T. C. Esser

Working at various phases of the business in time he became an expert carriage painter and by the age of sixteen he was earning nine dollars a week.

At the age of twenty Theodore C. Esser was a full-fledged painter, engaged on piece work that brought him from $18 to $27 per week.

Within a few days he had secured employment — a painting job — with the Milwaukee Buggy Company, but when a week had passed he was called home to Aurora through the serious illness of his mother.

He again found employment with the Milwaukee Buggy Company, but the pay was only seven dollars and a half per week and feeling that he could do better at piece work he arranged with the company to finish six hundred gears and wheels for a stipulated sum, and in that way earned from twenty-five to thirty dollars per week.

After doing contract work until the fall of 1893 Mr. Esser took sixty dollars that he had saved, bought some equipment for painting and established a business of his own at Thirty-third and Cherry streets in a room above a blacksmith shop.

During this time his contracting business was steadily growing and in 1902 he erected a fine brick store on North Avenue and Thirty Fourth Street.

There he began manufacturing his own paint, and the growth of his business led to the addition of other units to his plant, and in 1925 to the glass warehouse on Thirty-Second Street.

His prominence in trade circles was indicated in the fact that he served as president of the Milwaukee Paint, Oil & Varnish Club and was a member of the committee that met in his home and drew up the code of ethics which was later adopted by the National Paint, Oil & Varnish Association.