Events
A chronological index of dated events tied to the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company, the Menger and Hoffmann families, and the suppliers, brokers, and rival firms that shape the company’s story. The list covers births, deaths, marriages, plant milestones, product launches, sales, and closures — anything with an anchor date and a primary source.
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1880 July 4 — Birth of Wilhelmina Menger (Schlosser)
Wilhelmina “Minnie” Menger—later Mrs. William R. Hoffmann and Mrs. William J. Schlosser—is born in San Antonio on 4 July 1880; daughter of Dr. Rudolph Menger and Catherine Menger. -
1889 September 20 — Birth of Gustav Peter Menger
Future Hoffmann-Hayman president Gustav P. (“Gus”) Menger is born in San Antonio on 20 September 1889—son of Dr. Rudolph Menger and Catherine Menger, and younger brother of Wilhelmina “Minnie” Menger Hoffmann. -
1898 April 25 — Spanish-American War — Fort Sam Houston as national military staging base
The U.S. declares war on Spain on 25 April 1898. Fort Sam Houston—already a major Army post in San Antonio—serves as a national staging base, including Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders mustering nearby. The military buildup cements San Antonio’s role as the commercial supplier to the U.S. Army’s southwestern operations. -
1899 — Company founded
William R. Hoffmann establishes a coffee business in San Antonio in 1899—the firm that later grows into Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. -
1906 June 30 — Pure Food and Drug Act
President Theodore Roosevelt signs the first federal food-and-drug labeling law on 30 June 1906, prohibiting misbranded or adulterated food in interstate commerce. The act sets the regulatory backdrop for every roaster’s “100% pure” and quality claims in the decades that follow. -
1909 June 1 — William R. Hoffmann marries Wilhelmina Menger
William R. Hoffmann marries Wilhelmina “Minnie” Menger at the Mengers’ East Commerce Street home on 1 June 1909; society coverage in the Express-News (6 June) and the San Antonio Light marriage-license column (2 June) both record the event. -
1911 January 15 — Death of William R. Hoffmann Jr.
William R. Hoffmann Jr. is born 11 December 1910 and buried 15 January 1911, not yet five weeks old—the only child of William R. Hoffmann and Wilhelmina “Minnie” Menger Hoffmann. -
1912 January 10 — Death of William Robert Hoffmann
William Robert Hoffmann, born in Germany on 25 October 1878, dies in San Antonio on 10 January 1912 at age 33—the founder of the coffee business that would become Hoffmann-Hayman. -
1912 February 5 — Hoffmann–Hayman Coffee Company chartered
The Express reports from Austin the filing of a Texas charter for The Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company of San Antonio—capital stock $20,000 (three-fourths paid in), purpose general merchandising, incorporators W. E. Hayman, Mrs. William R. Hoffmann (Minnie), and Gus P. Menger, with J. C. Neeley on the first-year board; fifty-year term. Dateline 5 February 1912; Express-News reprint 6 February. -
1912 October 4 — Hoffmann merges with Merchants Coffee (Hayman)
William R. Hoffmann Coffee merges with Merchants Coffee, owned by W. E. Hayman, on 4 October 1912, forming the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company. Hayman becomes president; Mrs. Hoffmann (Minnie Menger) is vice president; her brother Gus P. Menger serves as secretary. -
1912 November 15 — Hoffmann-Hayman moves to Caffarelli building
Hoffmann-Hayman leaves a back room on West Commerce for the Caffarelli wholesale grocery building at 307 N. Medina Street (Medina and Travis), designed by architect Alfred Giles for the Caffarelli Brothers. The 1913 “To the Trade” advertisement the company ran from this address vaunts a new fireproof building, more than 4,000 square feet of roasting space, and same-day delivery to the San Antonio jobbing trade. -
1914 July 28 — World War I begins in Europe
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia on 28 July 1914; the alliance system pulls the continent into a four-year conflict. Atlantic submarine warfare and disrupted European trade immediately pressure the Gulf-port green-coffee supply chain that San Antonio roasters—including H&H’s predecessor firms—depended on through importers such as J. Aron & Co. -
1914 November — Large Fort Sam Houston coffee order (Morrison)
The trade press reports what it calls the largest San Antonio coffee order to date for Fort Sam Houston—a carload in bulk from Morrison Coffee Co., hauled to the post by eight two-horse wagons. -
1917 — Texas highway department era begins
Texas reorganizes road administration into a modern state highway department (today’s TxDOT) in 1917; San Antonio becomes headquarters of one of the first six divisions. -
1917 March — Hoffmann-Hayman acquires Morrison Coffee Co.
Hoffmann-Hayman buys Morrison Coffee Co. in March 1917 and consolidates operations at 307 N. Medina—the Caffarelli building the firm already occupies. The Simmon’s Spice Mill trade press documents the acquisition. -
1917 April 6 — U.S. enters World War I
Congress declares war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Fort Sam Houston’s role as a national staging and training base expands sharply—Camp Travis is built on adjacent land and trains multiple infantry divisions. The military buildup amplifies the institutional San Antonio market that H&H had already been building through the Fort Sam Houston account inherited with the Morrison acquisition that same month (March 1917). -
1920 January — Hayman sells out to the Mengers
W. E. Hayman sells his interest to the Menger siblings in January 1920. G. P. (“Gus”) Menger becomes president; R. W. Menger, secretary–treasurer; Mrs. William J. Schlosser (Minnie Menger Hoffmann) remains vice president. -
1920 January 17 — Prohibition begins
The 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act take effect; the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages becomes federally illegal. Coffee assumes the role of the dominant public social drink in restaurants, hotels, and lunch counters. The shift almost certainly accelerated the 1920s expansion phase H&H entered immediately after the Hayman buyout — though a primary San Antonio source linking the two locally remains an open research thread. -
1922 — Hoffmann-Hayman on Burnett Street
A 1932 article on the new Delaware Street plant notes that the company had already been at 331 Burnett Street for about ten years—placing H&H at the Burnett address from roughly 1922. This entry marks the Burnett Street plant generation rather than the 1932 Delaware Street build. -
1922 March — Three Rivers Glass Company incorporates
The Three Rivers Glass Company is chartered in Texas in early March 1922, capitalized at $50,000. At a directors’ meeting on Friday 17 March 1922, officers are elected for the first year: James Kapp as president, A. H. Morton as vice president, Charles R. Tips as secretary–treasurer, and H. S. Warrick as general manager (Warrick is in St. Louis at the time arranging machinery purchase). Other directors: Adolph Wagner, William L. Stiles, D. J. Woodward (all of San Antonio), and H. T. Harber (of Three Rivers). Construction of the factory at Three Rivers is ordered to start immediately, targeting operation within 60 days. Plant will use Three Rivers natural gas for fuel; glass sand from local pits; capacity 150 gross of bottles daily; first products soda-water bottles and milk bottles; target market Texas and Mexican trade. -
1922 April 18 — H and H Blend — whole bean, medium ground, and pulverized in three container sizes
The San Antonio Evening News advertises H and H Blend packed whole bean, medium ground, and pulverized, in ½ pound, 1 pound, and 3 pound containers—the grind and size matrix for the house blend in local press the same decade as the paper-label tins in the collection. Blog note with scan pointer. -
1922 October 24 — U.S. Patent 160,778 to H & H
The company receives U.S. Patent No. 160,778, recorded in the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office on 24 October 1922. -
1928 August 31 — “Fires Damage Home and Coffee Plant” — slight damage at 331 Burnet
The San Antonio Light reports two small fires from the previous evening: slight damage at the Hoffman-Hayman Coffee Company, 331 Burnet Street, and a separate residential fire elsewhere. It is a dated, primary mention of the Burnet plant in routine fire news—useful context for the physical plant in the late 1920s. Full clip, transcription, and PDF on the site. -
1929 October 29 — Wall Street crash (start of the Great Depression)
Panic selling on the New York exchanges on 29 October 1929 marks the beginning of the Great Depression—national context for every consumer business in the early 1930s. -
1930 — Warehouse fire — Burnet plant
Informal accounts of a serious warehouse fire at the 331 Burnett Street roasting plant in the early 1930s are referenced in site research notes. The firmly dated primary source for fire at that address is the 31 August 1928 San Antonio Light item reporting “slight damage at the Hoffman-Hayman Coffee Company, 331 Burnet Street.” -
1932 — Delaware Street factory built
A purpose-built reinforced-concrete plant rises at 601 Delaware Street, San Antonio, in 1932, laid out for rail service—a Depression-era capital investment that became H&H’s operational home for 40 years. -
1932 December 21, Wednesday — Open house at the new roasting plant
Hoffmann-Hayman welcomes the public to the new Delaware Street roastery on 21 December 1932 with refreshments, music, and an evening WOAI radio broadcast starting at 8 p.m. The San Antonio Light advance bills it as a “showplace Southwest coffee plant.” -
1932 June 10 — Crystalvac jar and vacuum pack in the press
The San Antonio Register of 10 June 1932 reports on Hoffmann-Hayman’s new Crystalvac jar and vacuum-packing process—one of the first press mentions of the Crystalvac name, and part of the firm’s shift from tin to glass for retail coffee. -
1932 July 1 — Railroad spur agreement (GH&SA / Texas & New Orleans)
Hoffmann-Hayman signs to use trackage built and maintained by the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway (leased to the Texas and New Orleans Railroad) to serve the new 601 Delaware Street plant, recorded with the Bexar County Clerk on 1 July 1932. -
1933 June 16 — New Deal NIRA — National Recovery Administration codes
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the National Industrial Recovery Act, creating the National Recovery Administration. NRA industry codes set price floors, wage minimums, and fair-practice rules for the food trade — including coffee roasting and wholesale grocery. H&H, like every regional roaster, operated under NRA Blue Eagle codes from mid-1933 until the Supreme Court struck them down in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (May 1935). -
1933 November 27 — Dutch Lunch Mustard added to spice line
The San Antonio Express of 27 November 1933 carries advertising announcing Dutch Lunch Mustard as a new Hoffmann-Hayman spice item—evidence of how far beyond coffee the “H and H” brand name reached in the 1930s. -
1933 December 5 — Prohibition repealed
The 21st Amendment is ratified on 5 December 1933, ending 13 years of national Prohibition. Alcohol returns to bars, restaurants, and hotels—reversing coffee’s monopoly on the social-drink role and adding competitive pressure that helps explain the mid-1930s brand contraction visible in H&H’s product lineup. -
1934 September 10 — Sam Houston, H & H, and Texas Girl jars in Southwest markets
The San Antonio Express of 10 September 1934 reports strong demand for Sam Houston, H & H, and Texas Girl Crystalvac jars across Southwest markets, noting that housewives reuse the wide-mouth jars for canning because the glass fits standard Kerr and Mason-Ball closures. -
1936 December — Ball acquires Three Rivers Glass Co.
On 5 December 1936, San Antonio attorney William C. Church announces — after a conference with L. L. Bracken, representative of the George A. Ball Manufacturing Company of Muncie, Indiana — that the Three Rivers Glass plant has been purchased out of receivership for $130,000 and reorganized under the new name “Ball Glass corporation.” The plant had been in the hands of receivers since 1932; following a brief shutdown for inventory, renewed operations are projected within days. Production target: upwards of $500,000/yr in glassware for liquid-foodstuffs distributors across Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana; “the only glass manufacturing plant in South Texas.” -
1937 January — Three Rivers Glass Co. formally dissolves
In January 1937, the Three Rivers Glass Company (the Texas corporation) is formally dissolved through insolvency proceedings — nine years before former shareholders Charles R. Tips, W. L. Moody III, and Harry R. Rogers will file the 1946 $1,350,000 anti-trust suit against Hartford-Empire, Ball Bros., and Owens-Illinois alleging the dissolution was caused by the patent-pool’s unlawful acts. -
1938 December — Hartford-Empire testimony names Three Rivers Glass in U.S. Senate monopoly probe
On 12 December 1938, the U.S. Senate Temporary National Economic Committee (TNEC, the “monopoly committee,” chaired by Senator Joseph C. O’Mahoney) hears full-day testimony from F. G. Smith, president of Hartford-Empire Co. of Hartford, Connecticut. Smith — questioned by Hugh Cox of the U.S. Department of Justice — defends Hartford-Empire’s ownership of the patents on the machinery by which glass containers can be produced most economically, its practice of leasing the machinery on a royalty basis to individual manufacturers, and its stipulation of what type of container each licensee may produce and, in some cases, how many. Hartford-Empire’s licensing terms also reserved the right to decide whether or not a new manufacturer is to be admitted to the business. -
1939 September 1 — World War II begins in Europe
Germany invades Poland on 1 September 1939; Britain and France declare war two days later, opening a conflict that would draw in the U.S. by December 1941. Global mobilization, shipping disruptions, and anticipatory rationing touch every food packager, including regional roasters, before U.S. entry. -
1941 — Mi Tierra opens in Market Square
Pedro Cortez buys the Toyo Café in Market Square and renames it Mi Tierra in 1941—San Antonio dining context for the same decade H&H is supplying the hotel-and-restaurant trade from its Delaware Street plant. -
1941 December 7 — Pearl Harbor — U.S. enters World War II
Japanese naval aircraft attack the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor; Congress declares war the following day. The home-front rationing regime that follows — coffee, sugar, gasoline, tin, rubber — drives H&H’s wartime packaging pivot to the Flav-O-Tainer paper bag in 1942 and constrains finished-goods inventory for the next four years. -
1942 — Tin and metal rationing — War Production Board civilian-container restrictions
Following the U.S. entry into WWII, the War Production Board (established January 16, 1942) issued a cascade of Limitation Orders through the first half of 1942 restricting the use of tinplate, aluminum, and other strategic metals in civilian containers. Coffee roasters were directly affected: keywind tin cans, the standard 1930s package, became scarce. H&H’s response is documented in the brand line — the Flav-O-Tainer paper bag launches in 1942 specifically to replace tinned packaging, and the 1937 vacuum-can investment is partly stranded by the supply squeeze. -
1942 November 29 — U.S. coffee rationing begins
The Office of Price Administration imposes nationwide coffee rationing — one pound per adult every five weeks, controlled by War Ration Book One stamps. Rationing runs through July 28, 1943, when shipping capacity improves. The eight-month window aligns precisely with the documented Flav-O-Tainer paper-bag run, and the OPA’s coffee-stamp regime is the strongest single national-policy / H&H-decision pair in the KB. -
1945 September 2 — World War II ends
Japan formally surrenders aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending WWII. Civilian rationing winds down through late 1945 and 1946 — tin, sugar, and coffee return to peacetime supply. H&H reverts to standard tin and glass packaging; the wartime Flav-O-Tainer line is retired as the supply constraint that justified it lifts. -
1946 January — Tips, Moody, Rogers v. Hartford-Empire, Ball, Owens-Illinois ($1.35M anti-trust suit)
On Thursday, 3 January 1946, three San Antonio men — Charles R. Tips, W. L. Moody III, and Harry R. Rogers — file suit with the U.S. District Clerk (San Antonio) seeking $1,350,000 in actual damages, to be trebled (~$4,050,000 with treble damages), against three out-of-state glass manufacturers: -
1947 January 25 — 601 Delaware roof fire (25 January 1947)
# 601 Delaware roof fire — Saturday, 25 January 1947 -
1947 November — Three Rivers anti-trust suit dismissed in Texas, refiled in Indiana
On Saturday, 1 November 1947, Federal Judge Ben H. Rice Jr. dismisses the $4,600,000 anti-trust damage suit filed by Three Rivers Glass Co. against Hartford-Empire Co. (Hartford, CT), Ball Brothers Co. (Muncie, IN), and Owens-Illinois Glass Co. (Toledo, OH) in U.S. District Court (San Antonio). The dismissal is at the plaintiff’s own request — Three Rivers, with Charles R. Tips as president, sought the dismissal so the suit could be refiled in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, Indiana, where it has already been refiled. -
1949 — Second-floor addition, Delaware Street plant
The south-facing second-story windows over Delaware are bricked in and new walls rise above the 1932 parapet, enclosing additional storage and working space. Penciled Spanish-language worker inscriptions on the interior walls—dated sequences from 1949 through 1956—record the laborers who built and used the expanded floor. -
1953 — Instant coffee national boom
By 1953, instant coffee had crossed roughly 17% of U.S. coffee consumption as Nescafé and General Foods’ Maxwell House Instant scaled national television advertising and supermarket distribution. The shift from roasted-ground to soluble coffee is the defining mid-century competitive pressure on regional roasters: convenience and shelf-life advantages favor national brands with continental marketing budgets. H&H’s response is documented as the 1957 Master Chef Instant Coffee launch — a defensive move into the category roughly four years after the national boom inflected. -
1955 — North-end wing at 601 Delaware
A two-story wing is added at the north end of the 601 Delaware Street property in 1955, expanding roasting and warehouse capacity and completing the building’s final pre-sale footprint. -
1956 April 23 — Death of Minnie (Wilhelmina) Schlosser
Mrs. Wilhelmina (Minnie) Schlosser, née Menger, dies in San Antonio on 23 April 1956 at age 75. Burial: Mission Burial Park South, Section 4 (Restland). The national trade press noted her death in the same year’s Coffee and Tea Industries volume. -
1956 June 29 — Federal-Aid Highway Act — Interstate Highway System
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act, authorizing the construction of the 41,000-mile Interstate Highway System. The new long-haul road network shifts distribution economics decisively in favor of national brands with continental truck reach. Regional roasters like H&H — whose 1930s-1940s distribution had been built around rail freight and the Texas state highway system — face direct competitive pressure from out-of-state brands suddenly able to truck product into San Antonio cheaply. -
1959 June 25 — City contract — coffee for the San Antonio jail
City Council adopts Ordinance 27,684 on 25 June 1959, awarding Hoffmann-Hayman the jail’s coffee supply for 1 August 1959 through 31 July 1960, recorded in Ordinance Book 1.1, page 245. -
1960 May 4 — Albert G. Menger elected President of Hoffmann-Hayman
On 4 May 1960, the board of directors of Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company elected Albert G. Menger as President. His father, Gustav P. (“Gus”) Menger, who had served as president since 1920, moved into a newly-created Board Chairman role. -
1962 December — Continental Coffee of Chicago acquires Hoffmann-Hayman
In December 1962, the Chicago-based Continental Coffee Company purchased the business assets of Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company — ending fifty years of independent Menger-family ownership. The acquisition date is confirmed by the April 1, 1987 San Antonio Express-News obituary for Theodore J. Menger: “He remained there until 1962, when the company was sold to Continental Coffee of Chicago. He retired at that time.” -
1963 February 21 — Death of Dr. William J. Schlosser
Dr. William J. Schlosser, born 12 August 1875 in Kentucky, dies in San Antonio on 21 February 1963 at age 87. Burial: Mission Burial Park South (Find a Grave memorial 55409282). -
1964 July 12 — Newspaper ad — H & H as a Continental Coffee division
A San Antonio Express advertisement on 12 July 1964 congratulating Santa Rosa Medical Center on its anniversary carries a footer line reading “A Division of the Continental Coffee Co.”—the first clear newspaper-advertising confirmation that H&H was operating as a Continental division rather than an independent company. -
1967 April 3 — Continental Coffee at Hoffmann-Hayman Warehouse Co. (deed record)
Bexar County Clerk records document Continental Coffee operating in connection with the Hoffmann-Hayman Warehouse Company on 3 April 1967. This is five years into the Continental of Chicago era (acquisition 1962) and five years before G. P. Menger personally sold the 601 Delaware real estate in August 1972. -
1968 April 6 — HemisFair ‘68 opens in San Antonio
The Texas world’s fair — HemisFair ‘68: Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas — opens on a 92-acre downtown site, drawing roughly 6.4 million visitors over six months. The fair brings a wave of restaurant, hotel, and tourism build-out to San Antonio during H&H’s final years of operation under Continental Coffee ownership (1962 acquisition → 1972 real-estate sale). Whether HemisFair generated identifiable institutional H&H accounts is an open thread; the fair-era San Antonio hospitality boom is the relevant world-context backdrop. -
1970 July 11 — Help-wanted ad lists 601 Delaware
A Continental Coffee job notice in the Express and News of 11 July 1970 uses the 601 Delaware Street plant address—placing the facility in active use with a Continental workforce two years before the real-estate sale. -
1971 July — Burns Jubilee roasters sold to Monterrey
In a letter dated 8 July 1971, Hoffmann-Hayman retiree Chris M. Jasso told Gustav P. Menger that Señor Ernesto Gonzales, a businessman from Monterrey, had purchased Hoffmann-Hayman’s four Jabez Burns Jubilee roasters from Continental Coffee Company, transported them across the border, and installed them in Monterrey. Jasso recalled the machines were already old when H&H “hooked them up” roughly 30 years earlier (~1940s), but looked restored after the move. -
1972 March 28 — 601 Delaware offered for sale
The San Antonio Express of 28 March 1972 carries a real-estate listing for the 601 Delaware Street property as the coffee-plant era at that address winds down—some five months before the August 1972 deed of sale. -
1972 August 29 — Sale of Hoffmann-Hayman Warehouse Co. (601 Delaware)
Gus P. Menger, as president of the Hoffmann-Hayman Warehouse Company, executes a deed of sale on 29 August 1972 conveying 601 Delaware Street to buyer Kenneth L. Wagner, recorded with the Bexar County Clerk. -
1973 May 26 — Texas Historical Marker — Three Rivers Glass Company
The Texas Historical Commission dedicates a marker at the Three Rivers glassworks site on 26 May 1973, recognizing the plant as an early Texas glass manufacturer—civic acknowledgment, 36 years after the factory’s closure, that the Three Rivers Glass Company was significant local history. -
1974 August 5 — Death of Gustav Peter Menger
Gustav P. (“Gus”) Menger dies in San Antonio on 5 August 1974 at age 84. Burial: Mission Burial Park South, Section 4 (Restland). -
1975 March 6 — 601 Delaware as B&W toy warehouse
Kenneth L. Wagner, president of B&W Service Co., advertises from 601 Delaware as a toy wholesaler distributing for World Toy House of St. Paul, Minnesota, in the San Antonio Express of 6 March 1975—the first documented post-H&H commercial use of the address. -
1996 — Ball Corporation exits glass
Ball Corporation (successor to Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company) sells its remaining glass operations to Saint-Gobain of France in 1996 and pivots entirely toward metal packaging and aerospace—the final chapter of the Ball-family glass industrial arc that had included the Three Rivers Glass plant and the H&H Crystalvac supply chain. -
2017 April 28-29 — Three Rivers Glass Show (80th anniversary)
Collectors and historians gather in Three Rivers, Texas, for a weekend show marking eighty years since the glassworks closed—tables of Crystalvac and other South Texas glass, talks, and a historical-marker walk. Field notes from the show are published on this site.