For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 566
HARRY W. HUTTIG....Among the active business men of Muscatine who are now occupying important positions and giving employment to a large number of persons, thus assisting very materially in advancing the interests of the city, is Harry W. Huttig, treasurer and manager of the Huttig Manufacturing Company. He was born of German-American parentage, his father being William Huttig, a native of Germany, and his mother Catharine Becker, a native of Ohio. The father was reared in Jena, Germany, and, having early shown a decided talent for music, became a music teacher. He was an ambitious young man and, desiring more favorable opportunities, emigrated to America at nineteen years of age locating at Muscatine, Iowa, where he has been ever since. He taught music for several years but was attracted to mercantile business and in 1871 established a grocery store. Later he went into the lumber business and in 1871 established in a small way a sash, door and blind factory, which under his good management has grown from year to year until it now gives employment to about four hundred persons, operating under the title of Huttig Manufacturing Company, with the following officers : William Huttig, president ; J. R. Swearingen, vice president ; L. L. Richards, secretary ; and Harry W. Huttig, treasurer and general manager. For ten or twelve years past Mr. Huttig has not participated actively in the business of which he was the founder. He is a stockholder in the First National Bank and has always taken great interest in public enterprises, being one of the most respected citizens of Muscatine. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted with his band of musicians and served for three months. He and his wife are members of the Protestant Evangelical church. The grandfather of our subject on the paternal side was a farmer in Germany. After his death his widow came to America, dying here at the age of eighty-eight years. Of their children the following are living : Carl, Fred, William and Mulvina. To William and Catharine Huttig three children were born : Harry W., our subject ; Anna, the wife of Conrad Haney, of Orange, New Jersey ; and Nellie, who became the wife of D. S. McDermid and is now deceasd.Harry W. Huttig was reared in Muscatine and educated in the public schools, graduating from the high school in 1885. Having determined to adopt a business career, he went to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he took a course of instruction at Eastman's Business College, one of the leading institutions of the kind in the country. Returning home, he started as bookkeeper in his father's factory and in 1888 was made manager, becoming also treasurer some years later. The company is one of the most substantial concerns of the kind in the west and distributes it's products to all the principal centers in the United States. Mr. Huttig is president of the Pioneer Pearl Button Company and is also interested in a number of business enterprises of Muscatine and the west, having shown an ability that places him among the leaders in commercial affairs of the Mississippi valley.
On the 6th of October, 1891, Mr. Huttig was united in marriage to Miss Kathyrn Musser, a daughter og Richard and Sarah ( Berger ) Musser and a native of Muscatine. Her parents were born in Pennsylvania and became early settlers of this city. The father was a member of the Musser Lumber Company and died here in 1896. The mother passed away in 1902. Of their children, five are now living ; Susan, Kathryn, Grace, Gertrude and William and also an adopted daughter, Linda. Mrs. Huttig holds membership in the Episcopal church in which she is an active worker.
Mr. Huttig affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and politically is in sympathy with the republican party. He was elected alderman of the second ward at the age of twenty-two years and later was nominated for mayor of Muscatine, but the honors and emoluments of public office had no attraction for him and he declined the honor. He is essentially a man of business, having good judgment and a mental capacity which readily grasps large operations and reduces them to a system by which they can be managed along modern lines. It is men of this character who control the important business enterprises of a country and are largely responsible for the general prosperity that prevails.
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