Page 121 - Industries_of_San_Antonio

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COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
PIPER & SCHULTHESS.—Successors to J. F. Lockwood; Dealers in
Metals and Fence Wire; San Antonio, Texas.
Outside of the food supply, the metals are the most useful of nature's
contributions to the necessities of man, and of all of these, including the
precious metals, iron is the most useful and the most bountifully pro-
vided in variety and general distribution of efficient results. It is applied
to the greatest number of purposes and consumed in larger quantities than
all other metals combined. The most massive works are made of it, the
most indispensable articles for agricultu-
ral, mercantile, scientific, mechanical and
artistic purposes, are fabricated from it,
and also the most delicate instruments, as
the hair-springs of watches, in which the
metal is of far higher value, weight for
weight, than gold. among those industries contingent upon or springing
from the iron trade, and the material growth of progress and improve-
ment, may be classed the business of Piper & Schulthess, which is of such
a character and so great a usefulness as to entitle them to more than mere
mention, in a work devoted exclusively to an enumeration of the re-
sources of San Antonio. In addition to dealing in manufactured articles
of special utility, they handle the more useful and constantly needed
goods, fabricated from the other base metals ; copper, lead, zinc and tin,
making their usefulness and importance to the general trade, only the
more marked and prominent. They are the only firm in San Antonio
dealing in the specialties they handle—exclusively wholesale, breaking no
packages. Their business is not hardware, but they handle articles of
special utility, possibly coming under the generic title, hardware, exclu-
sive of knick-knacs or trifles, they might be called hardware specialists,
and their business requires trained and lengthy experience, peculiar adap-
tation and a high degree of business ability and sagacity. This business
was established in 1880, by J F. Lockwood ; in 1885 he was succeeded by
Julius C. A. Piper and Henry M. Schulthess, under the present firm title.
Mr. Piper, bringing to the business a life-long experience of years—he
was literally raised in it—and Mr. Schulthess, while not directly connected
with this special branch, has been actively and successfully engaged in
business for years. Their business premises aro convenient to business
centers, they are commodious and well adapted for their purposes. They
occupy two buildings ; the office building is 15 by 25 feet in size, two sto-
ries high ; the warehouse, 30 by 100 feet in dimensions ; in addition, they
have extensive yard-room for storing heavy articles and those not injuring
by partial exposure to the elements. Their trade radiates through Texas
and extends into Mexico, and it is rapidly increasing. Among other
specialties, they handle roofing and bright tin, all kinds of sheet-iron,
black and galvanized corrugated iron, nails, solder, wire, barbed and plain
fence wire and staples, pig-tin, pig-led, copper and zinc, tinners' supplies