PAGE 22 ■ DUBOIS COUNTY HERITAGE
THE HERALD ■ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2016
Dubois County businesses have storied history From Herald Staff Reports
Gerber, Joseph L. Eckstein and Joseph F. Friedman.
Meet some of Dubois County’s heritage businesses: Jasper Desk While Custer was dodging bullets and arrows at his last stand at Little Bighorn under the leadership of U.S. Commanderin-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, desks and household furniture were being built from the ground up by a team of cabinet and furniture makers at the Jasper Desk Company, albeit under a different name. That was 1876. In 1895 at the Kansas City World’s Fair, the company received an award for its desk. In 1906, the company was shipping a rail carload of desks to San Francisco to replace some destroyed in the great earthquake and fire. In 1960, President John F. Kennedy, while campaigning, gave a televised appeal from Washington, D.C., while seated at a walnut conference unit made by the Jasper Desk Company. Starting out, a trio of entrepreneurs — John Gramelspacher, Sebastian Keubler and Frank Joseph — bought the Alles Brothers Furniture Company from the Alles brothers, who retained stock in the company. In 1894, the company employed 50 hands, had 18 machines and had 25 patterns of desks made from walnut, white oak and cherry woods. Prices ranged from $13 to $55 a unit. The Alles Brothers mainly built household furniture. The name was changed to Jasper Furniture Company and, with the addition of desks to the product line, the name changed again — this time to Jasper Furniture and Desk Company — around 1889. It wasn’t until the early part of the 20th century (1913) that “furniture” was dropped and the business was renamed the Jasper Desk Company, identifying the company’s chief product. Today, the Jasper Desk Company still is shipping desks and office furniture throughout the world and the company’s website bills the business as the oldest wood office manufacturer in the United States. Huntingburg Wagon Works In 1874, William Roettger and Ben Klosterman formed a partnership that later would become Huntingburg Wagon Works at 321 Fourth St., according to the Dubois County Museum. The company built a plant at Fifth and Washington streets in 1902 and eventually expanded its line of handmade wagons to include buggies and spring wagons as it acquired other companies. In 1925, the company began a car dealership in Hudson-Essex automobiles before the company was sold in 1958 and moved to Arkansas. But visitors to City Hall today can glimpse the past as they are greeted by a 1901 Huntingburg Roadster buggy, the only one known to still exist. A 1920s pony cart and an early 1940s hitch wagon also are exhibited on City Hall’s second floor. The original wagon works building at 321 Fourth St. was sold in 1902 to Henry Dufendach, who opened a hardware store there. In the 1930s, Dufendach sold his hardware business to Reutepohler Hardware Co. Reutepohler enlarged the store and also sold furniture, rugs and household supplies. Indiana Desk Many young men of the county became skilled in woodworking at the “desk factory” in the early years. To provide employment for the increasing number of skilled workers and apprentices, a second factory was organized on March 5, 1905, under the name of Jasper Novelty Works. This firm was financed by local capital, a considerable part by men who were woodworkers themselves. Like the original plant, this factory soon found sufficient demand for desks, discontinued its original plan to produce novelty furniture and on April 25, 1927, changed its name to Indiana Desk Co. Joseph M. Sturm, the first manager, and Joseph Jahn, superintendent, were active in the organizational work. Both men were instrumental later in organizing other plants. The original board of directors of Indiana Desk comprised George P. Mehringer, president; Alois Schaaf, vice president; Joseph Sturm, secretary; Jacob Jahn, Joseph
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JOHN FIERST
Joseph L. Eckstein Lumber Company, First and Clay streets, Jasper.
Huntingburg tobacco Huntingburg was on the Southern Railway Co. mainline from Louisville to St. Louis and one of the industries benefitting from that was tobacco. Herman Rothert had a four-story tobacco handling warehouse at Fourth and Geiger streets where area farmers sold their crop and workers processed the tobacco. In the same year Huntingburg became a city, 1889, a large fire destroyed 17 buildings along Fourth and Geiger streets, including Rothert’s tobacco business. Hugo Songer, a Duff native, judge, area historian and author of “The History of Huntingburg,” said the tobacco industry never recovered from the fire. As for the railroad, the Huntingburg portion of the railway and the old train depot off Washington Street between State Road 64 and Fifth Street were finished in 1882. Songer has said the railroad’s importance cannot be overemphasized. Huntingburg went from a little village of 300-plus people to somewhere near 3,000 in about 10 years. The train depot was torn down but the Huntingburg Event Center on 14th Street is modeled after it. Hoosier Desk The success of Indiana Desk and the development of more skilled workers led to the establishment of another factory on Aug. 20, 1915, known as the Jasper Manufacturing Co. This concern also found it advantageous to standardize in the manufacture of office desks and tables. On Jan. 1, 1922, the name was changed to the Hoosier Desk Co. The original executives were Albert Bohnert, president; Joseph Jahn, vice president; Louis J. Eckstein, secretary; Felix Schneider, treasurer; William Bockelman, director. The first manager was Louis Seibert.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HUNTINGBURG PUBLIC LIBRARY
Huntingburg Furniture Plant No. 1, Eighth and Van Buren streets.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JOHN FIERST
Alles Brothers Furniture Store, Public Square, Jasper.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HUNTINGBURG MUSEUM
Uhl Pottery, Huntingburg.
Huntingburg Dry Press Brick Early Huntingburg settlers recognized the value of clay deposits in a hill northwest of Huntingburg and kilns were erected for burning brick, according to Songer’s “History of Huntingburg.” Adolph Katterhenry was one of the first brick makers with a permanent facility a half mile north of Huntingburg. In 1892, Huntingburg’s Dry Press Brick Company was organized by W.R. McMahan, Mike McNelis, Adam Stratman, Henry Landgrebe and A.H. Koerner. The company made buff-colored face brick. Another firm, Southern Indiana Clay Products (later known as Patoka Brick Company), made red-colored brick from shale. In the mid-1920s, both firms sold out to Central Brick Company of Chicago. The operation wound up in the hands of a receiver during the Great Depression and, in 1934, a group of business and professional men purchased the defunct company and incorporated the Huntingburg Brick Company. In May 1968, Charles C. Niehaus bought control of the company and the kilns west of Main Street were converted to natural gas for burning the brick. When natural gas proved too expensive, the kilns were converted back to coal, which ran afoul of the Indiana Clean Air Act of 1968. Operations ceased June 1, 1975, according to Songer’s history book. JOFCO The fourth entry into the field of desk manufacturing in Jasper was the Jasper Office Furniture Co., which was organized in February of 1922. Later the firm’s promotion and advertising stressed a shortened version of the company name and in 1965 JOFCO was officially registered. The organizers and original board consisted of Joseph M. Sturm, president and general manager, Victor F. Sturm, Dr. E.A. Sturm, William F. Sturm and John M. Schnaus. Joseph Sturm was succeeded as manager in 1924 by his son, Victor, who served in that capacity for 11 years. Jim Wallace was manager from 1935 until 1953 when Rudy Sturm was appointed. The company recently merged with Jasper Group. Continued on Page 24