Quick Facts
Biography
Peter Schuttler has often been referred to as the "Great Chicago Wagon King" in Midwestern U.S. lore. He was born on December 22, 1812 in Wachenheim, Germany and died on January 16, 1865 in Chicago.
Mr. Schuttler emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in 1834, when he was twenty-two years old. After working as a wainwright in Sandusky, Ohio, Schuttler moved to Chicago in 1843. He soon established a new wagon shop and took advantage of the growing demand for durable, versatile vehicles with the rise in westward migration after the Great California Gold Rush of 1849. Schuttler wagons were also used as part of the famous Mormon trek to the Salt Lake, Utah region in 1855, led by Brigham Young.
By the middle of the 1850s, Schuttler employed about a hundred persons at his wagon-making facility, which produced about 1,800 wagons per year. During that period, each Schuttler wagon sold for about 75 dollars. By this time, Schuttler was one of the leading wagon makers in the United States. Although his company did not serve as a major military contractor during the Civil War, civilian demand allowed Schuttler's business to prosper.
In 1863, he was one of only three Chicago, IL residents to pay taxes on an income of over $100,000. Mr. Potter Palmer and Mr. John V. Farwell were the other two Chicagoans. The house Mr. Schuttler built (on the city block bordered by Aberdeen, Adams, Morgan, and Monroe Street in Chicago) was long considered the finest mansion in Chicago. Built by J. M. Van Osdel over the span of three years, this exquisite house contained many artifacts and hand-crafted building components brought in from Germany, Mr. Schuttler's birthplace. It is rumored that the total cost of the home was nearly $500,000, a considerable sum in the mid-19th century. It was razed in 1911.
After the founder died in 1865, his son Peter Schuttler II took the reins of the business, which continued to manufacture a large number of high quality wagons. By 1880, about three hundred workers produced over $400,000 worth of wagons per year.
Peter II was married to Wilhelmina (Minnie) Anheuser, daughter of Eberhard Anheuser. It was Mrs. Wilhelmina Anheuser Schuttler's sister, Lilly Anheuser, who married Adolphus Busch. Today, their direct descendants are top executives at Anheuser Busch, America's largest brewing company.
As late as 1910, when Peter Schuttler III was chief executive of the company, Schuttler & Hotz Manufacturers continued to employ about three hundred men at its factory on 22nd Street in Chicago. But the advent of the automobile meant the end of an era for the Schuttler wagon works, which ceased operations by the middle of the 1920s.