Name/Title
PostcardEntry/Object ID
2018.006.0031Scope and Content
This postcard was used to advise a company in Ohio, Knowles & Doutt, that salesmen representing the Benicia Tannery (aka K.S. & Co.) would be calling on June 23rd, 1904. There are several interesting things about this postcard.
1. The tannery name "Benicia Tannery" is the predecessor business to the Kullman, Salz tannery in Benicia. The Benicia Tannery started in 1873 by Robert Stewart. A few years later Mr. Moore and Mr. Cummings bought into the firm. In 1876 the tannery burned down. Various other owners are associated with the tannery including Danforth, Brown and McKay.
2. In 1881 Kullman, Charles Hart and Herman Salz bought the Benicia Tannery.
3. This postcard shows that Kullman and Salz kept the old Benicia Tannery name. The initials, K. S. & Co. refer to the fact that Kullman, Salz Company owned the "Benicia Tannery". It also has the motto of the Kullman, Salz tannery, "Monarch of the Oaks". (This motto was patented on 01/15/1901 but had been used since 06/02/1896.)
4. At least by 1922, the Kullman, Salz Company had offices in Benicia, San Francisco, and Chicago. This card though lists two salesmen, Charles Igntius Schmitt (1876 - 1967) and Jacob August Herman Junker (1852 - 1930) who are not listed in California census records for either 1900 or 1910. They are shown in the Pittsburg, PA. census for 1900. Junker's profession is shown as "merchant-leather" and Schmitt is shown as "salesman leather". (On his WWI registration form he lists Wm. Flaccus Oak Leather Co. as his employer.)
Why Kullman, Salz was using salesmen from Pittsburg to contact Midwest customers is hard to explain.Collection
Benicia Historical Museum Collection
