For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 736
FREDERICK HUTTIG....A splendid figure on the stage of action, many activities were quickened by the touch of Frederick Huttig. He became the strong center of the community in which he moved and his business record at all tmes balanced up with principles of truth and honor. To have instituted and controlled mammoth business interests in the attainment of notable success entitles one to more than passing notice, but the life work of Frederick Huttig contains many valuable lessons which may be profitably considered and pondered. His record was never that of a self-centered life. While he attempted many important things he accomplished what he attempted, his success never representing another's loss but was the result of effort intelligently applied. While his name is inseparably interwoven with the history of Muscatine, his labors extended into many other fields, becoming an important feature in business activity in a number of more prominent cities of the Mississippi valley as president of the Huttig Manufacturing Company.His birth occurred near Jena, the old capital of the duchy of Saxe-Weimer, Germany, on the 10th of June, 1832. He was christened Charles Frederick Huttig but after coming to America dropped the first name. The family numbered four sons, his elder brothers being Carl and Chris, and his younger brother, William Huttig. The father, Frederick Huttig, was born in Germany in 1790 and was a youthful soldier of the war of 1806, prior to the campaign of Napoleon in Russia and the burning of Moscow. His wife bore the maiden name of Dorothea Sieberg.
Jena at the time of the birth of Frederick Huttig of this review was a city of about fifteen thousand population and in its schools he was educated and not only mastered the elementary branches but also obtained instruction along mechanical and industrial lines. He thought to devote his life to architecture, yet he did not follow the profession long after leaving school. The opportunities which he heard were to be enjoyed in America led him to leave the fatherland in March, 1853, as a passenger on the sailing vessel Anadalia, with New Orleans as his destination. He was then a young man of twenty-one years. The voyage was at length completed and from the Crescent City, he made his way northward to Muscatine, Iowa, being influenced in his choice of a destination by the fact that he had friends living in this city. He often recalled with interest the contrast between his first voyage across the Atlantic, covering ninety days, and one which he made in later years in six days. For a brief period he was employed at the mason's trade in Muscatine. During the greater part of his residence here, however, he was in business on his own account. He and his brother formed a partnership that continued for a half century under the firm style of the Huttig Brothers. They opened a grocery store opposite the Weed & Bridgman block, where they remained for some time, and in 1868 they turned their attention to the lumber business, in which field they long operated with splendid success. After two years they established a sash, door and blind manufactory and their activities in that direction were so successful and their business grew so rapidly that they became known in that connection throughout the entire country. In 1881 they erected a mammoth factory and plant in Muscatine and the business was incorporated with Frederick Huttig as president: William Huttig as manager and treasurer : E. Lumpe as vice president ; and Harry Huttig as secretary. In 1883 they incorporated the Western Sash & Door Company of Kansas City, Missouri, with William Huttig as president. This was but an initial step in the constant broadening out of their enterprise. In 1885 the Huttig Brothers established the Huttig Sash & Door Company of St; Louis, and Charles Huttig, who had been admitted to the company, was chosen to manage its operations. In time they extended their field to include Wichita, Kansas, and St; Joseph, Missouri, and their ramifying interests reached out to all parts of the country.
Aside from their operations in the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds, the Huttig Brothers, Frederick and William, in December, 1887, joined with other liberal republicans and democrats of Muscatine in organizing the Muscatine News Company, the purpose of which was to publish a daily and weekly newspaper for distribution in the city and county of Muscatine and for the disemination and support of liberal political ideas. Frederick Huttig was a stanch believer in the principles of democracy yet he placed the public good before all partisanship and did not believe in making politics a feature of local elections where no issue was involved. He therefore joined in the movement to organize the News Tribune and his business energy, enterprise and resourcefulness contributed to the success of the paper in its earlier years. In 1888 the brothers organized the Muscatine Real Estate Company and in this undertaking were joined by a number of local capitalists. They were also the organizers of the Ashton Flour and Feed Company in the same year. Everything which they undertook seemed to prosper, owing to the keen business discernment of the two brothers. Frederick Huttig was also connected with a number of other important enterprises and his life was an extensively busy one. He became a potent factor in many movements for the welfare of the city and was recognized as a power and strength in the commercial and industrial life of Muscatine.
It was here in 1856 that Frederick Huttig was married to Miss Sophia Snell, whose death occurred in 1889. Mr. Huttig was again married in 1894, at which time Mrs. Hannah Tappe became his wife. He had five children by his first marriage, namely : William Huttig, who is now the president of the Western Sash & Door Company, of Kansas City, Missouri ; Charles H., who is president ot the Third National Bank of St. Louis ; Lena, the deceased wife of Henry Gremmel, of Kansas City ; Katherine, the wife of Robert Beyers, of the Huttig Sash & Door Company of St. Louis ; and Frederick, vice president of the Western Sash & Door Company of Kansas City.
Mr. Huttig was prominent in Masonry, attaining the Master Mason degree on the 26th of April, 1879, in Iowa City. He died at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, on the evening of May 11, 1906, a few days before his seventy-fourth birthday, and his remains were brought back to Muscatine for interment in Greenwood cemetery, where the burial occurred on the 13th of May, the services being conducted in the German Evangelical church. He had but recently returned from a winter's sojourn in Los Angeles, California, and on the 2d of May was stricken with paralysis, his death occurring nine days later. The news of his death carried with it a sense of personal loss to his many friends, his associates and his old employees in Muscatine. He was not only a man of unbounded enterprise but also of unimpeachable integrity and he achieved remarkable results. His life record proves what can be accomplished when determination, perseverance and talent are arrayed against drawbacks, poverty and trials. The result is almost certain, for the former are invincible and know no defeat. Starting out in life without any vaulting ambition to accomplish something especially great or famous, Mr. Huttig followed the lead of his opportunities, doing his best to do anything that came to hand and seizing legitimate advantages as they arose. He never hesitated to take a forward step when the way was open. Fortunate in possessing ability and character that inspired confidence in others, the single weight of his character and ability carried him into important relations with large interests, while the course that he followed made his name synonymous with commercial integrity as well as success.
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