Twin brothers Anthony (1849-1930) and Matthias/Mathew “Mat” (1849-1904) changed companies often and owned/ran various ventures either together or separately. The pair owned property through to Grant Street, with some buildings facing Lincoln and others facing Grant Street. 

The pair’s older brother, Nicholas, was the father to Mike and Mat, who ran a meat market in downtown Clay Center. Both generations of Schlitz brothers – each with one named Mat (Mike and Mat and Anthony and Mat) – wed sisters. The first Esslingers and the second Harrisons.

Anthony owned a building between 4th and 5th Streets and Court and Dexter, behind now Clay Center City Hall, which he traded in 1903. The trade earned him a barn from Dr. Nott, a veterinarian, that was used for a stallion sire. 

The barn was located at 518 Lincoln, where the current Clay County Museum stands. Known for “fine blood,” the stallions relocated to the 4th/5th Street location. 

Anthony and Mat sold wagons and buggies. Mat died in 1904, which the paper listed as “the summons to eternity.” His widow, Lizzie Esslinger, continued the Mat Schiltz Buggy and Implement Business. She was reported to be the “first white child born in Washington County” in 1860. Her parents settled at Parson’s Creek two years prior to her birth. 

Mat. And Lizzie had 10 children, one of whom, John Mathew, died in a hotel fire in Jefferson City, Mo. He was 45 years old and fell asleep smoking a cigarette, which killed him and set the Madison Hotel ablaze in its first historic fire in 1931.

Nine days after Mat’s death, Dr. Nott also died from Neuralgia of the heart; he had been sick for 14 hours prior, when he was found unconscious in his barn. 

Anthony also sold buggies and wagons. He sold the barn location to the Smith Brothers, who used the original building for their implement company, before building the current stone structure in 1924. 

Anthony moved his business to 607 5th Street in 1906, modern-day Vintage Gardens, when he sold to the Smiths. He in the 900 block of 6th Street, while his son, Michael, lived in a downtown apartment above Anthony’s store. 

Anthony remained owner of the building until Marshall Implement moved in in 1923. They held their grand opening March 16 and 17th, and had been in business prior at a different location.