Albert and Flora Ellinger were successful entrepreneurs who influenced the business and social communities of Chicago, Illinois, and Racine and Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1880 to 1966.
Albert Ellinger was born at Eatonton, Georgia in 1861 and moved with his family to Sterling, Illinois as a young boy. In the late 1870s he moved to Chicago where he worked in a suit and cloak house until founding A. Ellinger and Company, a clothing manufacturing business, early in the following decade. By the early 1900s he was firmly established in business in both Chicago and Racine. In 1916 he married his longtime business associate, Flora Hofmeister. Ellinger died in 1918 in Chicago of diabetes.
Flora Hofmeister was born in 1863 at South Bend, Indiana. She moved with her family to Chicago in the middle of the following decade. Her father, Jacob Hofmeister, was a German immigrant and successful furniture manufacturer. He established his business in the building where Albert Ellinger housed his clothing factory. Flora took an active interest in her father's business and it was at his plant that she and Albert met. Albert admired Flora's interest and skill in business. After completing her schooling, Flora went to work for Albert, who soon placed her in a managerial position. Flora continued to assist Albert in the management and ownership of several businesses until his death. After 1918 she took control and management of the Ellingers' extensive holdings and founded another corporation of her own, which she operated until shortly before her death in 1966.
The Ellingers were not a typical upper-middle class couple. They did battle both in the corporate board room and in the courtroom. Albert especially was involved in numerous lawsuits. Flora was an inventor and promoter of inventions. As a “rich aunt” to numerous relatives she was generous in providing for their education and in offering unsolicited advice. Although neither of the Ellingers seem to have been raised in poverty, the wealth that they gained increased their social status markedly. Occasionally they expressed ambiguity about their new circumstances. For instance, they showed disdain at times for the wasteful and frivolous trappings of other newly rich. In letters to her cousins attending college, Flora advised them to broaden their experiences by taking summer jobs where they could meet other classes of people. Yet the Ellingers resided in and furnished two large homes and lived a lifestyle appropriate to upper-middle class people of their time.
As Flora grew older she became increasingly isolated, especially after the death of her sister Emma in 1956. Emma had lived with Flora for many years. Flora's memoirs, My First Century, written with the help of Ronald Hansen and Nelson Peter Ross (two University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students who lived in her home from about 1957 until 1966), provide a glimpse of the life of this remarkable woman. However, the book is unreliable in many details and ignores the vital dates and events in the Ellingers' lives.
The Ellingers' success in business began in the early 1880s when Albert opened A. Ellinger and Company. A fire in 1896 apparently forced the company out of business, but in 1897 he founded Badger Manufacturing, a clothing manufacturing company, with Flora as one of its incorporators. Badger expanded by opening a plant in Racine which Flora managed. During World War I, Badger Manufacturing produced soldiers' uniforms. The firm also had a branch in Milwaukee.
In 1904 Albert became closely associated with the Boston Store, a retail merchandise company based in Chicago with branches in many cities. After the death of Charles Netcher, Boston Store owner and one of Albert's closest friends, he became merchandise manager and also guardian to the Netchers' sons. Netcher's widow, Mollie, however, remained owner and operator of the Boston Store. Under Albert's direction the Boston Store, too, became involved in government contracts. Ellinger used the military and political connections he had established in negotiating the Badger Manufacturing contracts on behalf of the Boston Store.
The Espenhain Dry Goods Company was a tenant in one of Albert Ellinger's Milwaukee business properties. When the firm was financially troubled, Albert offered assistance and eventually assumed its debts and control. Albert ran Espenhain by mail from Chicago from 1915 until his death.
In addition to these business operations Albert Ellinger steadily increased his investment holdings. The most profitable of all his investments was principal interest in the Michigan Avenue Syndicate, a Chicago real estate holding company. The 1914 trust agreement that formed the syndicate provided for the pooling of the members' personal real estate holdings as well as for the management, improvement, and disposition of such properties by lease or sale. Properties were held jointly and income was distributed according to the number of shares held. The investment was lucrative for Albert and even more so for Flora after his death. Flora increased her holdings in the syndicate to 87 1/2 shares of the total 150 shares of stock and upon her demand was made secretary of the syndicate in 1920.
Flora also took over the management of Espenhain Dry Goods Company after her husband's death. She sold it to J.H. Mack several years before the stock market crash of 1929. Her business and investment interests thereafter were largely confined to the Michigan Avenue Syndicate, her inventions, and to Regnille Tool and Engineering Company Inc., which she founded in 1942. Flora's sister Emma served as figurehead president of Regnille until shortly before her death. Though the company was in continual financial difficulty, Flora apparently hoped that the control of the production and marketing of her inventions would insure their success. More than thirty of her inventions were patented over a fifty-year period. They included a primitive zipper, an arm rest for a wall telephone, a steam iron, a starching machine, a dishwasher, special garments, and hairdressing equipment. Most of her earlier inventions had direct applications to the clothing manufacturing business in which she was involved.
For the last forty-five years of her life, Mrs. Ellinger lived in Milwaukee. Her civic interests included hospitals, veterans' affairs, and city planning. Several times she aroused the interest of the press. In 1934 she lost a tax suit against the Wisconsin Tax Commission involving income from rental properties outside Wisconsin. In 1956 a second cousin attempted to have her declared insane. At that time her estate, estimated to be worth 1,200,000 dollars, was placed under the conservancy of a Milwaukee bank. Two years later Flora attracted national attention when she went to court to force the conservator to allocate funds for the publication of her memoirs. In 1959 she went to court once again to win the right to continue to run Regnille Tool and Engineering Company, at a loss, over her conservator's objections. Flora Ellinger died in Milwaukee on July 8, 1966 at the age of 103.
