James Riggin - George Bernays House

This stately Lebanon home is known as the James Riggin/George Bernays House. Although Riggin was associated with this address by the late 1830s, including a 2.5-story house by 1847, the Italianate-style house appears to date to around 1866 but parts of the earlier house where Riggin lived may have been incorporated into the new construction. In the mid-1860s, a wealthy physician from St. Louis named George Bernays relocated to Lebanon and lived in this house. A member of the Bernays family graduated from McKendree College and became a well-known surgeon. By the turn of the twentieth century, the house was the home of the head of McKendree's Music Department, Fred Pesold. The historic house is part of the Lebanon National Register Historic District, listed in 1978.

James Riggin was born in Tennessee in 1794 and moved to Illinois in 1818 with his older brother, Harry. They settled in a new town called Troy and married Rogers sisters. James and his new wife, Elizabeth M., moved to Lebanon, where Riggin was successful in a mercantile business. James was one of the 105 subscribers who founded Lebanon Seminary in 1828 (which became McKendree College in 1830); he served as a trustee and secretary of the college for years. James and Elizabeth had at least two children: William Bolivar, born in St. Clair County (Lebanon) in 1826, and James H., born in Illinois.

James H. Riggin graduated from the local Methodist college, McKendree, in 1850. At college, Riggin founded one of the school's literary societies, the Platonian. He was a successful businessman in Lebanon after graduation, but he suffered from a mental breakdown several years later and was placed in a hospital for the insane at Jacksonville. James H. died at the hospital years later and is buried in Lebanon's College Hill Cemetery. His brother, William B., graduated from McKendree in 1851 at age 25 and was a member of the other literary society, the Philosophian. He studied medicine and earned an M.D. degree but died in 1856 in North Carolina. James Riggin (Sr.) died in 1858; he is buried in College Hill Cemetery, along with his wife Elizabeth, who lived until 1875. The widowed Elizabeth was living with her son James H. in 1860.

George Bernays was a wealthy physician who either had the house built on the former Riggin lot from scratch in the 1860s or incorporated some of the Riggin House into his new Italianate style home. The main block of the brick house is two stories with a three-story front tower. In 1870, George (age 46) was still working as a physician; he was born in Bavaria and owned $8,000 in real estate plus $1,600 in personal property. He shared his Lebanon home with wife Wilhelmina (36), a native of Prussia; sons John (17, store clerk), Augustus (15) and Clemens (13); and daughters Thekla (14) and Lily (9). John was born in Alabama and the other children were natives of Illinois. Also living in the Bernays home were Louisa Doerung (46); domestic servant Caterina Nolt (16); Paulina Mueller (22), and Augusta Mueller (20).

George Bernays' son, Augustus, was a brilliant student who graduated from McKendree College at age 18. The Bernays family moved to Germany around 1874 so that Augustus could study medicine at Heidelberg University. We worked in several places in Europe and was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons. When he returned to the U.S., Dr. Augustus Bernays settled in St. Louis. He was a pioneer in abdominal surgery and the use of antiseptic treatments; he was a noted teacher and invented several surgical instruments.

Another child of George Bernays, daughter Thekla, also attended McKendree College, after they began admitting women. Thekla was born in Madison, Illinois around 1846. She did not graduate college because of the family's move to Germany, but McKendree awarded her an honorary degree in 1902 to recognize her literary work. She wrote a book about her brother Augustus, the surgeon's career, and was published in magazines and newspapers. She lived in St. Louis and then New York City by the late 1920s.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, an alleyway was cut through the large lot, near the rear wings. The house lot was reduced in size to about the northwest quarter of the prior lot by the 1910s. Fred Pesold, who headed McKendree's Music Department, owned the house in this era. Pesold was born in 1851 and came to Lebanon from Germany in 1869. Fred married Louise Reinhart of Lebanon in 1873. While in Germany, Fred received musical training from his grandfather who was a friend of noted composer Richard Wagner. Pesold had a music studio in Lebanon on the second floor of a commercial building, above his jewelry store. For many years, Fred directed the Lebanon Singing Society. Fred died in 1926 and is buried in College Hill Cemetery.

Clear Digital Media, Inc. College Hill Cemtery - Saint Clair County, Illinois, Interment.net. January 1st, 2021. Accessed January 5th, 2023. http://www.interment.net/data/us/il/stclair/college/collegehill_mopl.htm.

Dagutis, Schalene J. Riggin/ Pesold House, Lebanon, Illinois, Tangled Roots and Trees. March 11th, 2019. Accessed January 5th, 2023. http://tangledrootsandtrees.blogspot.com/2019/03/rigginpesold-house-lebanon-illinois.html.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of George Bernais in Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois, dwelling 88, family 86. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1870.

Wagner, Robert. NRHP Nomination of Lebanon Historic District, St. Clair County, Illinois. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1977.

Walton, William Clarence. Centennial McKendree College with St. Clair County History. Lebanon, IL. McKendree College, 1928.