Herman C. G. Luyties, president of the Sanitol Chemical Laboratory Company of St. Louis, is a representative of a family that has long been connected with the pharmaceutical interests of the city and in the conduct of his present business he has made steady progress, winning an enviable position among the representatives of commercial interests in Missouri. He was born in St. Louis, July 26, 1871, and is a son of Dr. Herman C. G. and Louise (Rein) Luyties, who are mentioned elsewhere in this work. He is indebted to the public school system of St. Louis for the early educational opportunities which he enjoyed and later he attended the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. His earliest knowledge of and training in business came to him through the Luyties Homeopathic Pharmacy Company, a business which was established in 1853 by his father, Dr. Luyties having been one of the earliest representatives of the school of homeopathy in the middle west, and in connection with his practice he established a pharmacy in order to supply homeopathic remedies to the trade.
Thoroughly acquainting himself with the business, Herman C. G. Luyties won promotion until he became vice president of the company and so continued until 1907, when he disposed of his interests. He was also president of the Walker Pharmacy Company from 1890 until 1907 and in 1898 he became the founder of the Sanitol Chemical Laboratory Company, of which he has since been the president. In the development of this business he also originated the idea of active cooperation between the manufacturers of tooth and toilet goods and the dentists and druggists of the United States. The Sanitol Company is composed of over five thousand dentists and druggists who are stockholders and who share in the profits of the business.
The majority of the dentists and druggists of America also actively cooperate in pushing the sale of Sanitol products and through the efforts of Mr. Luyties, St. Louis has become the greatest manufacturing center for tooth powder in the world. The plant has the reputation of being the most perfectly equipped of its kind on the face of the globe. The building includes seven acres of floor space. The machinery was invented and made under the supervision of Mr. Luyties, who recognized every demand in the way of equipment, so that the machinery is thoroughly adapted for the purposes intended. Moreover, no hand ever comes into contact with any of the preparations here manufactured and the products are absolutely sanitary in every respect. In 1907 Mr. Luyties developed a suburban district of St. Louis county, known as Kenwood Springs, erecting there more than one hundred houses, which he sold on the installment plan.
In St. Louis in 1899. was celebrated the marriage of Herman C. G. Luyties and Miss May C. Carlin. They have one son, Herman C. G. Luyties, Jr., who during the World war served as a member of a tank corps and was sergeant of his company.
In his political views Mr. Luyties maintains an independent course but is actively interested in civic affairs and his aid and influence are ever on the side of progress and improvement. He finds his recreation in foreign travel, in driving and motoring. He is regarded as one of the foremost business men and leading citizens of St. Louis, occupying an enviable social as well as commercial position. An analyzation of his career indicates that thoroughness, initiative and reliability have been crowning points in his success. His plans have ever been carefully formulated and have been worked out along lines leading to prosperity, and today he is at the head of an establishment which o’ertops all others of similar character in the world
