The Wolfe Family

Wolfe Brothers Shoe Factory

The Huber building at 32-46 S Front Street served as the Wolfe Brothers Shoe Company factory. The Wolfe Wear-U-Well shoe stores, a later facet of the enterprise, remained in business until the 1950s.

Through their ownership of the Dispatch, the Wolfe family wielded considerable influence in Columbus. Robert F. Wolfe (1860-1927) settled in the city in the late 1880s, eventually setting up the Wolfe Brothers Shoe Company with brother Harry P. (1872-1946) in 1893. The success of the company funded the Wolfes' first expansion into newspaper publishing with their purchase of the Ohio State Journal in 1903 and the Dispatch in 1905.

Caricature of Harry P. Wolfe

Harry P. Wolfe leveraged the brothers’ success in newspaper publishing to found BancOhio in 1929. The institution was Ohio’s first bank holding company and Columbus’s largest bank until the 1970s. That along with the Ohio Company brokerage, founded in 1925, yielded significant capital assets for the family.

Edgar T. Wolfe and Charles Lindbergh

Robert F.’s son Edgar T. Wolfe (1893-1957) pushed state and local officials to support a commercial airport in Columbus. Shortly after aviator Charles Lindbergh (center right) visited Columbus in 1928 to take this photo-op with Edgar (center left) at Norton Field, a local bond issue to build Port Columbus passed.

Image courtesy of Ohio History Connection

Newspapers, followed by broadcast news, banking, real estate, philanthropy, and politicking all played a role in sustaining the Wolfe empire for the better part of the 20^th century.

WBNS-TV studio, 1961

With the acquisition of WCAH in 1934, the Wolfes entered the radio broadcasting industry. They would add to their media portfolio with the opening of WBNS-TV in 1949, capturing Columbus audiences across all three major formats (radio, print and television). The call letters WBNS are said to stand for “Wolfe Banks, News, and Shoes.”

Four successive generations shared responsibilities across these areas, earning the family a reputation for cutthroat business sense and de facto authority over major civic initiatives. With the selling of the Dispatch in 2015 and the Dispatch Broadcast Group in 2019, the Wolfe family exited the local media landscape, but its impact on the city is indelible.

John Walton Wolfe

Son of Edgar T., John Walton Wolfe (1928-1994) ran both the Ohio Company and the Dispatch Printing Company following his brother Edgar Jr.’s death in 1975. His reign solidified the Wolfes’ status as kingmakers in city and state politics with everyone from city council candidates to governors seeking his support (or avoiding his disapproval). John W. also devoted resources and power to the Columbus Foundation and the Columbus Capital Corporation for Civic Improvement, organizations intended to utilize corporate largesse for charitable and civic projects.

John Frederick Wolfe at AmeriFlora’s opening ceremony

John Frederick Wolfe (1943-2016), grandson of Harry P., was Dispatch publisher from 1975-2015 and initiated the unraveling of the family’s media conglomerate. Considered less guarded than his predecessors, John F. served on the boards of more than 20 organizations in central Ohio and sought major public events for Columbus, including the AmeriFlora exhibition in 1992.

Citizen-Journal celebration at the Wigwam

The Wolfe family hosted politicians and businesspeople at its private Reynoldsburg retreat, the Wigwam, built in 1928. Warren Harding, J. Edgar Hoover, Bob Hope and many others spent time at the Wigwam to consort with and entertain the Wolfes and their circle.