Almost 150 years doing the same thing, we can hardly believe it, can you? Tom Sturgis (baking for six decades), is still improving the pretzel. Toms father, Marriott (Tom Sr.), learned to bake artisan pretzels in the early 1900s. But you have to go back to 1861 when my great, great grandfather, Julius Sturgis, first baked pretzels to get to the origin of pretzel baking in America... almost 150 years ago. Today we have fourth, fifth, and sixth generations working together to bring you a wonderful taste of baking history.