August E. Heimerdinger was our founder, and my great-great-great grandfather. Heimerdinger's first appeared in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, sometime around 1861. That's the first on-paper mention my grandfather found of the store, which at that point was located at 110 Jefferson Street. There, he made scissors and butcher knives, and repaired sewing machines. August was born in Germany, and had just a ton of children from two different wives. Family legend has it that August moved into a shop next to a woodworker by the name of Hillerich. Mr. Hillerich had a steam engine that he used used to run his woodworking tools. Old man August wanted to run his grinding wheels but didn't have a steam engine, and so the two of them worked out an arrangement. They cut a hole in the wall and ran a flat belt through the wall so that August could run his grinding wheels. That company became Hillerich and Bradsby, who is best known for making Louisville Slugger baseball bats.
After his death, his son W.C. Heimerdinger took control of the business. He added a full line of butcher supplies; branching out into barber and beauty supplies during the 1920's. The Droescher company, in Germany, manufactured scissors and grinding wheels for the store during this time period. W.C. also held at least 5 patents, for various things from safety knives and razors to a machine for making shears. The most interesting, to me anyway, was a machine designed to sharpen razors, specifically what were then considered to be disposable razorblades. This got the attention of a certain Mister Gillette, whose company still sells razors today. The lawsuit he brought against W.C. was eventually settled, and the sharpeners were fairly widely produced. Just a few years ago, someone found one in an old shop. They thought we might like to have it; now it resides in my grandparents' basement, still able to sharpen razorblades even though it was designed over a century ago.
W.C.'s son, W.G. Heimerdinger, took over the business around 1920, though if W.C. was anything like my grandfather, he stuck around for years even though he had "retired." In 1922, W.G. incorporated the business and discontinued the scissor manufacturing. At that time he began manufacturing grass shears, pruning shears, hedge shears, mule shears, and sheep shears, which were sold through the Sears catalog. W.G. also held several patents, including the original patent on grass shears. My favorite is for an ice cream scoop, though I don't know that it was ever widely manufactured. Along with all of this, W.G.decided to start another division of Heimerdinger's and moved into hardware. The manufacturing part of the business ended in the mid 1950’s, although we still re-manufacture and sharpen scissors, knives, and many other types of edged tools. The hardware part of the business ended during the mid 1960’s. (Remember all those bolts I told you about? Yeah, they've been sitting around for that long. Purely amazing.)
My grandfather attended what was then Speed Sceintific School, now the Speed School of Engineering. He finished his bachelors of engineering in two and a half years, interrupted by a stint in the Army during WWII. Henry w. Heimerdinger entered into the business in 1947, during the hardware phase. Throughout our history, the business has always sold many types of scissors as well as kitchen and pocket knives. This always interested my grandfather, so he spun a separate company off of W.C. Heimerdinger in 1969, forming Heimerdinger Cutlery Inc. Around this time, Henry's older brother, Billy, took over the barber/beauty supply end of the business. You didn't think they'd gotten tired of naming everyone William ___ had you? Nope, in that generation the tradition held strong. After the death of his father, Billy left to pursue another line of business, eventually ending up down in sunny Florida.
While my grandfather never held any patents, he did have considerable ingenuity. He designed the grinding wheels that we use today to sharpen items that people bring into the store. Up until this past year, even after "retiring" in 1991, he still came into the store once or twice a week to putter around in the shop, sharpening knives and taking apart scissors.
In 1983, Heimerdinger Cutlery moved from downtown Louisville out to Shelbyville Road, just before I was born. As previously mentioned, my grandfather "retired" in 1991, leaving the business in the hands of the firth general, my uncle Carl E. Heimerdinger.
In 1993, my aunt, Glenna Fahle Heimerdinger, joined the company as Vice President. She took over a lot of the accounting-type stuff, which she did part-time while raising my cousin, Nicole (who has always been a full-time occupation).
You might ask where I fit into things. My father, David, was Henry's younger son (Carl's younger brother). While the engineering genes were strong with him, the desire to stay with the business wasn't. With Uncle Carl, my father grew up working at the store; starting at the youngest age with sweeping up and going on to being left in charge while my grandparents were on vacation. From what I hear, they only had to call an ambulance once before my grandparents came home. My father now has a career doing safety engineering, but he still remembers all the things one learns from working in a cutlery. (I'll have to do a post on that one...)
Anyway, I'm the oldest of the three of us in the sixth generation. (My brother doesn't like blood, so it's good that he never worked at the store). I started working at the store on the weekends, during my junior and senior year of high school. I worked closer to full time during the summers-- then, and later during college. And as you know, I started doing this blog a little over a year ago.
That brings us up to present. Hope that helped you kill a few minutes pleasantly on this grey, icky, freezing day.
Also, you better appreciate those pictures, because I had to climb up on a ladder to take them.
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4 comments:
Thanks for the history of the store.
August was my great-great grandfather as well. I'm descended out of his 2nd family.
I've just been exploring the family history using Ancestry.com. I would love to talk with you and find out more.
My email: sarahbigger@hotmail.com
I'm hoping that you are somehow alerted to my msg after a yr and a half.
I enjoyed the history lesson, as well. I used to work for Bill way back in 1975. I originally was hired to fill in for his small-engine mechanic, Herman (forgot his last name), when he out for a few weeks from a hernia operation. I'm sure that you've heard of Herman, who was permanently on crutches because he could not bend his legs (maybe due to a childhood disease, I think). Quite amazing how was able to service chainsaws & lawnmowers with that handicap. My grandfather, Lester Rush, got me the job. Get this now: he worked at Heimerdinger's his entire life, from age 18 until he died at 80 in 1980!! That has to be a record of some kind.
Twice a week for about 1.5 yrs, I picked up Bill's dad at his home to bring him to the store, and then of course returned him to home around 3pm. He lived on Cherokee Rd. I can't help but remember one afternoon after dropping him off: it was rainng as I was following a TARC bus down Eastern Pkwy. I knew that he going way too fast. Indeed, when I rounded a turn, the bus lay in the middle of the road in two completely separate pieces. The driver had wrapped it around a huge tree that did not yield. Sadly, one fatality, an elderly woman died later at the hospital.
Btw, is Bill's dad W.G. Heimerdinger?
I'm sure that you know Bill's boys. I believe that Chuck was the older one, right? I can't recall the younger brother's name. Help me. My most prominent memory related to them was regarding lunch. At least twice a week, they'd ask me if I wanted anything from Alice's, a nearby diner. Typically, they bought a "dressed" cheeseburger and fries. The word "dressed" for "lettuce & tomato" is significant for some reason, I suppose because no one I knew really used that term. If you see them, remind them; they'll remember.
Please let me know what everyone's doing these days and any comments from anyone. Does Chuck still play the drums? I still play guitar.
Rgds
Gerry
@Gerry Owens. Bill was WG's older son, my grandfather, Henry, was the younger one. Their house was over on Eastern Parkway.
You might have heard, Herman Pearl passed just the other month, June 10th.
After WG died, Bill moved on to other things, eventually ending up in Florida. He died in 1998. The rest of the family is spread out all over. Chuck is the oldest boy, he had two sisters, one older and one younger. And there was another son. There isn't much contact between us, due to the distance. Other than a few small visits, I only met them at the funeral in 1998.
Wow, that was a quick response. Didn't expect one so soon.
Yes, your family sounds much like mine. E.g., I discovered only a that a 1st cousin, whom I've never met until my dad's funeral 4 yrs ago, is General Manager of Slugger Field. And we're all in Louisville!
So you don't know Chuck's younger brother's name, either? It's bugging me.
Thanks for reminding me of Herman's last name. That was bugging me, too. I was actually wondering if he was still around. I knew that he had to be getting up there. Just looked him up in the obits. I thought he was older than 80, for some reason.
Bill apparently wasn't all that old when he died. I'm thinking <75. Am I close? What was the cause of death?
If I recall, Bill had a Mechanical Engineering degree from Speed School. Of all things, I was greatly impressed with his draftsman-style lettering, e.g., when he wrote me a note or filled out a form. The characters were crisp, block-style, and VERY distict. So whenever there were lulls in my work, I would practice my own lettering to try to mimic his quality. And I got pretty damned good, I must say! Eventually, I got to where I did not need lines on a piece of paper to fill a blank sheet in near-perfect alignment. Still have this talent, and I owe it to Bill! I also recall that he swore by Papermate pens; he said they are only pens that don't skip. (Just remembering trivia, here.) I, too, eventually attended Speed School to become an Electrical Engineer. Again, I think I owe that good decision partially to Bill. After spending 13 yrs away from Lousiville, I wound up back here working for GE for 10 years in their Cooking Products Dept.
If you ever run into a family member that remembers me or my grandfather, let me know what they have to say.
Take care
Gerry
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