H. H. Kohlsaat

Herman Henry Kohlsaat (March 22, 1853 Albion, Illinois – October 17, 1924 Washington, D.C.) was an American businessman and newspaper publisher.

Herman Henry Kohlsaat was born March 22, 1853 in Albion, Illinois, one of six children of Reimer and Sarah (Hall) Kohlsaat. His father had been an officer in the Danish Army, and immigrated to the United States, settling in Albion in 1835. Kohlsaat's mother came from England to Illinois with her family in 1821. Reimer and Sarah Kohlsaat were abolitionists whose home was reportedly a station on the Underground Railroad. Kohlsaat's siblings included Christian C. Kohlsaat, who later became a well known jurist in Chicago. The year following Herman's birth, the family moved to Galena, Illinois where he attended school and learned farm work until 1865, when they moved to Chicago. He attended school there for two years and in 1867 went to work as a carrier for the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Kohlsaat later worked for several Chicago merchants, including Carson Pirie Scott and Company. He became a traveling salesman, eventually working for Blake, Shaw and Company, a wholesale bakery owned by R. Nelson Blake, who was to become Kohlsaat's father-in-law. In 1880, Kohlsaat married Mabel E. Blake (1861–1959) and became a junior partner of Blake, Shaw in charge of a bakery-lunch establishment. In 1883 he bought out Blake, Shaw's interest in the establishment and started H.H. Kohlsaat and Company, which for thirty years was one of the largest baking establishments in Chicago. He became the originator of the "bakery lunch", and subsequently became successful in other enterprises.

From 1891 to 1893, he was part owner of the Chicago Inter Ocean. In 1894 Kohlsaat abandoned his interest in the Inter Ocean, and purchased the Chicago Times Herald and Chicago Evening Post. From 1894 to 1901, he was editor and publisher of the Evening Post and the Times Herald. Under Kohlsaat's direction, the newspapers became increasingly involved in national politics. He converted the papers from Democratic Party to Republican Party organs. In 1901, the Times Herald was merged with the Chicago Record into the Chicago Record Herald, where he was editor from 1910 to 1912. In 1912 he bought the now-bankrupt Inter Ocean and shepherded it through receivership in 1914, when he combined it with the Record Herald, the new paper being known as the Chicago Herald. At that time, Kohlsaat retired from the publishing field.

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