Pittsburgh and Allegheny Illustrated Review Pittsburgh Pennsylvania J M Elstner & Co 1889

New York Times screen capture, December 2, 2018.

This terrific New York Times photograph became a meme and went viral on the Interwebz. It shows what appears to be a gargantuan Holstein cow — Knickers — dwarfing an adult human.

The accompanying article is a funny piece that digs into the photo and how it's misleading, i.e., folks who take never gotten up close and personal with a Holstein probably don't know how big they are in real life. Most cityslickers' only experiences with Holstein cattle come from Gary Larson'due south Far Side cartoons, Ben and Jerry'southward ice cream art, and the burgers we eat, They know very little most cattle and Holsteins in item. The NYT article and the folks who know my "thing" with cattle who accept shared the paradigm reminded me that I haven't written much lately nearly livestock and leather tanning. I recollect it's time to prepare that situation.

Pittsburgh History comprehend, Spring 1997 outcome, featuring my article on the history of Pittsburghs leather industry.

I spent a lot of years researching and writing about tanning, stockyards, and the interconnected meatpacking and meat byproducts industries. While researching Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's tanneries in the mid-1990s I encountered one of those people whose names eerily fit the jobs they exercise. You know, Mr. Butcher the butcher. Or, Mr. Macro the math teacher. Here in the DC suburbs I ever chuckled when I saw a Peed Plumbing truck.

This fun little mail service is about a Pittsburgh tannery owner named Alexander Holstein (1812-1895). Holstein came to Pittsburgh from Bavaria. He arrived in New York in 1836. Within a decade, he appeared in Pittsburgh metropolis directories every bit a saddler and harness maker with a store in Woods Street in the city's downtown. Wood Street was well-nigh the confluence of the Allegheny, Ohio, and Monongahela rivers. Its proximity to to the rivers and to the afterwards Pennsylvania Canal made it an platonic location to become Pittsburgh'south earliest leather tanning commune. Hides, tanbark, and h2o were easily obtained. The same transportation routes made it possible to ship the finished leather non sold locally to eastern markets.

Holstein remained in Pittsburgh'south quondam tanning and leather district until 1853, when he rented land in Duquesne Borough, a modest incorporated community on the Allegheny River next to Allegheny City and contrary Pittsburgh. By the fourth dimension that the Ceremonious War broke out, nearly of Pittsburgh's tanneries had moved out to Duquesne and Allegheny Urban center.

During the last half of the 19th century, two neighboring cities dominated Western Pennsylvania: Allegheny and Pittsburgh. Duquesne Borough, like many of the former municipalities that in one case defined the greater Pittsburgh region, was a brusque-lived industrial suburb . More than closely tied past proximity and people to Allegheny than to Pittsburgh, Duquesne (incorporated in 1849) was a town defined by processing industries rather than the heavy manufacturing industries that dominated Pittsburgh and Allegheny during its brief two-decade existence.  Before its annexation by Allegheny in 1868, Duquesne had developed a meaning concentration of tanneries along a narrow strip bounded by the former Pennsylvania Canal and the Allegheny River.

Old Duquesne Borough (afterwards 1868, Allegheny Metropolis'due south eighth Ward). Tannery sites are shaded; arrow points to Alexander Holstein's tannery. Source: Atlas of the Cities of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, One thousand.M. Hopkins & Co., 1872.

Close-up of tanneries in 1872.

Past 1871, Holstein had transitioned from renting his tannery site to owning several face-to-face lots with a siding on the Pennsylvania Railroad. In that location he operated his Matrimony Tannery until 1888 when he sublet it to James Callery (1833-1889), another longtime Pittsburgh tanner who also owned a nearby large brick tannery.

Holstein tannery during the menstruation information technology that James Callery rented it. Source: J.W. Leonard, Pittsburgh and Allegheny Illustrated Review: Historical, Biographical and Commercial. A Tape of Progress in Commerce, Manufactures, the Professions, and in Social and Municipal Life. Pittsburgh, Pa.: J. M. Elstner, 1889.

Callery renamed Holstein's tannery the "Panthera leo Tannery," a complex that included the tanning institute and adjacent structures.  "This tannery is a four story building, 100×170 anxiety in dimensions, and turns out 600 sides of oak harness leather per week," reported one gimmicky observer in 1889.  The 1888 charter was for a five-year term and it appears that Holstein regained control of the tannery before his death May ten, 1895.

Holstein tannery, c. 1890. Atlas of the Cities of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, M.Grand. Hopkins & Co., 1890.

Holstein manufactured mainly harness leather using oak bark to brand his tanning liquors. No records survive documenting where he got his hides — many likely came from the many nearby slaughterhouses; others probably came into his tannery past style of the canal, and later on, the railroad. Holstein's oak bark came from the forests due north and southward of Pittsburgh.

In 1870, Holstein'due south tannery processed i,500 beef hides, 1,400 cords of bark, 2,620 gallons of fish oil, and 600 pounds of lime in his steam-powered tannery. He employed xx men who produced three,500 pounds of sole leather and 7,000 pounds of harness leather. A decade later, Holstein processed eleven,000 hides and was now using both oak (1,800 tons) and hemlock (240 tons) bark. His operation had expanded to employ 50 men, co-ordinate to the U.S. Census.

Former Holstein tannery, early 20th century. The tannery was converted into a wool pullery owned first by John Stratman and later by W.P. Lange. The wool pulling business ultimately became the Pittsburgh Wool Company, the terminal wool pulling business organisation in the United States. Pittsburgh Wool processed its final pelts in 2000.

After he died in 1895, other Allegheny tanners (C.C. Hax, Julius Groetzinger, and Charles F. Kiefer) appraised his manor. Holstein's tannery had 11,130 sides of leather (worth $47,302) and assorted equipment and fixtures. All told, his tannery assets, greenbacks, and stocks totaled $134,983.35 (almost $iv 1000000 in 2018).

I haven't located any pictures of Holstein. His passport applications draw him as a big human being: 6'2″. In 1871 he had gray pilus, grey eyes, and a fair complexion. He was married to Julia Pryor (1819-1900), a Pittsburgh native. One son, Louis, followed his male parent into the tanning business organisation and he incorporated the Holstein Tanning Visitor. A daughter, Kate (1851-1929), married into another Allegheny tanning family unit, the Lappes. Charles O. Lappe (1846-1916) was a second-generation Allegheny tanner whose male parent, J.C. Lappe owned a tannery and his uncle, Johann Martin Lappe, owned some other.

I don't know if or how many Holstein hides passed through Alexander Holstein'south tannery. I exercise know that I have mused about how apt Holstein'south name was for his merchandise ever since I first encountered him 1996.

Holsteins, California, 1995.

The New York Times, Sunday December 2, 2018, p. 3

© 2018 D.S. Rotenstein

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