>>What brought your family here? In celebration of St. Louis’ 250th birthday, Town & Style is compiling and sharing tales from readers about family histories in St. Louis. To share your story, email us at tellus@townandstyle.com.
It’s not an exaggeration to say our family company, Morgenthaler Drapery Cleaners and Custom Window Treatments in Maplewood, is a business of historical proportions. When Eugene Morgenthaler traveled from Alsace- Lorraine to settle in St. Louis in 1894, he bought a business for $145, and it’s stayed in the family ever since. Called Morgenthaler Dryers and Cleaners from 1894 to 1975, the full-service, high-end cleaning company was operated by successive generations at its first location at 10th and Cole streets.
This year, Morgenthaler’s, now located in Maplewood, is celebrating 120 years in business in St. Louis, and is still family-owned. The fourth generation, Jeanne Morgenthaler Wolf and Cindy Morgenthaler, run the business, which has expanded to include the sale and cleaning of window treatments.
—Jeanne Morgenthaler Wolf
Wolken Family Dentistry was established in 1939 by Dr. Donald J. Wolken at 33 N. Meramec Ave. in Clayton. He set up a small office and shared a waiting room with a young physician. The practice grew slowly, but everything changed with World War II, when Dr. Wolken became a dental officer with MASH units in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Switzerland. After two-and-a-half years, he returned home to resume his dental practice.
In 1974, Donald’s son, Dr. Steven F. Wolken, joined the practice and became involved in the Clayton community. In 2003, the practice grew to include the first member of the third generation, Dr. Chris Wolken, and a few years later it moved to Ladue. In 2008, Dr. Andy Wolken, the second member of the third generation, joined the practice. This year the Wolkens celebrate 75 years in local dentistry!
—Steve Wolken
My father, Aaron Soffer ‘Bunny’ Lapin, was born in St. Louis in 1914. His parents immigrated from Russia in the early 1900s to join other relatives living here. Bunny went to school at the University of Missouri-Columbia and Washington University School of Law. Afterward, he managed his father’s men’s clothing store in the early 1940s. He then developed the idea of packaging whipped cream in an aerosol can. Reddi-wip was born! First sold through milkmen in St. Louis, distribution soon spread throughout the country; the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dubbed Bunny the ‘Whipped Cream King.’
Bunny went on to create Clayton Corporation, which manufactures and sells valves to a variety of markets. Bunny’s brother, Gene Lapin, is currently the vice president of purchasing. I became president in 1970 and founded Convenience Products, a division of Clayton Corporation that has manufacturing locations in Missouri and Florida and produces polyurethane foams and concrete paints and sealers.
—Byron Lapin
The railroad was master of transportation in the 1920s, and St. Louis was a hub. My father, John L. Lingle, was from the deep southern part of Illinois. After World War I duty as a Marine in France, he took technical training with a specialty in electricity in Kansas City, Mo. He settled in St. Louis, if one can consider residing in about half a dozen rooming houses ‘settling.’ The Pullman Company, at the time located in North St. Louis near Riverview Boulevard, hired him to work on its railroad sleeping cars, which he did for a quarter-century. My father married my mother, Grace Wiggs, the day after Christmas in 1925 in East St. Louis. She was a teacher, and had to conceal her marital status because only single women were allowed to teach. My mother later substitute taught in University City, earned a degree at Washington University, and led a first grade class in Overland for 12 years. My parents built a modest $10,000 home in U. City, a mile from the Delmar Loop.
—Carol Lingle Mark
Compiled by Stephanie Zeilenga
Pictured: The original Morgenthaler building
