The founder of “Magic Hoodoo,” John Stumpf was born at sea in 1857 as his German parents made the crossing to America to settle in New Orleans. Stumpf attended Nashville Military Academy before entering Tulane University and graduating from the Department of Pharmacy in 1876. He moved to Gretna where he established his drug store and set up his “Magic Hoodoo” plant.

He discovered his famous ant remedy in 1881. When he died in 1911 the business continued as “John Stumpf’s Son.” In 1915, “Magic Hoodoo” won a World Medal at the Panama-Pacific Industrial Exposition in San Francisco for the important role it played in giving relief from insects during the building of the Panama Canal. The Stumpf products were a staple in every home, sold everywhere and shipped to faraway places such as Egypt, China and Turkey.

The Stumpf family opened the new Stumpf’s Westside Shopping Center, in 1959 said to be the first of its kind in Louisiana.