Floyd Hartwig remembered for legacy in Shawano

SHAWANO — Friends and family of Floyd “Twig” Hartwig this week remembered the founder of Twig’s Beverage not only for the business legacy he left behind but also for the second career he pursued after he retired.

Hartwig passed away Jan. 10 at the age of 92.

“Our community lost a great man,” said his son, Dan Hartwig. “There’s a lot of things he did for the community.”

Those involvements ranged from coaching baseball to Twig’s participation in a host of veterans groups, as well as other organizations such as Knights of Columbus, Shawano Eagles Club, Shawano Rotary and Shawano Masonic Lodge 170.

He will likely best be remembered for starting Twig’s Beverage in 1951, an idea that came to him while recovering from wounds he sustained during the Korean War.

“He was shot in both knees,” Dan said. “And he’s laying in this Tokyo hospital and he comes up with this idea because he liked the bottling business, he liked refrigeration. He was big into that.”

Hartwig was was a graduate of Milwaukee School of Engineering, where he studied refrigeration.

“He went to work at a lot of the breweries down in Milwaukee and worked on their refrigeration units,” Dan said. “He had a passion for those kinds of things.”

Hartwig’s softball buddies offered to help him get his bottling company going.

“Being shot through both knees, he was going to struggle a little bit,” Dan said.

Hartwig would send his military checks home to invest in bottling equipment.

Hartwig’s father, Leonard, known as “Shorty,” was a famous barber in town, Dan said, and he hoped his son would follow in his footsteps, but Hartwig wasn’t interested in that.

“He wanted to think up his own legacy and he thought up this bottling company,” Dan said.

The first two flavors offered — Bullseye Root Beer and Goody Orange — didn’t go over too well, according to Dan.

“You don’t hear of those anymore,” he said.

“Not too long after, a guy by the name of Charles Lazier came and asked him if he would do Sun Drop,” Dan said.

Sun Drop was a drink that started in St. Louis and Lazier was looking for a Wisconsin bottler.

“That’s how Sun Drop got into the state of Wisconsin,” Dan said. “And it just ballooned from there. Sun Drop was fast becoming our number one drink and still is today.”

Hartwig retired in 1986 and turned his attention to a new pursuit.

“He had a passion for being a Shriner clown,” Dan said. “When he retired, he set out in that direction.”

Hartwig attended and graduated from clown college in Baraboo.

“He enjoyed going to the Shriner hospitals and seeing the children there,” Dan said. “There’s a lot of people who benefited from him being a clown. Even in the local areas. He went to parades, birthday parties and things like that.”

Hartwig was known as Twig the Clown.

“He was probably one of the best clowns I ever clowned with,” said Jim Herman, aka Jimbo the Clown, one of Hartwig’s fellow Shriners and Masonic lodge members.

Herman, who was 2019 president of the Beja Shriner Clowns, said he and Hartwig would travel all over the state to do their clowning.

“Personally, he was just a very good friend,” Herman said. “He was a very nice, gentle, sweet man. He was a great clown.”

Hartwig’s special expertise was making balloons.

“He was a genius,” Herman said. “He was just so good at it, it was unbelievable.”

Even after he could no longer travel to do his clowning, Hartwig continued to make balloons in the nursing home, Herman said.

Herman said Hartwig was also really good with the children they visited.

“He was very patient,” Herman said. “Sometimes kids can get a little impatient when everyone wants balloons at the same time.”

Herman said it takes a special personality to be a clown.

“You have to have a persona the public likes,” he said, adding that Hartwig had that. “He was such a gracious guy it was unbelievable. I will miss him desperately.”

Wendy Crawford of Leadership Shawano County and one of the organizers of Sun Drop Dayz commented on Hartwig’s legacy.

“If there wasn’t any Sun Drop, there would be no Sun Drop Dayz,” she said.

“You think about the people in Shawano who love Sun Drop. If it wasn’t for Floyd Hartwig bringing it to our community, we just wouldn’t have this beloved soda,” Crawford said.

“I have so much respect for somebody from his generation who started from such humble beginnings and then created what he did and influenced our community the way he did,” she said.

Nancy Smith, executive director of the Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce, said Hartwig had a tremendous impact on Shawano and beyond.

“He leaves behind an impressive legacy with Twig’s Beverage and his amazing family,” she said. “From his military service to his community service, he was a truly generous and giving man. The Shawano community collectively raises a glass bottle of Sun Drop in his honor.”

Hartwig’s family posted a tribute to him on the Twig’s Beverage Facebook Page titled The Art of Legacy:

“I think the saddest part of it all is that you expect the world to stop. He deserves for the world to pause for a while and understand what it just lost.

“He was just a man and this is just a soda.

“To some extent that will always be true. But once you go off to war, get a bullet once through the hand, return to war, and get another bullet through both legs, coming home to create a machine with his wife Valda that’s been running for over half a century is no small feat. I won’t begin to mention the other countless organizations and activities this man was involved in over his life.

“So make sure to have yourself a Sun Drop today. For him. And when you drink it, think of what it represents:

“The countless charities supported, the benefits helped, the sports teams aided, scoreboards donated, the jobs created, the families built, the communities served. Whether it be 50 years ago or what still goes on today. It is all rooted in the one idea this one man had and that some proudly continue to follow today.

“This isn’t just a soda, and this wasn’t just a man.

“Rest In Peace Twig! Thanks for the Sun Drop.”