Bertha Muehlig

Several of Ann Arbor's smaller-scale businesses remained in the same family for generations. Florian C. Muehlig founded a funeral business that continues today. His son Andrew Muehlig ran a successful hardware business. Andrew's daughter Bertha Muehlig began working in 1891 at age seventeen as a bookkeeper for Philip Bach's dry goods store. In 1911 she bought the business and ran it until her death in 1956. Loyal customers depended on her to stock hard-to-find, old-fashioned items such as "Tillie Open Bottoms" (women's long underwear).