Saturday, January 4, 2014

Ferdinand G. Stoltz




The building at 229 S. Main street is now painted purple, yellow and white, and home to Primitive Treasures, an antique store.

This undated image of downtown Ottawa, Kansas shows the building in its original condition. Notice the Indian totem outside the building. I am searching for information on "F. Stoltz Mfg." Not much comes up. One item is a short article by Louis Reed of the Ottawa Herald in 2011 (copied in full below).



Ferdinand G. Stoltz, Cigar Mfg., Ottawa, Kansas
"Ferdinand G. Stoltz, who has been proprietor of the Stoltz Cigar Store for the past 17 years and who is a prominent cigar manufacturer in the city, has sold his business to the Morris Bros. Cigar Co. Stoltz will retire Feb. 15. “Ferd” Stoltz is a cigar manufacturer of the old school. He started in his trade 49 years ago, beginning at the A-B-C part of it and working right up. His first lessons began in Hamburg, Germany, where he worked as an apprentice and continued there until he came to America to make his home. When he started out, there was no machinery, all the work being by hand. And Stoltz, even to this day, makes all his cigars by hand"
Louis Reed in the Ottawa Herald in 2011.

Then I came across this image of the Stoltz Christmas tree in the Franklin County, Kansas image bank.

Stoltz Christmas tree

Finally, in 1907, the Kansas Department of Labor lists F. Stoltz, tobacco and cigars as  a manufacturer in Ottawa, Kansas:

Manufacturers in Ottawa, Kansas 1907.