THE REAL HUSTLING JOE ?
In a lot of the detective shows while trying to solve the mystery the main investigator usually says “I don’t believe in coincidences”. That is what this story is about...coincidences.
While looking at a display I made of USPC’s “Hustling Joe” cards I started wondering if there actually was a real Hustling Joe. What, or who, had inspired the card company to create a deck by that name? So I first looked at the Hochman to see what they said;
T9 HUSTLING JOE, USPC, 1895. This was the first entry into the transformation field by USPC. This deck is not really a transformation deck in the true sense of the word. However it is clever, tells a story and vaguely transforms some of the pip cards. The Ace of Spades features Hustling Joe dressed in red and the Joker is a rather devilish fellow in orange.
This was no help. Obviously “Hustling Joe” would be a nickname for a go-getter type of person named Joe or Joseph. And wouldn’t that person be really well known locally or nationally by 1895? That's where I began my search.
In a lot of the detective shows while trying to solve the mystery the main investigator usually says “I don’t believe in coincidences”. That is what this story is about...coincidences.
While looking at a display I made of USPC’s “Hustling Joe” cards I started wondering if there actually was a real Hustling Joe. What, or who, had inspired the card company to create a deck by that name? So I first looked at the Hochman to see what they said;
T9 HUSTLING JOE, USPC, 1895. This was the first entry into the transformation field by USPC. This deck is not really a transformation deck in the true sense of the word. However it is clever, tells a story and vaguely transforms some of the pip cards. The Ace of Spades features Hustling Joe dressed in red and the Joker is a rather devilish fellow in orange.
This was no help. Obviously “Hustling Joe” would be a nickname for a go-getter type of person named Joe or Joseph. And wouldn’t that person be really well known locally or nationally by 1895? That's where I began my search.
Combing the newspapers, leading up to late 1895, I found two possibilities for "Hustling Joe". The first was "Hustling Joe" Hennenlotter, who was the first president of the United Retail Grocer's Association.
Looking into Joseph Hennenlotter, I found that he was a driving force in the growth of the Brooklyn Grocer's Protective Association into the larger United Retail Grocer's Association. The association was able to lower the liquor license fees, get a closing time of 8 p.m., reduce peddler abuse, and get protective measures for members and their families.
He was widely known in the Brooklyn area, but not nationally.
Joseph Lafayette Rhinock was my second choice. He was born on January 4, 1863, in Owenton, Kentucky. His father was an immigrant shoemaker from Meisenheim, Germany, who moved the family to Covington, Kentucky, in 1870. Joe soon decided, at age 12, that he didn’t need any more school and left and started working as a tobacco stripper at the Diamond Tobacco factory. He started working at Hemingray Glass Company at age 14.
By age 17 Rhinock had moved across the Ohio River to Cincinnati to work for Albert M. Riddle as an oil inspector. His occupation was officially known as Gauger. This was a customs official who measured the capacity of oil barrels to calculate the duty tax. Moreover, it was aimed at ensuring that the companies did not transport barrels that were not as full as they were supposed to be. He worked mainly for the Standard Oil Company that was shipped oil to Indiana from Ohio. This was an appointed job by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Despite his young age, Joe quickly became a member of the Duckworth Club, the newly established Cincinnati Democratic organization, and came across numerous successful local businessmen.
At the age of 20, he got married and started a side business with Harry H. Hardy the following year. Hardy. Together, they patented a transparent tobacco box cover and sold it out of another office in the building where he still worked as a Gauger.
By the age of 25, Joe had become interested in politics and became a City Councilman across the river in Covington. He would also become the president of Covington's Jefferson Democratic Club.
Joe's popularity and political ambition were so strong that he decided to take the next step and apply for Mayor. After easily winning the nomination for the Democratic choice for Mayor, Joe was elected to office. In 1895, he became the youngest person ever to become the Mayor of Covington.
At Christmas that year, Cincinnati's USPC's 'Hustling Joe #61' cards hit the market.
Is this a Joseph L. Rhinock’s caricature? Or is it just a coincidence?
Rhinock would serve as a popular Mayor for seven years before being elected to the U. S. Congress as a State Representative for three terms. In 1904 he became a member of the board of the Schubert Theater chain for 22 years until his death September 20, 1926 at his estate, "Bonnie Crest", near New Rochelle, New York.