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, Frank
BRETSCH, Frank. (Oppeneau, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Oct. 8, 1864---Minneapolis, MN, Mar. 4, 1948). Bertsch apprenticed in upholstery near Stuttgart, Germany in 1879 and 1880. To escape the political unrest in Germany with the rise of Bismarck, he traveled to Dubuque in 1881. Bertsch tried farming near Colesburg and then traveled to Chicago where he worked in several furniture plants. He moved to Minneapolis in 1893 as the head foreman for the McCloud & Smith Furniture Company.
In 1901 four employees including Bertsch formed a partnership and purchased the Rolph & Ball Furniture Company. The business, renamed the Grau-Curtis Company after two of the founders, was purchased by Bertsch from his partners in 1917. He brought his son, Herbert T. BERTSCH into the company in 1919.
---
Source:
Kittle, M. D. "Strong as Flexsteel," Telegraph Herald, January 25, 2004, p. 1
