ROMMEL, WILLIAM J.

ROMMEL, OTTO

Born in Missouri in 1850, William J. Rommel graduated from The St. Louis School of Pharmacy in 1869. After a couple of stops on his way west, he arrived in Waterville, KS, in 1876. He opened the City Drug Store and became very involved in the city, serving at times as the City Treasurer, City Council President and Mayor. He died in 1900 from "pulmonary consumption", or tuberculosis. His wife keeps the drug store running, as the City Drug Store, Mrs. W. J. Rommell, Proprietress, by hiring druggists to run the prescription department, until her son Otto passes the State licensing exam in Hutchinson in 1905. When he takes over the operation, he renames it the Rommel Drug Co. and it continues until 1926.