city would get into his blood.
His father, Carl, was a German immigrant who settled in Cape Girardeau, married, and had become sufficiently prosperous to send Gus to Germany to be educated at the University of Heidelberg where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mining engineer. After returning to the U.S. Shivelbine spent four years working as a mining engineer in Northern California.
Drawn back to his home place, for a time he was employed to operate a grain mill in Cape Girardeau, later buying his own mill at a small unincorporated village eight miles north called Egypt Mills. Two years later the mill was destroyed by fire. At that point Shivelbine apparently concluded that selling the liquid essence of the grain was more lucrative than the grain itself and bought a drinking establishment strategically located downtown on CapeGirardeau’s Main Street. Called The Arcade Saloon, his place also featured a restaurant and oyster cafe.
Meanwhile Gus had been courting the daughter of a prominent local innkeeper and saloon operator. She was Amelia Frank, whose German immigrant parents Elizabeth and John Frank, fostered the musical talents of their children. Amelia was known in Cape Girardeau as an accomplished classical pianist. Gus and Amelia were married in what was described as “elaborate wedding” on June 16, 1888. Shown here in a formal photograph, he was 33 and she was 22.
Their wedding reception was held in the new home that Gus had built for Amelia at 303 South Spanish Street. Shown here, the house looked east over the Mississippi River and was a showplace of Queen Anne style, with German influences in the arched windows and decorative woodwork. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the home featured fine interior woodwork including a Victorian staircase, corner fireplace and carved mantel.
Symbolic of their union, Gus commissioned a stained glass window above the main entrance. The couples’ initials are displayed intertwined there, a symbol of their love and his devotion.
Gus Shivelbine proved to be a genial and highly popular saloonkeeper. His drinking establishment became a local institution where businessmen would gather to discuss items of commerce or just let off steam. One journal commented: “Business men in those times thought it necessary to take their best customers to the Arcade for a treat. A Main Street banker boasted that he got his recreation by going to the Arcade each evening for his drink before going home.”
Shivelbine advertised the Arcade widely, as above, even to the use of cartoons to make his point. His saloon was known to be thronged always, not only with businessmen and town notables. According to one observer, crowds of men also congregated both day and night outside the Arcade, an observation validated by a photo of the side of the saloon. The site became generally known as “the wettest corner in the city,” duly excoriated by local Prohibitionists. 
Meanwhile, the Shivelbine family was growing steadily. The couple would have six children of whom five would reach maturity: William, Oscar, Norma Elizabeth, Irene Anna, and Ruth Emma. After the birth of Ruth Emma, 36 year old Amelia, shown here, tragically died in March 1903. The cause given was blood poisoning and acute hemorrhaging brought on by the after-effects of childbearing. Gus was left with the responsibility of caring for and raising his children, including a newborn. Although he must have been heartbroken over his loss he never flinched from that responsibility nor did he ever remarry. 
Instead, Shivelbine threw himself anew into Cape Girardeau’s civic betterment. He served several terms as a city councilman and developed the county fairgrounds on the outskirts of town, shown here, serving as director and general manager of the city’s Fair and Park Association. Credited by the press with having “virtually built the fairgrounds as they now exist,” reporters annually repaired to him for a statement as the event approached. Said one: “The busiest man in town these days is August Shivelbine; he is manager of the grounds for the Fair Association, and it keeps him hustling from morning until night; Shivelbine is having a time locating the many attractions that will be coming, and most of the stalls have been engaged for fast horses….”
As he aged, Shivelbine’s health deteriorated, perhaps hastened by grief over Amelia’s death. After seventeen years successfully operating the Arcade Saloon in 1905 Gus sold it and retired. As related by his obituary in the Southeastern Missouri Daily Republican on February 5, 1906: “While Mr. Shivelbine was a doomed man, according to his physicians, for a long time, and the fact was known to all his most intimate acquaintances, they hoped that Providence would permit him to survive and again take his place in their midst as one of the prominent business men of the city.” The story called Gus “that man with the big heart.” Another obituary characterized the saloonkeeper as “one of the best residents Cape Girardeau ever had.”
Shivelbine’s funeral was held from his mansion home through the auspices of the Knights of Pythias. The coffin was carried through the door under his and Amelia’s intertwined initials on its way to Cape Girardeau’s Fairmount Cemetery where he was laid to rest beside his wife. A tall obelisk marks the site of their burial together.
Despite losing their parents at an early age, the Shivelbine children appear to have done well. The eldest son, William Adam, was a co-founder of Shivelbine Music Store, and the eldest daughter, Norma Elizabeth, trained as a classical pianist at the prestigious Kroeger School of Music, later part of Washington University. Meanwhile the Arcade under different ownership was alleged (by “drys”) to have become a dive and for lack of patronage forced to close about 1918. The space subsequently was occupied by a clothing and shoe store.
Note: This post was drawn from a variety of sources, with newspaper obituaries of August Shivelbine being particularly helpful. The picture of the Shivelbine House is digital artwork by Larry Braun that was placed on the Internet in March 2017.
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