Menger Soap Works
San Antonio’s first industrial enterprise — a soap, candle, and vinegar factory on the West Side, on the banks of San Pedro Creek, founded by German immigrant Simon Menger (Johann Nicholaus Simon Menger, 1807–1892). The business is the paternal-line origin of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. Mengers: Simon was the father of Dr. Rudolph Menger and thus grandfather of the Menger siblings who ran H&H. Its surviving limestone building (today the Soap Factory Apartments) is one of the oldest industrial structures in Texas — listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1973) and a Texas Historic Landmark (1983).
Not the Menger Hotel. This is the soap-works Menger line, unrelated to William A. Menger of the Menger Hotel and Western Brewery. The two San Antonio Menger families connect only through Dr. Rudolph Menger’s marriage to William A.’s daughter Catherine “Babette” Menger — the genealogical record explicitly notes “(no relation).” See below.
Founding (1850) and the Klemcke acquisition (1851)
In 1850 Simon Menger opened a soap and candle factory on San Pedro Creek, sited to exploit the creek’s water supply (TSHA: “In 1850 Menger opened a soap and candle factory”; NRHP nomination: “In 1850 a German immigrant, Johann Nicholas Simon Menger, founded a factory on the banks of the San Pedro Creek… to manufacture soap”).
The founding is partly an acquisition: by a deed dated July 12, 1851 (Bexar County Deed Records Vol. K1, pp. 58–59), Menger bought an existing soap works from Frederick William Klemcke. So 1850 marks the start of Menger’s soap-making and 1851 the purchase of Klemcke’s established plant — the two dates are reconcilable, not contradictory.
Location
| Reference | Detail |
|---|---|
| District | West Side, between N. Laredo St. and San Pedro Creek, south of W. Martin St. (400–500 block of N. Laredo) |
| 1891 city directory | Factory listed at 410 North Laredo Street (Erich Menger, proprietor); family residence at 416 North Laredo Street, just west of the works |
| Earliest map | Building appears on the 1873 Augustus Koch bird’s-eye map of San Antonio |
| Today | The limestone building survives as the Soap Factory Apartments; NRHP-listed 1973, Texas Historic Landmark 1983 |
Address variance across sources (400 / 410 / 500 block; N. Laredo / W. Martin / N. Santa Rosa) reflects street renumbering and different reference points over the long operating history, not conflicting locations. The extant limestone structure was likely (re)built after the founding — sources note an upstream rebuild following the 1859 flood and a building mapped by 1873 — so “constructed 1850” describes the enterprise, while the standing building’s exact construction year is less certain.
Products and scale
The works produced soap, candles, and vinegar. Soap was made in multiple grades, “from the finest toilet to the family soaps”; a genealogical compilation reports as many as 14 varieties of soap. By 1878 the firm operated as “S. Menger and Sons,” with an 1878 output figure of 69,000 lbs of soap.
(Confidence note: candle and multi-grade soap output are well-supported by TSHA/NRHP; the specific “14 varieties,” “vinegar,” and the 69,000-lb figure rest on secondary genealogical / marker-application material — uncontradicted but not corroborated by the primary sources.)
Succession and end of the business
- By 1878 — operating as “S. Menger and Sons.”
- 1882 — Simon Menger conveyed the entire San Antonio Soap Works (land, improvements, machinery, fixtures, apparatus) to his son Erich Menger.
- After 1892 — following Simon’s death, Erich ran the works, continuing until the end of World War I (sources also say “the early part of the twentieth century”).
No exact closure year survived verification. Specific closure narratives that failed adversarial verification and should not be repeated: closed “circa 1904,” “converted to apartments in 1950,” and “sold to the City Urban Renewal Program in 1969.”
The “first manufacturing concern in Texas” claim — qualified
The KB’s prior characterization (from a 1987 family newspaper feature) that the works was “the first manufacturing concern in Texas” is not supported as stated and should be scoped to San Antonio:
- Supported: San Antonio’s first industrial / manufacturing enterprise (TSHA: “San Antonio’s first industrial enterprise”; NRHP: “the first manufacturing enterprise in San Antonio and possibly the first soap factory in the Southwest”).
- Hedged, not asserted: the surviving building “may be the oldest industrial building extant in Texas” / “the only pre-Civil War industrial building remaining in Texas” — all three authoritative sources qualify this with “may be” / “believed to be” / “perhaps.”
- Not supported: that the business was the first manufacturer in the state.
The two Menger families {#the-two-menger-families}
| Soap-works Menger | Hotel Menger | |
|---|---|---|
| Founder | Simon Menger (b. 1807, Stadtilm, Thuringia) | William Achatius Menger (b. 1827) |
| Business | Menger Soap Works (1850) | Menger Hotel (Jan 31, 1859) + Western Brewery (c.1854–55) |
| Link to H&H | Paternal — father of Dr. Rudolph Menger | Maternal — father of Catherine “Babette” |
The families are unrelated (different birth years, German origins, and trades). They connect only when Dr. Rudolph Menger (Simon’s son) married Catherine “Babette” Menger (William A.’s daughter) — which is why the H&H generation descends from both unrelated Menger lines: soap paternally, hotel maternally.
Open questions
- The c.1871 U.S. government soap contract — Nancy Draves recounts (2024 interview) that “by 1871… [Simon] was manufacturing soap for the United States government… he had [a] contract with the United States government.” This family testimony was not corroborated by the external research; treat it as unverified pending a primary document (federal contract record, period newspaper, or directory ad).
- A son “August” / a Houston Soap Works — a secondary genealogy describes Simon establishing a Houston soap works (deeded to a son August in 1882, run until his 1893 death). This entire branch failed verification (refuted) and rests on a single secondary source. The KB’s internal note that “August (Soap Works, Houston)” worked in the business is therefore unconfirmed — the only verified successor son is Erich (San Antonio). Needs primary evidence.
- Exact closure year of the San Antonio works (currently only “end of WWI / early 20th c.”).
- Construction year of the extant limestone building (vs. the 1850 enterprise founding).
Sources & verification
Compiled 2026-06-21 from a deep-research pass (fan-out search → source fetch → 3-vote adversarial verification → synthesis; 25 claims verified, 17 confirmed, 8 refuted). Strongest claims rest on primary/authoritative sources: the TSHA Handbook of Texas entry for Johann Nicholaus Simon Menger, the 1973 NRHP nomination (THC 73001958), the 1983 THC historic marker application (Portal to Texas History), UTSA digital collections, and Bexar County Deed Records (via the farmandranch.omeka.net Klemcke exhibit). Product-scale details and the Houston/August branch derive from a secondary genealogical compilation (rootsweb SAGHS Family Wall A18) and are flagged accordingly above.
See also
People
- Simon Menger — founder; soap-works patriarch
- Dr. Rudolph Menger — Simon’s son; bridge to the hotel line
- William A. Menger — the unrelated Menger Hotel founder
- Catherine Menger — the marriage that links the two families
Places
- Menger Hotel — the other (unrelated) San Antonio Menger enterprise
Synthesis
Sources
- 19 June Draves scans — manifest + transcriptions — obituary/portrait evidence for Simon’s family