"Pretzel" in America

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   This may all be explained in the next volume of DARE, but probably not.
   The standard "pretzel" story is that Julius Sturgis baked his first pretzel in Lititz, PA, in 1850, after receiving the recipe from a hobo.  He established the first commercial pretzel factory there in 1861.  See www.sturgispretzel.com.
   OED has "pretzel" from 1856; Merriam-Webster has 1838.

MAKING OF AMERICA--CORNELL
18 September 1858, pg. 959.
   This is a story of Baron Frederick Von Oertel, who sold "Bretzels" in St. Louis and was well known as "Bretzel Fritz."  In part:
   "His pride was thoroughly broken down, and for a livelihood the Baron actually took to selling 'bretzels,' a kind of pastry in much favor with the Germans.  He continued at this paltry but honest business for sixteen or eighteen years, and gained the appellation of 'Bretzel Fritz.'"
   This 1858 story dates before the Sturgis Pretzel Factory of 1861.  But "Bretzel Fritz" was selling them in St. Louis for SIXTEEN OR EIGHTEEN YEARS?  This story, from a St. Louis newspaper, had no reason to lie at this early a date.  Is Sturgis sunk?

MAKING OF AMERICA (MICHIGAN-BOOKS)
Crippin, William G. (1820-1863)
GREEN PEAS, PICKED FROM THE PATCH OF INVISIBLE GREEN, ESQ. (c. 1856)
Pg. 232:  ..."der krout and der pretzel."

1 September 1857, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 1:
Without taking into account the babies in arms, or the little children who could bite _bretzel_ and sip lage bier, there were twenty thousand people...

PRETZELS AND MUSTARD
3 January 1895, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 6 (From Dayton, Ohio):
Each day 100 loaves of bread and one barrel of pretzels, with mustard, are given away as a free lunch, while sandwiches containing 10 cents worth of cheese are disposed of for half that amount.

SOFT PRETZELS
30 January 1959, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 52:
SOFT wholesale pretzel busn, for sale, terrific buy, gd location  EV 1-4531.

SOFT PRETZEL STANDS IN NEW YORK CITY
28 December 1960, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 30:
_Pretzels Ride New Wave_
_Of Popularity in Subway_
(...)  The stands are operated by the Metropolitan Soft Pretzel Corporation, two of whose executives--Sam Schwartz and Herbert Koppleman--first thought of selling pretzels from stands in front of a major chain store in Westbury, L.I., in 1956.  Until then, the items were hawked by street peddlers from baskets with tall poles.  Sales were limited even when candy stores sold them, too.
(...)  Mr. Knobler suggests toasting the pretzels and then topping them with smooth cheese or mustard.  The latter is a favorite combination in Philadelphia, where the pretzel first achieved popularity in this country.

PRETZEL SLANG
25 June 1961, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. SM52:
The pretzel has even crept into our slang: French horns are sometimes called "pretzels" by their players, and a "pretzel bender" can mean a musician who plays one, a wrestler, or a man who drinks too much.