Warning: Not for the faint of heart or vegetarians
Adolph “Louis” Luetgert was born in 1845 in Westphalia (now Germany). He came to the U.S. in 1865, eventually settling in Chicago. Like many immigrants, Adolph — or Louis as some called him — came to America with very little money. One of his first jobs in the U.S. was similar to what he had done in Germany, working as a tanner. He soon tired of manual labor, and after the Chicago fire, started his own liquor business. He married a woman named Caroline with whom he had two sons. Sadly, one of his sons and Caroline died. Two months after his wife died, Luetgert married Louisa who was nine years his junior. They had four children, two of whom died in childhood.
After marrying Louisa, Luetgert opened a bar on the corner of Clybourn and Webster in Chicago. There were whispers that Luetgert had been involved in a murder which occurred on the property, but nothing was ever proven and the death remained a mystery.
Luetgert then bought a meat route and butcher shop. He started making his own sausage. He claimed that he had invented a way to make sausages that did not need refrigeration during the summer, even though Europeans had been making “summer sausage” for generations. His sausages were in such high demand that Luetgert built his own plant…