“Captain Frederick Kautz”
Frederick was born in Baltimore, Md. in 1829. He was the younger brother of
August and Albert Kautz. He lived in Georgetown from 1833 until 1844, when he
moved with the family to Levanna, Brown County, on the Ohio River. Fred would
have been one of the younger children in the “Dutch Hill” School while ‘Lys’ Grant
was a student.
Fred was 15 years old when he moved to the Levanna farm. He worked at
planting grapes on the hillsides for the vineyard and “Broadleaf” tobacco on the
bottom land. Fred took special interest in the tobacco and worked on the family
farm until he was 21.
In 1850, Fred and his brother George got “gold fever” and joined in the California
gold rush. Fred spent three years in California, eventually becoming the sutler
(store keeper) for his brother August’s regiment at Fort Oxford, Oregon and Fort
Steilacoom, Washington Territory.
Fred moved back to Brown County in 1859 and bought a 163 acre farm near
Higginsport, Brown County. He raised horses, corn, and wheat on his farm, but his
cash crop was “Broadleaf” tobacco.
In September 1861 he enlisted and was elected Captain of Co. G 59th OVI. He
served 3 years and fought at Shiloh, Perrysville, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and
the Atlanta Campaign.
Fred returned to his Higginsport farm on furlough some time in the spring of
1863. During that short rest from the war he found his farm manager pulling some
strange lighter-colored tobacco plants out of the beds (the small highly fertile and
protected plot where young tobacco plants grow until large enough to transplant
into the field) and discarding them. Fred told him to save some of those lighter
plants and see what they would become. This was a wise decision because when the
plants grew and the leaves were cured (dried) they produced a much lighter and
milder smoking tobacco. This new variety of tobacco became known as “White
Burley”. It won first prize at the St. Louis World’s Fair and sold for 75 cents per
pound when “Broadleaf” tobacco sold for 7 cents per pound. “White Burley” was
the beginning of the development of the United States cigarette industry. Fred
Kautz’s discovery of “White Burley” changed the agricultural landscape of Brown
County and drove our economy until the late 1990’s. If you can tell the difference
between cigar and cigarette smoke you can tell the difference between “Broadleaf”
and “White Burley” tobacco. It is a “White Burley” plant on the Brown County
flag.
Captain Frederick Kautz’s white burley tobacco is the center point of the
occasionally controversial Brown County flag.
Capt. Kautz rode at the head of his company during most of the major battles
fought in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. He was an effective officer and a brave
patriot. The 59th Ohio Volunteer Regiment was known as one of the toughest
fighting units in the Union army in part because of officers like Frederick R. Kautz.
Frederick Kautz died in 1909 in his beloved Brown County, Ohio. He is buried at
Pisgah Ridge Cemetery next to his wife, Lucinda.