Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
BERTSCH, Herbert T.
Family History: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jinxz&id=I76601
BERTSCH, Herbert T. (Minneapolis, MN, Feb. 8, 1894--Dubuque, IA, Dec. 2, 1966). Bertsch, the son of Frank BERTSCH, who came to Dubuque from Germany and later moved to Minneapolis, took over active leadership of the Grau-Curtis Company during the 1920s. The company changed its name in 1929 to Northome Furniture Industries and adapted an idea popularized by Henry Ford to streamline production. Herbert Bertsch designed a "conveyorized" system of furniture production which was first used in the Dubuque plant. (1) With E.W. Schlappritzi, a Swiss inventor of a revolutionary new spring, Bertsch brought a new springing concept to upholstered furniture. The name of the spring, "flexsteel," was later used to name the company, FLEXSTEEL INDUSTRIES, INC. (2)
Led by Bertsch, Grau-Curtis left Minneapolis and came to Dubuque in 1937 where operations were established in the BRUNSWICK-BALKE-COLLENDER COMPANY plant. Volume grew from one million to four million between 1937 and 1947 and the Flexsteel Spring guarantee was extended from ten to twenty-five years and later to the lifetime of the original purchaser. Following WORLD WAR II, the third generation was brought into the company with the addition of Frank H. BERTSCH. (3)
A veteran of WORLD WAR I, he was a member of the DUBUQUE GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB and a director of AMERICAN TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK.
---
Source:
1. Kittle, M. D. "Strong as Flexsteel," Telegraph Herald, January 25, 2004, p. 1
2. "H. T. Bertsch, Chair of Flexsteel, Dies," Telegraph Herald, December 2, 1966), p. 1
3. Ibid.
