Schultz & Company, Zanesville , Ohio

This firm was not a book publisher but rather a soap manufacturer. The company was founded by William Schultz who bought a soap factory in 1852 from Theodore Convers (Brown & Convers) for $7000. His son, Robert (1839-1899), and his nephew, John Hoge (1840-1917), were soon after brought into the outfit and when William retired in 1866, took over the ownership. At that time the firm name became Schultz & Company.

Robert Schultz and John Hoge were marketing geniuses and with nationwide marketing their soaps became a huge successes. Its first Star brand soaps and subsequent "Irish Soap" were huge sellers. In 1876 its Gold soap was extremely popular. As time went on they introduced "Fatherland”, "Dish Rag" and "Napkin" soaps, all of which were nationwide hits. Finally "Star Soap" was introduced in about 1886 and became the best seller of all.

Both partners became extremely wealthy using the money they made from the soap business to fund numerous other enterprises. The company was sold to Proctor & Gamble in 1903 for $846,000 ($25 million in 2021 dollars).

They used numerous marketing tools to promote their soaps: Trade cards, advertising mirror, posters, and parades. They produced booklets in wraps. These small booklets had numerous illustrations and advertisements for the soap. Some of the rhymes in the books are in German.

Three books have been seen:

It is likely that each title had editions that had some minor differences in pictures and / or text.

The Star Nursery Rhymes has been seen with either Zanesville or Cincinnati noted on the cover under the imprint. The Cincinnati imprint is later than the Zanesville imprint and dates from about 1901. By 1901 company name had changed from "Schultz & Co." to "The Schultz ∓ Co.".

Wraps. Cover in colors with a book specific illustration. Many pages have a colored illustration and a nursery rhyme. Some pages have soap advertising. 3.375" x 5.5"

Note the different cities and the new company name on the imprint.