Christopher Werner

Biography

Werner was born at Münster, in Prussian Westphalia (now the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany) in 1805. His father, Burnhard, was a wealthy carriage builder. The young Werner learned his initial blacksmithing skills of iron working in his father's blacksmith shop. Werner was known as a carriage maker, blacksmith, wrought iron worker, and a businessman.

Knowing that he would have to enter the authoritarian Prussian army, Werner instead emigrated to the United States at an unknown date in the 1830s. He took up residence in Charleston, South Carolina, and obtained American citizenship in 1839. He almost certainly arrived in America more than five years before that, as the naturalization process at that time took at least five years to complete. Werner married Isabella Hanna, from Liverpool, England, in 1841. They had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood, with a son named Bernard dying at the age of six. Their children were literate and some received formal schooling. John Hanna was sent to Germany for part of his schooling.

According to the 1850 U.S. Census, in 1850 Werner was 45 years old and his wife about 13 years his junior, with an age of 32. The other family members were Robert H. Werner (9), Mary Werner (8), Bernard Werner (1), and Hannah Werner (65). According to the next census, in 1860 Werner was 55 years old and his wife 14 years his junior, 41 years old, the other family members being Robert Werner (18), Mary Werner (15), Jno. H Werner (4), Grace Werner (1), and Ann Lee (70). They lived in Charleston Ward 4, Charleston, South Carolina. Werner's family grew up as Lutherans.

Career

He followed in his father's footsteps and first became a maker of carriages. He later added a blacksmith shop, a wheelwright shop and a moulding shop to his business as a carriage maker. His foundry was located in Charleston on the street corner of Cumberland and State. His business soon expanded into a large enterprise throughout the state of South Carolina. Werner had an excellent reputation for quality work. It has been said that his work did not need the modest stamp "Werner, fecit" (Werner made it) as the grace and beauty of his work spoke for itself.

During the nineteenth-century there was a type of guild of the "mechanic class" in Charleston which was a group of men with special skills related to the mechanics of blacksmithing. It was more or less a secret society and this "mechanic class" technology information was kept to themselves and not given out to the public for future generations.

Werner liked to construct new buildings and remodel older existing buildings. Because of this he was temporarily located at his project while working on the "old house" and the "new house" and had his address there. He moved within different Charleston addresses, but always kept his foundry business address near State Street and Cunberland Street as a permanent one. In 1859 he advertised in one of the Charleston directories, "C. Werner manufacturer of Railings, Verandahs, and Fancy Iron Works generally, together with repairing & smithery in all branches...No.17 State, near corner of Cumberland St." Most of his temporary addresses were in the vicinity of his foundry business and located generally on State Street, Cumberland Street, and Meeting Street.

Werner strove “to show what could be accomplished in Charleston in the adornment of edifices, to make it worthy of the name of ‘Queen City of the South.’” He was one of three Charleston German immigrants who "created an abundance of the mid-nineteenth century ironwork." The other two were J. A. W. Iusti and Frederick Julius Ortmann.

Works

He constructed iron fences and other wrought iron projects all over South Carolina. He was known for making a business design of a sign with a snake. The snake extended in circles from the wall where it hung by its tail. In the snake's mouth was a sign of the merchant's business clutched by its jaws. A well-known work Warner did was the spiral and finial of St. Matthew's Lutheran church on King Street. He also did all the wrought ironwork for the Abbeville, South Carolina, courthouse.

A memorial sculpture he created was the wrought ironwork of the Palmetto Monument on the Capitol grounds in Columbia, South Carolina, centrally figured as the palmetto tree. The lifelike tri-colored metal sculpture — scarcely distinguishable from a real tree — stood on the Capitol grounds until it was toppled and shattered by a "freak" February 3, 1939, tornado. It was designed by Henry Steenken, who worked in Werner’s shop. The monument was restored and the plates inscribed with the names of South Carolina's war dead — which had been destroyed by Sherman’s army — were restored. See Carolinas Campaign and Army of Georgia.

Werner made the monument without a commission, and as "a speculation." He was relying upon his execution of the sculpture, the tree's importance as a secular and cultural icon, and he knew the horrific extent of the loss the state had suffered. Like “a fisherman, casting and letting the bait settle” he put the monument in front of the old statehouse. He had done it is an homage, embodying the State Seal's palmetto tree and recognizing the terrible price the state and its citizens paid in the Mexican War (1846–1848). The question of payment for the monument and for the associated plaques became embroiled in politics, leaving Werner unhappy and dissatisfied.

Called by some the “Iron Palmetto,” it is the oldest monument at the Capitol. Werner was initially paid $5,000 for the sculpture; he said he had put more than $11,000 into the project.

His creation of the "Sword Gate", most probably designed by well-regarded Charleston architect Charles F. Reichert, is one of the two most notable iron gates in Charleston, the other being the St. Michael's Cemetery Gate by Iusti. Like many of his other works, it was probably ordered by one patron and installed for another, because the work exceeded the contractual cost.

He created the iron gate located at 34 Broad St., Charleston, South Carolina.

According to a 1907 newspaper report Werner's wrought ironwork could then be seen at Mayor Rhett's "handsome old house" on Broad Street in Charleston, previously the John Rutledge House, when Werner did the wrought iron work for the original owner, Thomas N. Gadsden. The entrance gate to Judge Simonton's house at Tradd and Legare Streets was done by Werner. The Rutledge house incorporates two of Werner's favored design elements: palmettos and eagles.

He crafted the iron gates for the Hibernian Hall, a National Historic Landmark built in 1840 to provide a meeting place for the Hibernian Society, an Irish benevolent organization founded in 1801. The Hall was associated with the National Democratic Convention of 1860, a critical political assembly lies United States history. The design includes Irish harps.

Werner continued to work until 1870, having labored for over 30 years. He had been a successor to other master craftsmen who worked in Charleston, and he was one of a triumvirate of German masters of fashioning iron into artful gates. Unfortunately, the product of the craft has always been under siege. According to traditional folklore, sadly, some of Charleston’s "finest" cast iron gates found their way into horseshoes, and even the sides of the CSS Virginia, formerly the USS Merrimack.

The United States Patent Office shows he has patent No.109,694 issued November 29, 1870 for an improvement in awning-frames. Another patent was filed posthumously in 1877 by his wife as No.194,278 on improvements of Werner's previous patent.

Death and burial

Werner died on June 11, 1875, and is buried under a large wrought-iron cross at the entrance to the St. Lawrence Roman Catholic cemetery, Charleston. Werner remembering that he grew up in the Roman Catholic faith wished to be buried in the new cemetery south of Magnolia. His family was surprised by this request because they grew up Lutheran, but his wishes were still honored. Father Daniel J. Quigley, a priest from Charleston's Roman Catholic Cathedral, officiated at the funeral.

Werner's grave is numbered Range Center Plat 1, Lot 1, Grave 1. His age at death was given as seventy years and four months, and the cause of death as chronic hepatitis. After his widow died on June 29, 1894, she was buried alongside him in Plat 1, Lot 1, Grave 2. When the monumental cross was dismantled to be restored, the remains of both were found.