Henry F. Wulf

HENRY F. WULF. - A fine education is desirable capital; technical training is something for which to be thankful; a rich inheritance is not to be laughed at, but without any of these it is still possible for a man to attain financial success and social prominence. Henry F. Wulf is a living corroboration of that truth. He is president of the Wulf Laundry Company, which fact gives evidence of his business ability and his many friends bear testimony to his popularity.

He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 10, 1863, of German parents, his father, Frederick Wulf, having been born in Germany in 1834. He was apprenticed to a cabinet maker but he did not serve out his full time with his master, as the gentleman died before the completion of his apprenticeship. Frederick had been a very apt pupil and had learned nearly all that his master could teach him, so that he was able to work for some one else without finishing his apprenticeship. When he was seventeen, he left home and came to America, locating in Cincinnati, where he plied his trade of cabinet making. Here he met and married Henrietta Duhalter, a native of Germany born in 1836. There were born to this union the following children, of whom three are (1911) living. The first two died in childhood; Louise, is now the wife of L. Lucus, Cincinnati, Ohio; Henry F.; and John E. Frederick Wulf was very successful in his business, which he followed until 1893, when he retired from active life. In 1908 his wife, Henrietta, died and two years later, in the month of March, he joined her.

Henry F. Wulf attended the public schools of Cincinnati but at that time did not realize the advantages of higher education and he left school at an early age, his father taking him into his shop to learn the cabinet making trade. However, Frederick soon discovered that cabinet making was not his forte and he got a position in the planing mills of his home town. In 1888 having saved a little money, he decided to engage in the laundry business, and finding a good opening at Greenville, Mississippi, he went there and opened up a laundry establishment, but it did not prove a financial success. He returned to Cincinnati and became identified with a planing mill there, but on February 7th, 1891, he came to Kansas City and opened up a laundry, which succeeded beyond his expectations. He incorporated the business under the name of the Wulf Laundry Company, he being the president.

In 1890, on the 5th of January, he was married to Miss Willie Florence Best, a young lady who came from Tennessee and was possessed of the southern sweetness of manner, which has lost none of its charm during the time that has elapsed since her marriage.

Mr. Wulf has risen high in Masonry, being a member of the Wyandotte Blue Lodge No. 3, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons. Politically Mr. Wulf is associated with the Republican party.