Little Bohemia, The Leitelt Family – Part 4

by Nan Schichtel

(Previous article, “Little Bohemia, The Leitelt Family, Part 3,” can be found in Grand River Times November 2020 issue)

Family-owned businesses usually chose sons to succeed fathers, and Leitelt’s followed suit. Adolph Sr. died in March 1897 at the family home at 79 Livingston (pre-1912 numbering). He had fallen on Canal (lower Monroe) Street the previous May and fractured his thigh and never recovered. Those last months must have been agony for a man so known for his strength. Adolph Jr.’s time at the helm was not long, and he died of diabetic gangrene in 1906.

Grand Rapids City Directory, 1915, p. 618

That Michigan Manufacturer & Financial Record article alludes to the firm’s male leadership after Adolph Leitelt Jr.’s death. There is conflicting information about who next became president of the firm. Some publications like the one above indicated that Edward Ansorge took over as President until 1911 when Julius LaBonte, Pauline Leitelt’s husband succeeded him. However, Mathilda’s obituary named her the successor. And, the 1916 City Directory lists her sister, Rosetta, as President. Adolph Jr.’s sisters who had worked in various roles for the company, were talented, competent, and hardworking owners, along with Julius LaBonte, Pauline’s husband. When speaking of the “Leitelt girls,” family members would always say how bright and as “able as their brother” they all were.

Adolph and Theresa Ansorge Leitelt had a large family: Edward C. (by first wife in Kratzau); Adolph Leitelt Jr.; Edmund Leitelt; Mathilda Leitelt; Emelia “Emeline Mina” Leitelt; Anna Mary Leitelt Cusick; Louisa Leitelt; Laura Leitelt Besancon; Rosetta Leitelt; and, Pauline Leitelt LaBonte. With such a large family, it is interesting to note that there were few descendants of this line, and none with the Leitelt name.

Leitelt manhole covers are not seen as often as they used to be, but still can be found.

Photo courtesy of Nikki Villa Gomez (https:nikkivillagomez.wordpress.com/ 2018/10/29/manhole-monday-circus/)

In 1919, the family sold their interests in the company to a group of long-time employees led by president David McKay and Fred Henry Meyer, secretary and general manager, and the business was renamed Leitelt Iron Works. Soon after, some of the sisters retired to southern California where they had vacationed for several years. Julius LaBonte continued his real estate career started in Michigan, developing the Larchmont neighborhood in a rapidly growing Los Angeles.

Under McKay and Meyer, “the reincorporated company used the well-known name and reputation for quality products for many years. They expanded into lumber lifts, transfer carts, turntables, car pullers, elevators, steel handling equipment, and manhole covers. They also specialized in machine repair and fabrication services. The company changed ownership at least once more before it was sold to Padnos Industries and, in 2017, was known as Padnos Leitelt Specialized Machine Shops at 2301 Turner Ave, NW, on the west side of the Grand River in Grand Rapids.” (http:// www.leitelt.com/history.html)

Leitelt Iron Marker, Fulton Street Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2016.

Photo credit: Nan Schichtel

While a well-known family in Grand Rapids, the first generation of Leitelts were German-speaking working-class immigrants and not members of “high society.” They were active in their community, in church, and especially in musical societies, as were so many other Bohemian Germans. As their fortunes grew, the connections that the business brought their way and the advantages that money could buy lifted their social status, and the second generation became more socially prominent, and Adolph and Theresa’s children all appeared in the The Grand Rapids Society Blue Book in 1906. (p. 33, 69).

Another element of life where they distinguished themselves from other less-wealthy Kratzau immigrants was in education. In an era where public education beyond the 4th grade was considered unnecessary and unaffordable by most working-class American families - and high school was only for the rich – many of the Leitelt brothers’ children attended through 8th grade, some attended high school, and some even attended business college. Adolph Jr. was graduated from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, and later attended the Boston Institute of Technology in 1879-80. His cousin, Joseph Leitelt, attended both schools with him.

Baxter, Albert. History of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan. New York: Munsell & Company, 1891. p. 439.

Beyond the company name, the Leitelt name is still remembered in Grand Rapids, and perhaps best-known, because of the impressive iron monument Adolph’s employees erected on his gravesite in Fulton Street Cemetery, a municipal cemetery. To some of his Bohemian Catholics relatives, this choice of cemetery was an odd one, since there were already two Catholic cemeteries in the city. However, at that time, most captains of industry were buried in either Fulton Street, Oak Hill, or Valley City Cemeteries. Because it is so distinctive, Leitelt’s rust-covered monument is often-visited, and was featured in Thomas R. Dilley’s The Art of Memory: Historic Cemeteries of Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 2014)

“Little Bohemia, The Leitelt Family – Part 4” by Nan Schichtel, GRHS Trustee.