Stetson

In 1940, while on a business trip to Chicago, the partners stayed at the Stevens Hotel and decided to change the company name to Stevens Hat Co. to compete on a more national scale. Over the next three decades, Stevens acquired several companies and opened offices in Chicago and New York. In 1969 the company built a state of the art factory at 3601 South Leonard Road and in 1971 they acquired the rights to the Stetson brand. Through the 1980s, the local Stetson factory produced hats for several popular Hollywood films, expanding the brand recognition and increasing sales.

Through several mergers in the 1980s and 1990s, Stevens and Stetson came under the control of Hatco, Inc. based in Garland, Texas. Through four generations, the Rosenthal family has remained active in the business. Stetson remained headquartered in St. Joseph and the local factory remained until its unexpected closure in 2004. Though manufacturing has ceased, the Leonard Road location continues the local Stetson legacy as the Stetson Hat Company Outlet.

Widespread persecution, economic difficulty, and violence against the Jewish population of central and eastern Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries led to an influx of over two million Jewish immigrants to the United States between 1880 and 1920. Isaac “Ike” Liberman came to St. Joseph in 1893 and was a founding member of the Shaare Sholem synagogue, established in 1900 at 6th and Patee Streets. He established the Western Hat and Cap Company in 1905.

Hyman Rosenthal came to America in 1890 and married Yetta Liberman, Ike’s sister, in New York in 1896. The Rosenthals came to St. Joseph to join Ike’s Western Hat and Cap Co. In 1917, Hyman, his son Harry Rosenthal, and Simon Pitluck started their own company, at the time named the St. Joseph Hat and Cap Company, above a cigar shop at the northwest corner of 4th and Felix Streets. By 1935, they had expanded into a 40,000 square foot factory at 7th and Sylvanie Streets. 

In 1940, while on a business trip to Chicago, the partners stayed at the Stevens Hotel and decided to change the company name to Stevens Hat Co. to compete on a more national scale. Over the next three decades, Stevens acquired several companies and opened offices in Chicago and New York. In 1969 the company built a state of the art factory at 3601 South Leonard Road and in 1971 they acquired the rights to the Stetson brand. Through the 1980s, the local Stetson factory produced hats for several popular Hollywood films, expanding the brand recognition and increasing sales.

Through several mergers in the 1980s and 1990s, Stevens and Stetson came under the control of Hatco, Inc. based in Garland, Texas. Through four generations, the Rosenthal family has remained active in the business. Stetson remained headquartered in St. Joseph and the local factory remained until its unexpected closure in 2004. Though manufacturing has ceased, the Leonard Road location continues the local Stetson legacy as the Stetson Hat Company Outlet.