H and H Coffee

Dedicated to the history of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. est. 1899 in San Antonio, Texas.

Dr. Rudolph A. Menger (April 21, 1851 – March 16, 1921) — San Antonio physician; patriarch of the H&H Menger generation. Father of Minnie Menger Hoffmann (who married H&H co-founder William R. Hoffmann), Gus P. Menger (long-serving H&H president), and the other Menger siblings (R. W., T. J., L. B.) who staffed the company through the 1920s–1960.

Buried: Mission Burial Park South, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Family background

Father: Simon Johann Menger — music teacher and founder of the Menger Soap Works, a German immigrant family separate from the Menger Hotel Mengers. Mother: Augusta Louisa Menger (b. Stadt Ilm, Thüringen). The two San Antonio Menger lines were united only by Dr. Rudolph’s marriage to William A. Menger’s daughter Catherine.

Parentage — RESOLVED with contemporary documents (TODO-49, 19 June 2026). The Draves scans include three contemporary-document confirmations that Simon (Johann) Menger was Dr. Rudolph’s father: (1) a newspaper clipping — “He was the son of Simon Jonathan Menger who immigrated to San Antonio from Germany”; (2) the 1857–8 Simon Menger family portrait + verso key (Simon = ①; “Rudolph, Doctor” = ⑦, the young Dr. Rudolph as a child); and (3) the obituary of Augusta Louisa Menger naming “Dr. Rudolph” among her sons. The old “Johann and Augusta” parentage was a garbled half-truth — the father is Simon Johann (Johann = Simon’s middle name) and the mother is Augusta Louisa; both names were right, mis-split into a phantom “Johann” father. (The 1869–71 Leipzig letters are no longer needed to settle this. Maternal line unaffected.) Discrepancy to verify: the Draves worksheet gives Dr. Rudolph’s birth year as 1852 (this page records 1851).

Wife: Barbara C. Menger (also called “Babette” / “Catherine Barbara” / “Katarina Babette”) — native San Antonian; daughter of William A. Menger (Menger Hotel founder). The marriage made the H&H Menger siblings (Minnie, Gus P., R. W., T. J., L. B.) William A. Menger’s grandchildren. Married 1879.

Children (8): Minnie · Edward · August · Louis B. · Gustave (Gus P.) · Rudolph Jr. (R. W.) · Theodore (T. J.) · Margaret

The 1909 marriage notice identifies Minnie Menger’s parents as “Dr. and Mrs. R. Menger,” residing on East Commerce Street. The 1912 SA Light death notice for William R. Hoffmann refers to Minnie as “daughter of Dr. R. Menger.”

Education and career

  • Attended German-English School, San Antonio (established 1858)
  • Studied medicine at University of Leipzig (Leipsic), Saxony, Germany; graduated November 1874
  • Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Army — one year after graduation
  • City Physician of San Antonio, 1875–1881 — first appointment
  • City Physician of San Antonio, 1892 — reappointed
  • Active member, West Texas Medical Society
  • Published articles in medical journals
  • Maintained private medical practice throughout career

Discrepancy — City Physician dates. A newspaper clipping in the Draves 19 June 2026 scans says Dr. Rudolph was named City Physician in 1872 and served four years, against the 1875–1881 first appointment recorded above. Unresolved; the 1875–1881 dating is retained pending a primary record. The same clipping calls him a “Major Surgeon in the Civil War” — almost certainly an error or a conflation with his elder brother Oscar Menger (4th Texas Regiment, wounded at Gaines’s Mill, 1862), since Dr. Rudolph was a child in 1861–65.

Per Nancy and Tim Draves in the 12 June 2026 session, Dr. Menger rode briefly with the Buffalo Soldiers — family oral testimony, not yet corroborated by a primary document.

Publications

Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscences (1913) — photo-micrographs and natural-history observations. Full text digitized on the Portal to Texas History.

In the 12 June 2026 session, Nancy Draves suggested that Dr. Menger’s naturalist work — his Mitchell Lake research and this nature book — may have been the origin of the family’s later Native-American / naturalist / archaeology interest, carried forward by his son Rudolph W. Menger and the coffee-company brothers. Treat as a lead until documents connect the generations.

Open questions

  • Cause of death — not found in any web source consulted June 2026. SA newspaper obituary (Light / Express, c. March 17–18, 1921) not yet retrieved — paywalled on Newspapers.com; Portal to Texas History bot-blocked during June 2026 session.
  • Middle initial “A” — Ancestry cites “Rudolph A. Menger”; source of the initial not confirmed.
  • Role at Hoffmann-Hayman — the 1934 anniversary copy doesn’t list him as an officer; he died in 1921 before the 601 Delaware era. Any direct H&H involvement would have been in the early years.

See also