Henry Hotze & Sons 1862 - 1962

by Bent Hotze

Page 8

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Henry Hotze and Sons were making McClellan saddles for the artillery (The mount on the lead horse kept the Caissons rolling along). By that time Jay Kay had set up an assembly line that did for saddles what Henry Ford had done for Model T's. I spent summer vacation 1916 in the factory against Jay Kay's wishes. He had four brothers to tell him what to do and didn't need a son. Well, Jay Kay, was an "egotist" to quote Albert and Will; "sees all, knows all, does all". My job was to sand the flesh side of leather slabs. I got covered with leather dust from head to foot, I got intimately acquainted with cow hides. My other duty was to take the Municipal Bridge construction. Doc's office on Cerre Street named Dr. Munsen. All work was piece work and the men really went after the buck. Next to me, the man operating the strap puncher, and end cutter, ran the tubes of the hole puncher through two fingers. That kind of work gets rather mechanical after awhile, since the timing of the hand movements gets to be rhythmical if you want to get big results.

I took him to the doc, he gritted his teeth, and said nothing, I offered to go with him on the street car as he was a little bit pale, but he took a chew of Burley Twist tobacco and said "no". Albert asked me why it took so long. Anyway I ended up with a few bucks when I went back to Columbia in 1915. 

When World War I ended - Jay Kay and Harry paid Will, Albert, and Charlie bonuses of $10,000.00 each. The partners had over $200,000.00 between them. Jay Kay bought out Harry's interest for $50,000.00 and incorporated. Albert and Charlie each got stock in the corporation.

Came 1920, I'm back from France. The army quarter master had McAllen saddles galore. They were dumped on the market for $50.00 a carload according to Jay Kay. The army stores - Barney in St. Louis, sold them for $5.00 each at first, then down to $3.00. Henry Hotze and Sons made these saddles for $37.50 each at a small profit. Some cost over $50.00, which had been made at a Texas factory that hand sewed all the parts - mostly strap work; and hand sewing buckles takes time. Henry Hotze and Sons machine sewed and hand riveted, an also used Beam presses to die cut using Walker Thru dies. Jobs move on box trucks from on department to another, and on the line.

Jay Kay had the machines and dies to run Planters saddles on a production line. The quarter master just about put all saddle factories out of business. They might make a few stock saddles for cowboys and English saddles for the wealthy "Horse" people of society.