The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports about 12% of companies in the country are older than 26 years. The prevailing thought is only a half a percent (0.5%) of all companies had what it took to last 100 years. This means that centennial firms and beyond truly do have lots to celebrate. These eight businesses from the Milwaukee area that have gone well beyond the century mark.
When you think of Milwaukee, this company has got to be on the top of your list. Long before Laverne & Shirley roamed Milwaukee Streets, Usinger’s on Old World Third Street was established in 1880, not long after the ending of the U.S. Civil War. The Usinger’s story began in Wehen, Germany where young Fred Usinger, an apprentice sausage maker, came to Milwaukee in the late 1870’s with a pocketful of recipes, $400 in cash (about 10K today.) Fred went to work for Mrs. Julia Gaertner, a widow who operated a small butcher shop on Third Street. Usinger bought out Mrs. Gaertner, married her niece Louise and moved into living quarters above the store.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Fiebing’s, Milwaukee’s third-generation leather care product company, opened in 1895 on S. 2nd Street, across from what is now Shaker’s. John H. Fiebing started the company with a vision and a few bucks in his pocket. He’d worked in the chemical department of a Milwaukee tannery to earn his stripes. One of the first products Fiebing manufactured was Saddle Soap. This product became so popular that the U.S. Cavalry at Fort Riley, Kansas used it exclusively to clean and preserve its saddles, tack and other leather equipment. Fiebing was so thrilled to hear this, he designed a logo portraying a mounted Cavalryman, which still stands as a symbol for the company to this day.
Northwestern Mutual issued its first policy contracts in 1858 while still headquartered in Janesville. When several of the initial trustees left, Milwaukee residents took their place to gain control, the new board voting to move the company to Milwaukee. NML formed its first out-of-state contract in Minneapolis, and began opening offices outside Wisconsin. Shortly afterwards it saw its first two death claims, both from a train accident. It paid out the claims, leading to a rise in sales and territorial expansion. In 1864 it paid out its first dividends to policy owners, all the while, it focused on life insurance. In 1958 the company launched the iron ore carrier, S.S. Edmund Fitzgearld, named after the newly elected chairman of the same name.
In 1881 the Northwestern Stamp Company was founded in Milwaukee by Andrew Schwaab. By 1888 the company became known as Schwaab Stamp and Seal (now Schwaab Inc.) A major portion of Schwaab’s early business was in the metal engraving area, where highly skilled engravers fashioned unique badges of all kinds. In 1958 the company entered into negotiations with S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc., of Racine. Johnson Wax had developed and patented a new product called Porelon, designed to be used to manufacture stamps which required no ink pad. Porelon was a combination of ink and plastic that would not dry out. Coins for the 1904 World Fair in St. Louis were made at Schwaab as were countless other tokens commemorating any imaginable event, from the Third Annual Cowboys Convention in Haskell, Texas, in 1898, to the Presidential inauguration of S. Grover Cleveland in 1893.
Bliffert Lumber was originally founded in 1904 as the Northside Lumber and Fuel Company by Christian Meckleburg. Current owner Eli Bliffert said it started out as a coal, oil and ice company. He said the ice went away, then the coal, then the oil. Bliffert said his family got involved when Christian’s daughter Lorella started taking the company deposits to the bank, where she met J.P. Bliffert, who was a teller there. They got married, and J.P. went to work for his father-in-law. Bliffert Lumber & Hardware opened its doors on East Chamber Street in Riverwest and has served contractors and homeowners in Southern Wisconsin for over 119 years, helping communities grow. Bliffert has supplied building materials to hospitals, stadiums, new homes and every other building concern. Today Bliffert has thirteen locations.
Badger Meter has manufactured water meters and other flow management products since 1905. Milwaukeeans Albert E. Gumz and Albert W. Wingender founded the company and began operations on Third Street, in the City of Milwaukee. Gumz and Wingender developed and patented the first frost-proof water meter, an answer to the harsh freezing Milwaukee winters where water meters and water pipes frequently froze. Searching for investors they met John Leach, who became the first president of the company. Badger broke through with a meter with a soft, replaceable cast-iron bottom plate that ruptured when the water in the meter froze, relieving pressure on the meter and safeguarding its mechanical parts. Since frozen water pipes were costs associated with living in Wisconsin, Badger found a ready market and by 1910 was selling close to 3,700 eight-dollar meters a year.
In 1919, David Stern, David Siegel, Morris Stern and Morris Tax formed Standard Light Co., located at 448 E. Water Street in Milwaukee, WI. As a manufacturer of lighting fixtures and parts they planned to bring electric lighting to the sparsely electrified Milwaukee area. The company discovered a new identity as Standard Electric Supply Co., a distributor of electrical and automation products. In the ’60s, the company expanded their product lines to include more industrial focused items as the customer base in the Milwaukee area began to shift toward industrial manufacturing. Standard Electric has 15 locations throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.
Holler House is a tavern and bowling alley on Lincoln Avenue and opened its doors in 1908. The oldest sanctioned 10-pin bowling alley in the United States, is still tended to by human pinsetters. It has been operated by the same family for 115 years. The bowling alley wood was stamped Brunswick Corporation 1904, the wood the bowlers “roll” on is 119 years old. The back bar was made by the Brunswick Corporation in the late 1890’s and people from all over the world visit the bar. There are bras dangling from just about everywhere, tributes relinquished by those making their first visit.
Pabst originated as the pioneer brewery of Jacob Best, Sr. and his family. The brewery was founded in 1844 by Best, who had emigrated from Germany, and the family planted roots of the company on a ridge just west of the Milwaukee River on what is now Juneau Avenue. In 1853 Jacob Best retired and left the business in the hands of his sons Jacob Jr., Lorenz, Charles, and Phillip, becoming the Phillip Best Brewing Company in 1860. By 1874, the Phillip Best Brewing Co. was the nation’s largest brewer. Johann Gottlieb Friedrich “Frederick” Pabst met and married Phillip’s daughter Maria. They married in 1862 and Phillip later enlisted the help of Fred as partner in the business. Pabst sales peaked at 18 million barrels in 1977. And though Pabst headquarters left Milwaukee in 1996, the company is 180 years old this year and its legacy in Milwaukee is strong.
