Herman Dettloff

Today we have a look at another early druggist of Chippewa Falls, and at his surviving building.

Herman Dettloff was born in New York state in 1854.  He moved with his parents to Wisconsin in 1858 settling in Bloomer for a year.  The family then moved to Chippewa Falls where the father was an early blacksmith.

The first mention I could find of Herman Dettloff was in a school report from 1868.  He got good marks for deportment.  He supposedly started working as a drug store clerk the same year, making him only 14 at the time.  At a still very young age he was in partnership with a man named Beauchene but that business dissolved in 1872 leaving Dettloff - now all of 18 - as the sole proprietor.

He was the usual civic minded sort.  Quite early on he was treasurer for the City Fire Department, even being briefly appointed chief in 1893.  He was also City Treasurer in the late 1870's and a director of the 1st National Bank in the 80's, so he must have been a fairly sharp businessman.

In fact he is at various points in the 1880's said to be doing business in St. Paul as a wholesale paint and oil dealer, only dropping in occasionally to look in on his drug store interests.

In 1880 he purchased a 2 story brick building on Bridge Street for $5,500.  This was somewhat damaged in a very destructive down town fire in December of 1884.

Five years later Dettloff built a brand new brick store at 120 Bridge Street.  It still stands today.

By the mid 1890's the firm was doing business as Riester and Dettloff.  This name was still in use in the 1920's although Herman Dettloff had died in 1918.  The later history of the building includes a stretch as Nelson Drug and later the Q Bake Shop.  It is now some sort of boutique.

120 North Bridge, December 2022.

Many pharmacists made up a few of their own preparations.  Here's one from Riester and Dettloff circa 1910.   Courtesy of Ryan Metzenbauer.