August Mencken Sr., Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetAugust Mencken Sr.
American businessman
Date of Birth: 16-Jun-1854
Date of Death: 13-Jan-1899
Profession: businessperson
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Gemini 
About August Mencken Sr.
- August Mencken Sr.
- (1854–1899) was the father of writer H.
- L.
- Mencken.
- August Mencken founded the "Aug.
- Mencken & Bro." cigar factory in 1873 with a starting capital of $44 ($23 of his own money, $21 of his brother's).
- A member of Baltimore's German American community, Mencken was recalled by his son as a high-tariff Republican who ran a nonunion factory and viewed the eight-hour day as "a project of foreign nihilists to undermine and wreck the American Republic".
- H.
- L.
- also recalled that his father downed a generous tumbler of rye whiskey before every meal, including breakfast. In about 1889 the Baltimore local Cigar Makers' International Union called a strike.
- The union did not have the funds to pay full benefits to members; the best it could manage was the $2.10 cost of a ticket to Philadelphia, which had so many cigar shops it was known as the Cigarmaker's Heaven.
- The only proof it required of a candidate's profession were the tools of the trade: a boxwood cutting-board and cutting tools.
- The anti-union Mencken acquired a large quantity of these tools, rounded up a large number of drunks and tramps, gave them a shot of whiskey and a set of the tools, and sent them to Union headquarters for their tickets.
- In the course of a few weeks, according to Mencken himself, "at least a thousand poor bums were run through the mill." The union went broke and was effectively destroyed; the strike was broken. In 1879, August married German American Anna Margaret Abhau (1858 – 1925).
- Their first child, Henry Louis (H.
- L.), known as "Harry" to his family, was born there a year later.
- He was also the father of August Mencken Jr.
- in 1889.
Read more at Wikipedia