He Could Always Fall Back on Meat Cutting

My great-grandfather Louis Stoltz had quite a life. There was that whole hobo riding the rails thing from North Dakota to the end of the line, El Paso. Then there was that living out of the lyrics of the song El Paso:

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
I fell in love with a Mexican girl.

That would be my great-grandmother Apolonia Luján.

But his taste for adventure didn’t end once he settled down in the exotic town of El Paso with Apolonia. His employment history was, shall we say, diverse. Somewhere he had learned the butcher’s trade, but he tried many different jobs, including those involving cigars and pool. And at one time he even tried his own business in candy making. Did he enlist my grandmother Consuelo, a skilled worker in that field, in his venture? His daughter Viola was listed as the clerk at the store.

Here is a list of my great-grandfather’s various jobs, dreams and schemes, as recorded by El Paso city directories and U. S Census records. Note that at times during the Depression there is no employer listed; we know there were times then when he could not find work.

The last entry, for 1958, is from his death certificate, where his occupation was noted as “retired meat cutter,” self-employed.

At some of the addresses above Louis was living with other family members:

• 1925, 1205 E. Fourth, with Peter and Consuelo
• 1930, 2321 Copper, with Jennie, Maybelle, and Ralph
• 1931, 403 S. St. Vrain, with Jennie, Charles, Maybelle, and Viola
• 1932, 3416 Rivera, with Charles, Maybelle, Ralph, and Viola
• 1934-1937, 3416 Rivera, with Ralph and Viola
• 1938-39, 3416 Rivera, with Ralph and Amalia
• 1940, 3212 Alamagordo, with Felix and Maybelle