F.W. Heitmann Company business ledgers

Frederick William Heitmann was born in Potsdam, Germany, in 1828, but lived most of his life in Houston, Texas, as did his wife Mary Mathilde (Erhard). In 1865, Mr. Heitmann opened a heavy metal and hardware store in Houston, Texas, at 113 Main Street, where it stayed for 81 years. Mr. Heitmann died in 1889. In the early 1870s, Mr. H.S. Fox, then president of the Houston National Bank, became a partner in Houston’s oldest hardware store and its name changed to Fox and Heitmann. In 1903 the firm was incorporated under the name F.W. Heitmann and Company.. At that time the founder’s son, Frederick A. Heitmann became president of the company. Originally hardware establishment, the firm soon became a major post-Civil War importer of all lines of heavy hardware, tools, bar iron, tin plates, etc. from England and Germany. As the company grew it added major lines of domestically manufactured heavy machinery and became a major provider of products for rice growing and cotton ginning in the Southwest. It also furnished heavy equipment to the railroads and to the city of Houston.