![\"Johann](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Johann-Ludwig-Stifel.jpg\")
<\/a>Born in 1807 in Germany, Johann Ludwig Stifel\u00a0immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland when he was 26. He then moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where he worked in a wool mill and learned the textile trade. Legend has it that he walked all the way to Wheeling, where, by 1835, he had established a small dyeing shop in a log cabin with just a $10 investment and a piece of cotton cloth. Within a short time the business grew and Johann opened a larger calico shop on the southeast corner of 9th<\/sup> and Main Streets. The lower levels were for dyeing and printing while the upper level housed Johann, his wife Barbara Becht, and their children.\u00a0<\/p>\n Johann was an active citizen, serving on the boards of various businesses, helping to found Wheeling\u2019s first German newspaper- \u201cStaats Zeitung,<\/em>\u201d \u00a0and attending the second Wheeling Convention which helped found the state of West Virginia.<\/p>\n In 1859, Johann\u2019s sons Louis C. and William F. joined the company and, when their father retired fifteen years later, J.L. Stifel and Sons had grown into one of the nation\u2019s largest calico printing establishments.<\/p>\n The third generation of Stifels moved the calico works to a new location on Main Street between 3rd<\/sup> and 4th<\/sup> Streets. \u00a0The company had grown from a one-man operation in a log cabin to a 70,000 square foot plant with many employees that was shipping products like indigo dyed prints internationally. The meticulous manufacturing process including singing the cloth\u00a0to remove fuzz and lint, boiling to remove waxes and oils, bleaching to remove natural colors, and dyeing with indigo extracts to give it the distinctive Stifel blue color.<\/p>\n During the First and Second World Wars, the company switched over to war time production, providing textiles for France as well as khaki for American soldiers. By 1943, almost 90% of the company\u2019s production was war-related.<\/p>\n After World War II, increasing costs and foreign competition caused instability in the national textile industry. Stifel merged with Indian Head Mills in New York in 1957, but even after the contracts were signed the company had to phase out operations. On December 17, 1957 after 122 years of service, Stifel and Sons Calico Works closed. The plant sat for a few years, until March 8, 1961 when it caught fire and the entire building was destroyed except for a 275 foot smokestack, which was toppled on March 25, 1969.<\/p>\n Fortunately, the destruction of J. L. Stifel and Sons did not end the Stifel business name or contributions\u00a0to Wheeling. George E. Stifel \u2014 another son of Johann Ludwig \u2014\u00a0was born on May 5th<\/sup>, 1849. When he turned 14 he went to work at Stone and Thomas, a dry-goods retail store. He later opened a dry-goods store of his own on the corner of Main and 10th<\/sup> Streets called George E. Stifel and Company.<\/p>\n The business expanded greatly, and began to use eye-catching modern display windows to pull people in. In 1890 the company moved to 1154-60 Main Street. The store handled foreign and domestic dry goods, women\u2019s apparel, as well as various other products.<\/p>\n George continued the Stifel tradition of good relationships between\u00a0employees and employers. On Saturday mornings, for example, George Stifel and Co. broadcast a \u201cKiddie Time Program\u201d\u00a0from the State Theatre and one year the company gave out passes to all of their employees to bring in their children to audition for the show.<\/p>\n The following gallery of photographs are from the Kahn Collection, Ohio County Public Library Archives, donated by Betsy Kahn and contributed by Erwin Kahn. They include various exterior and interior images of the George E. Stifel and Company and (by 1956)\u00a0Stifel-Taylor Corp, Department Store at 1152-1160 Main.<\/p>\n The company employed over 100 people and had an incredible patronage as it sold just about anything that anyone might need. In 1959 it became Stifel and Taylor\u2019s Value City and continued to operate as a dry-goods retail store. The company eventually closed and in August of 1975, the building was razed to create a parking lot.<\/p>\n This second gallery of photographs features interior and exterior images of Stifel and Taylor\u2019s Value City (1959-1975). They are from the Kahn Collection of Stifel and Value City Photographs, Ohio County Public Library Archives, donated by Betsy Kahn and contributed by Erwin Kahn.<\/p>\n George E. Stifel owed everything he accomplished to his education, so in continuing the Stifel tradition of giving back to the community, George set out to create a scholarship for kids. In the 1920\u2019s he began his project which was aimed at encouraging young people to study hard and achieve things academically. He always said that \u201c\u2026a good education is well worth the ambition, patience, work, and sacrifice it may require.\u201d (Javersak, pg. 9) The monetary prize would be given to children in grades 5 through 12 who had achieved academic excellence. Unfortunately, George died before he could see his dream fulfilled, but his daughter Nellie made it happen. In 1951 she established the George E. Stifel Scholarship Fund which provided college scholarships to deserving students in the area, a scholarship which still is given out each year. Because of his generous giving, involvement in his church and local groups and clubs, and other contributions to the Wheeling community, George E. Stifel was inducted into the Wheeling Hall of Fame in 1979<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though both the J. L. Stifel & Sons and the George E. Stifel buildings are gone, the Stifel name lives on through the Stifel Fine Arts Center on National Road. Originally built in 1912, this mansion was created by Edward W. Stifel as a family home, which he named \u201cEdemar\u201d for his children Edward, Emily, and Mary. With 39 rooms, formal gardens, a swimming pool, a tennis court, fish ponds, and a picnic area the mansion served as an illustrious private residence until 1976. The family deeded it to Oglebay Institute to be used as a fine arts center, furthering the Stifel legacy of involvement in the arts and giving back to the community. The Center currently houses exhibits from local artists, and gives dance classes, art classes, theater classes, as well as camps and community events.<\/p>\n The Stifels were one of the first German families to settle in the Ohio Valley. For five generations they helped build up Wheeling and make it a better place. They supplied jobs, culture, and community bonding through good times and bad. Wheeling has a lot to be grateful for, and it owes a lot to the Stifel family.<\/p>\n This article was written by\u00a0Becca Rodgers, a student at Wheeling Jesuit University and\u00a0an intern with the Ohio County Public Library Archives for the Spring 2015 semester. As part of her internship, Becca processed and scanned the\u00a0Kahn Collection of Stifel and Value City Photographs seen above and researched the Stifel family for this article.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n REFERENCES:<\/strong><\/p>\n Like what you\u2019ve read here? \u25bc Please share! We\u2019ve made it easy with these buttons below.\u00a0\u25bc<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Walking to Wheeling\u2026 Born in 1807 in Germany, Johann Ludwig Stifel\u00a0immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland when he was 26. He then moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where he worked in a wool mill and learned the textile trade. Legend has it that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[167,166,13,123,175,174],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contributor-ocpl","tag-fabric","tag-industry","tag-photographs","tag-stifel","tag-stifel-fine-arts-center","tag-stifel-scholarship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/F-Stifel.jpg?fit=738%2C282&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5pkc7-eo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1158,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions\/1158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Stifel & Sons\u2026<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/a>Geo. E. Stifel Co\u2026<\/h3>\n
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