The Brewing Industry in Fond du Lac
by John W. Iwanski

Bechaud Brewery (ca. 1885)

Brewing was a good business in Fond du Lac, because residents of the city were good customers for the beverage. In frontier days, beer was one of the safest things available to drink. More recently, people in Fond du Lac have wanted beer because it remains a celebrated part of their culture and because it is a filling, refreshing way to get through to the next working day. During the social experiment of Prohibition, when the government said that people couldn’t drink alcohol, they still found ways, however illegal, to obtain it. In modern times, Fond du Lac residents still want beer. They want it because they like it.

Since before the birth of civilization, people have been fermenting cereals to create beer and beer-like beverages. The first beer most likely was made accidentally by a bread maker who mixed yeast with grain malt. Ancient beer contained no barley, no hops, and no special beer yeast. Fermentation of grains and cereal products to make an intoxicating brew is described on tablets found in Mesopotamia in the area of Babylonia dated to a period between 7000 and 6000 B.C.E. In Egypt, many hieroglyphic texts describe the making of a beer that was believed to have medicinal powers. Ancient Egyptians considered beer a gift from the god Osiris and his sister-wife Isis. Beer was brewed in China by 2300 B.C.E., while in India a beer-like drink was popular by 1000 B.C.E. ¹

Legions of the expanding Roman Empire introduced brewing to Northern Europe around 55 B.C.E. Monks in monasteries were the first brewers in German lands. In fact, the German word “Bier” derived from the Latin “bibere” (to drink). In Medieval times, between 400 and 500 different German monasteries brewed many different kinds of beer. In England, the Britons began to enjoy their own local beers while under Roman rule in the third and fourth centuries.² Roman rule collapsed in England in the fifth century, but the conquering Anglo-Saxons made brewing beer and ale even more important in England. Under the Anglo-Saxon monarchy in England, setting the price of ale was considered important government business and officially done through the Office of Assize of Ale. ³

Brewing arrived in America in 1607 by boat, as if it were itself a European immigrant on a supply ship bound for the unfortunate Jamestown Colony in Virginia. A few years later, when Adrian Block and Hans Christiansen came to New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) they brought the brewer’s art and in 1612 built the first commercial brewery in the New World. When the Mayflower Pilgrims sailed for the New World in 1620, cooper ⁴ John Alden was on board and in charge of keeping beer supplies intact during the long trip across the Atlantic. ⁵ Brewing also arrived by boat when millions of Germans, seeking economic independence or to avoid military service in the old world, passed through New York’s Castle Garden and Ellis Island after 1820. Many of America’s greatest brewing empires were started by German immigrants. In total, over seven million Germans emigrated from Europe and went to America, producing tens of millions of descendants, including many residents of Fond du Lac. ⁶

In Germany brewing had been a fact of life. As in other parts of the country, many of the German immigrants who came to Fond du Lac in the city’s early days brought with them a taste for beer, a taste that had been cultivated partly out of necessity and partly out of tradition. Safer to drink than most of the water one might come across, beer also served to establish a connection with the land and the past. If nature was kind enough to bless the land, and if the grain for malting was successfully kept from parasites and insects, then the hard work of the farmers, the grain haulers, the brewers, the coopers and the merchants and vendors would bear plenty of safe, nutritious, refreshing, and yes, intoxicating brew. Thus the brewing industry provided a safe alternative to water and helped keep several trades strong. The local brewer was an important part of the community, and brewing was an honorable trade.

As new arrivals in America, many Germans drank beers that they themselves had brewed in their homes. A few brewers were fortunate enough to have access to fine barley and other grains, but for most the ingredients were often whatever fermentable grains and other ingredients could be found, and often this was reflected in the quality of the brew. However, those who had a real talent for the art of brewing could attempt to make a career from their brewing achievements.

Newly arrived German immigrants, some of whom possessed the talent for brewing, fanned out across America. Many settled in the Midwest, where they could afford to own land, farm, open shops or otherwise become part of a local economy. Thousands came to Wisconsin every year and settled in places like Milwaukee, Oshkosh, La Crosse, Wausau, Sheboygan and Fond du Lac.

Over the centuries some brewers passed recipe secrets down through generations, until their families had become brewing dynasties. Some immigrants came to the New World bringing their brewing secrets with them, such as Fond du Lac’s Joseph Schussler, while others began brewing professionally for the first time in America. ⁷ Richard Owens, Wisconsin’s first major commercial brewer, is one of those who entered the brewing business after his arrival in the United States. ⁸ In Wisconsin’s cities, particularly in Fond du Lac, the history of brewing is primarily a German story. Natives from places such as Bavaria, Saxony, Baden, and Hessen all arrived in Fond du Lac and worked in the brewing industry. ⁹

When German immigrants arrived in Fond du Lac they found a young city bustling with an increasingly diversified economy that focused on processing grain and refining timber. Once local farmers had successfully clear-cut their newly purchased land, they found that the soil, after centuries of decomposing forest vegetation, was very conducive to grow wheat and raise dairy cattle. When the weather was right, Fond du Lac was blessed with grain, work and prosperity.

In 1851 Fond du Lac became connected to the nation’s growing system of railroads. The coming of the railroad meant grain products from Fond du Lac could be sold even farther away, but even more importantly, the railroad helped Fond du Lac become a lumber center. ¹⁰ The men who were cutting down the great northern forests of the state kept timber floating down the waterways, especially in the 1870s. A city like Fond du Lac could process the trees into lumber and then ship the resulting finished boards from the city on railroad cars. By the 1870s the Fond du Lac River, which flowed right through the city and connected it to Lake Winnebago, was lined with lumber mills. By 1870 Fond du Lac’s lumber processing firms made it an industrial hub and the second largest city in the state of Wisconsin. ¹¹

Although makeshift frontier breweries were set up by John Phillips at Mineral Point (south of Madison in Green County) in 1835 and by Henry Rablin and Thomas Bray at Elk Grove (outside Platteville in southwestern Wisconsin) in 1836, the first major brewery in a Wisconsin city was started in 1840 by a young Welshman, Richard Owens, of Milwaukee. Owens, who had been a farmer in his native land, had grown tired of traveling among American cities selling French bur stones for milling grain. He purchased land and cleared it. Next he sailed to Michigan City, Indiana to acquire supplies. His first brew kettle was a wooden box with a copper sheet lining, capable of producing five barrels of beer. ¹² In July, his first beer was ready, a common British ale. ¹³ Owens’ beer sold well and soon he needed a bigger kettle. By 1845, he owned a forty-gallon kettle and was making ales, porters and even Scotch whiskey. ¹⁴

In Milwaukee and in Fond du Lac one could eventually also find plenty of the raw materials needed to make fine German beer. In the 1880s, Fond du Lac County ranked first in the state in barley production. ¹⁵ Hops were also grown on many county farms. Fresh water was available in abundance, and yeast production was also a sizable Fond du Lac industry. In fact, brothers John and Henry Boyle, who had arrived in Fond du Lac penniless, built their Northwestern Yeast Company into a nationally recognized firm. They claimed to have the “world’s largest yeast factory” at the corner of Main and Johnson Streets and became millionaires and philanthropists by selling their five-cent yeast packets. ¹⁶

Thus, with its abundance of barley, yeast, hops, water and German immigrants, Fond du Lac looked like an ideal place to begin a brewing business. Many such firms sprang into being over the years. The brewers are all gone today, but to anyone who has taken an interest in Fond du Lac’s brewing history, their names easily come to mind: Frey, Bechaud, Engel, Hauser, Dix, Schussler, Sander, and Chapman are among the most notable. ¹⁷

The first to arrive and begin a commercial brewery in Fond du Lac were the Frey Brothers. Charles and Jacob Frey arrived in Fond du Lac in the spring of 1849. That summer, the brothers opened their brewing and grain-dealing firm, J. & C. Frey, three years before Fond du Lac was officially incorporated as a city. The combination of the brewing and grain business was a common pairing, then and now. The Frey brewery was successful enough to keep them in business for parts of five decades. In later years, their beer was even bottled and exported. In 1866, the Freys were able to purchase a grain elevator that gave them a capacity of 30,000 bushels. ¹⁸

At no time during the life of their business did the Freys dominate the beer market in Fond du Lac. Outside competition was intense from brewers in Oshkosh, Madison, Green Bay, Sheboygan, Racine, the already-growing breweries at La Crosse, and the giant among brewing cities, Milwaukee. By 1855 another major brewing firm was started in Fond du Lac. Hauser and Dix was located at the corner of Portland and Division Streets, a mere stone’s throw from the Freys. ¹⁹ Hauser and Dix hoped to move their brewery to Taycheedah, where they could use natural spring water to brew their beer. They began constructing a facility there. However, the firm experienced low profits, and this forced them out of business before they could finish construction of their new brewery in the early 1870s. ²⁰ By 1865 even Ripon had the sizable Haas-Ripon City Brewery. John Haas, a native of Hessen, in Germany, a former employee of the Hauser and Dix and Frey Breweries, opened his business near the Jefferson Street Sheboygan and Fond du Lac railroad depot. ²¹ His 1880 average production amounted to about 1200 barrels of beer.²²

The boom in the brewing industry was not exclusive to any one part of Wisconsin. By the early 1850s new breweries were being formed everywhere in the state, especially in areas, such as Milwaukee, with large German populations. The brewing industry grew despite a law passed in 1849 that required prospective brewery owners to put up a one thousand dollar bond. In enacting this law, legislators reasoned that those who created and sold liquor also were responsible for the social problems associated with alcohol consumption. The law stated that the bond was to be paid by any liquor vendor “with adequate sureties on which he could be sued for any damages either to the community or to an individual which might be thought to result from his sale of liquor.” The legislature’s message was clear: Let those who sell liquor, and (in the eyes of the lawmakers) create so many drunkards, widows, orphans and paupers, pay for the societal harm they cause. ²³

Most Wisconsin breweries specialized in producing quality lagers, the German favorite. Lagers are beers that are made to ferment with special yeast that works at cool temperatures. After fermentation, the brew is stored cold for a variable amount of time before it is put into barrels or bottled. At the time of packaging, lager begins a slow deterioration, thus fresh lagers typically taste the best . ²⁴ The American-made lager took on its own distinct taste (or lack thereof) over the years, but the inspiration was strictly Old World. Other ethnic groups who arrived in America at first drank primarily ales and other robust, dark beers, but also grew to prefer the clean, smooth taste of German-American style lagers.

In Fond du Lac and other Wisconsin cities, one of the most commonly brewed types of lager was and is Pilsner. This beer was first made in Pilsen, Bohemia, in 1842. Unlike all beers introduced before it, the newly brewed Pilsner was clear and golden. It was the first lager to exhibit such characteristics. Today, many golden lagers exist, but only the lagers with noticeable malt character and an emphasis on the hops in the taste can truly claim to be made Pilsner-style. ²⁵

Most neighborhoods in Wisconsin towns and cities had at least one brewery. The city of Milwaukee was fast becoming an internationally recognized brewing center. By 1844, over one thousand German immigrants came through the city each week. ²⁶ These newcomers gave beer makers not only a strong customer base, but also a field from which to hire experienced brewery workers. Fresh water was abundant, especially in the warmer seasons, as were ice sheets that could be harvested for storage in winter. Additionally, railroads and the harbor in Milwaukee made it possible to ship beer made in that city to places such as nearby Chicago, and even faraway New York City. By 1857, Milwaukee was shipping 30,000 barrels of beer annually out of state. ²⁷ Even though Milwaukee, a city with a population of 20,061 in 1850, could not compare in size, by 1873 its brewing reputation rivaled those of New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis. ²⁸

The story was the same statewide. Brewing was big business for the state of Wisconsin. The immigrant labor was readily available. The agricultural base was outstanding. The water and rail transportation made it possible to sell Wisconsin-made beer all over the Great Lakes region and down the rivers to cities south and west of the state.

Unfortunately, the brewing industry was not immune to economic factors such as the Panic of 1857. Statewide, the Panic hit beer makers hard. Sales were down dramatically, having dropped from 125,000 barrels annually to 42,000 between 1857 and 1863. ²⁹ Some breweries had to close their doors during this period. Fortunately, during this six-year period, neither of Fond du Lac’s commercial breweries, Frey or Hauser & Dix, had to shut down their operations. After the Civil War came to a close and the economy stabilized, a new surge of German immigrants helped the demand for beer in Wisconsin return to match its previous levels. The brewing business boomed in Fond du Lac in the decade after the war, as new beer makers set up many small brewing companies.

By the late 1860s, Moritz Krembz was brewing beer in his facility on Taycheedah Road. ³⁰ In 1865, August Richter also began brewing commercially in Fond du Lac from his business at Main and Eighth Streets. In 1868, Andrew Schenkle began his brewing business near the west branch of the Fond du Lac River at 46 Grove Street. The Lackman Brewery on First Street was opened in 1865, although it closed the following year. ³¹ Some of Fond du Lac’s larger, more notable brewing companies followed these early openings.

In 1872, Joseph Schussler, a former employee at the Frey brewery, opened his “West Hill Brewery” at 172 Hickory Street. ³² Schussler was born in the German state of Baden in June, 1819. There, at the age of fifteen, he began to learn the cooper trade. He also studied the art of brewing in his native land. When Schussler came to Milwaukee, he married Fannie Newkirch and continued to brew beer there until 1850. That year, he moved to Oshkosh and worked once again as a cooper for eleven years. In 1861, he became a brewery worker for the Frey brothers. He held this job until 1865, when he once again became a cooper. Thus, Joseph Schussler was a man with two valuable skills, both of them related to the brewing industry. Finally, in 1872, he became involved with brewing beer for the third and final time, when he opened his own brewing company. Schussler’s unique brewing craftsmanship was respected locally. In 1880, a book of Fond du Lac historical profiles contained this critique of Schussler’s beer: “His brewing method is different from others, and known only to himself.”³³ After six years in business, in 1878, Schussler was selling over one thousand barrels of beer annually. Schussler stayed in business until 1890, when his sons took over and the company became known as “Schussler Brothers.” The younger Schusslers, however, did not stay in the beer business for long, for their West Hill Brewery finally closed its doors in 1892. ³⁴

Adam Sander began production of his beers from his plant on eleven acres of land one mile south of the city on the Fond du Lac and Milwaukee Road. Sander’s brewery, under different names, remained in business for almost fifty years. ³⁵ Sander was born in Germany in March 1832. As a young man, he married Gertrude Gaubenheimer and moved first to Baltimore, Maryland, and then to Wisconsin, living briefly in Milwaukee and Plymouth before finally settling in Fond du Lac in 1864. Late that year, he began a modest brewing enterprise. During the following decades, his brewing company grew into a family business. When they were teenagers, his sons Edwin and Albert began working at the brewery. By 1880, the enterprise was producing 750 barrels per year. In 1898, at the age of sixty-six, Adam Sander decided to retire and handed over the brewing operations to his sons.

As new brewery owners, Edwin and Albert decided to institute major improvements to their facility. These changes included physical plant additions, state of the art bottling equipment, and a modern ice plant. The improvements paid off, and by 1912, Sander Brothers Brewing was selling six thousand barrels annually. ³⁶ At the top of their game, the brothers were finally forced out of business when alcohol prohibition came to America.

In 1871, Fond du Lac’s most successful brewery was opened at 515 Main Street by the brothers Frank, John and Capt. A.G. Bechaud. ³⁷ Formed during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, their brewing company also set the standard for longevity among Fond du Lac beer makers, surviving until 1941, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt began his third term in office.

The Bechaud brothers, all born in Bavaria, started brewing at their Main Street location but they also bought lakeshore property on Lake Winnebago just northwest of the city limits, where they envisioned locating their permanent brewing empire. However, the beachfront brew-house was not to be. Instead, in 1873, the Bechauds opened their new large brewery on Eleventh Street, just west of Hickory Street. ³⁸ The Bechauds also maintained a Main Street address. Their “sample room” gave people a chance to enjoy the freshest beer the company had to offer. ³⁹ The most popular brand produced by Bechaud, “Empire” was bottled and sold in various cities. Their other beers included “Munchner” and “Pilsener.” In all, the company sold an average of 15,000 barrels of their beers annually. ⁴⁰

Jacob and Charles Frey managed to keep their business strong, despite all of the competition that had grown around them. Like the Bechauds, the Freys owned a Main Street saloon in addition to their brewing and grain dealing business. By 1880, they were considered to be the city’s oldest living original German residents. ⁴¹ The next year, the Freys’ brewing business fell apart. It was not competition or lack of sales that destroyed their brewing enterprise. Late in the fall of 1880, the brothers showed no signs that they would soon be out of business. However, within a few months they were both dead. The end of the Frey Brewery is a tragic story.

On New Year’s Eve, 1880, Jacob Frey succumbed to Bright’s Disease. ⁴² Although both Jacob and Charles were married and had children, the brothers were very close and relied on each other for advice and support. Charles was left to run both his life and the business by himself, and his mental state deteriorated as a result of the strain. He was said to have told acquaintances that he was incapable of handling his responsibilities, although he showed little in the way of outward signs of his torment.

On the morning of Saturday, May 14, 1881, Charles arrived at his saloon as usual at seven a.m. but told his bartender John Pulse he was not feeling well. Taking the grain elevator key, he then exited and quietly entered Pritz’s grocery store and purchased a rope. Pritz asked Frey if he planned to use the rope at his home. “Yes, over there,” he replied, motioning out the door as he left. At two p.m., Frey was seen walking along the Forest Avenue railroad crossing and then walking to his elevator building. Later that afternoon, John Wolff, a worried business acquaintance whom Charles was supposed to meet earlier in the day, contacted the police, and Officer Commo arrived at the elevator building. The two men struggled to enter the elevator building, and there they found Charles hanging by the neck from the rope he had purchased that morning. He had a chair next to him and a knife in his pocket, perhaps in case he changed his mind, or if the pain from the rope was too great.

A pair of notes were found on Frey’s body. In one, he stated that he wanted to be buried quickly. In the other he wrote to his daughters. “I cannot stay with you much longer. I have no rest day or night. I cannot express my feelings. Regards to all and tell them to forgive me . . . . Give John Pulse [his bartender] the saloon . . . . Tell everybody to stand by me. Dear children, I must close. Enclosed you will find some money. I cannot write anymore. Your unfortunate . . . Papa.”

An inquest was held and the death was officially ruled a suicide. Contrary to the wishes of the deceased, Frey’s corpse was taken home, and a wake was held before burial at Rienzi Cemetary. And that’s how John Pulse woke up one day as a tavern worker and went to sleep a tavern owner. The brewery went out of operation, and Frey’s children sold the property. Thus ended the story of the first brewing family in Fond du Lac. ⁴³

As more and more Germans poured into Wisconsin in the last decades of the nineteenth century, many of them interested in finding a good brewing establishment to patronize, more and more breweries were being opened. Additionally, new technological developments made new options in brewing available. Previously beer was sold exclusively in kegs or casks, because bottled beer spoiled too quickly. But in the 1870s, Louis Pasteur helped brewers put their beer in bottles when he formulated a way to kill bacteria in liquid by heating it. ⁴⁴ Because brewers began to use “Pasteurization,” their beer could sit in bottles for much longer periods of time. In 1883, Danish biochemist Emil Christian Hansen (1842-1909), employed by the Carlsberg laboratories of Copenhagen, showed that certain yeasts were actually harmful to proper fermentation. He then created a special yeast culture specifically for beer making, which was put into use at the Carlsberg Brewery. That same year, William J. Uihlein, part owner of Schlitz Brewing, brought Hansen’s special culture to Milwaukee and began using it at his company. In 1887, Milwaukee’s Pabst Brewery also acquired Hansen’s secret yeast. At first, only the larger breweries like Pabst and Schlitz could afford to implement these scientific developments in their brewing process. Other small brewers would have to wait years before they could follow suit. ⁴⁵

At the turn of the century, Milwaukee was fast becoming the indisputable giant in the industry, despite its relatively small population compared to many other American cities. According to Jerry Apps, this may have been because the smaller population meant easier accessibility to brewing resources, including grain and water, and also a greater need to expand the marketing area for Milwaukee-made beers. Even though barley and hops by that time had to be shipped to Milwaukee from other states in order to meet the brewers’ demands, the brewers were able to keep their prices competitive. ⁴⁶

Unfortunately for beer makers, temperance movements grew right alongside the brewing industry. ⁴⁷ Temperance and even prohibition ideas were not new to Wisconsin. In 1855, the state legislature passed a measure aiming to bring about statewide prohibition of the sale, but not the manufacture, of alcoholic drinks. However, Governor William Barstow vetoed the measure, and Wisconsin remained safe for the businesses of innkeepers and tavern owners who made their money tapping barrels. ⁴⁸

An incident in 1852 in Fond du Lac illustrated the kind of behavior temperance leaders perceived as caused by alcohol consumption. One fall night, B.F. Moore won an exciting race for assembly over Joe Wagner. Moore’s supporters decided to celebrate at Chandler’s Beer and Pie Shop. Their exuberance turned to destructive behavior, and beer glasses started flying. A.T. Glaze, a Fond du Lac businessman and historian, happened to look in the establishment’s window to see what was causing the noise. Just as he peered in, he was hit in the face with a beer glass. A local doctor spent almost an hour picking pieces of glass from Glaze’s head. According to Glaze, the thrower, a young lawyer named O.B. “Ben” Taylor, was so embarrassed that he would never meet Glaze to apologize. Taylor even went so far as to avoid Glaze on the street. Soon after, Taylor moved to California, where he drowned. Glaze went on to write a book on local lore, and he included this incident in his work. ⁴⁹

Despite attempts by beer makers and drinkers to portray their favorite beverage as the harmless cousin of hard liquors such as whiskey, after 1860 temperance groups gradually shifted their ground from differentiating among beer, cider, and “hard” liquor toward condemnation of consumption of all alcoholic beverages.⁵⁰ Temperance groups such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, founded in 1874, successfully moved the debate on reducing alcohol use to the forefront of the country’s consciousness. Soon, prohibitionist groups such as the Anti-Saloon League were gaining support in their attempts to outlaw alcoholic beverages altogether.

The most noted tavern incident in Fond du Lac was the infamous “Carrie Nation Hatchet Swinging Episode” of 1902. This performance has been both exaggerated and widely publicized. Carry Amelia Moore Nation, known as “Carrie,” the famous prohibitionist leader from Kansas, was noted for swinging her hatchet and damaging taverns in her attempts to bring attention to her cause. Cutting an impressive figure at almost six feet tall and weighing 180 pounds, and accompanied by her rallying cry, “Smash, ladies, smash,” Carrie Nation was arrested more than 30 times between 1900 and 1910 for damaging saloons.

Nation was scheduled to speak at Lakeside Park twice on July 16, 1902. She did not arrive for the first lecture. Some who had gathered there to see the spectacle joked that Nation was off on a drinking binge. She did, however, make an appearance for the second speech, although she was ten minutes late. The next night, Nation asked E.J. Schmidt if she could speak at his tavern on the northwest corner of Main and Division Streets. Schmidt recognized that the visit would bring good publicity, and he agreed to allow the famed prohibitionist to appear, but only if she came sans hatchet. ⁵¹

Nation addressed the crowd and eventually began an inflammatory tirade against Germans and their love of beer. She was mocked by some in the tavern. In her aggravation, she went so far as to say that every German in Wisconsin should be blown up “with dynamite.” When one of her detractors then offered her a bottle of whiskey, she reached under her dress and produced her famous hatchet. She swung, smashing the bottle and it looked like her famous tavern-destroying antics would begin, but Schmidt was able to relieve her of the weapon before she performed her routine. ⁵²

Nation’s national popularity showed the direction in which the debate on alcohol was moving. By 1913, groups such as the Anti-Saloon League had secured a major place in debating the future of national policy. Prohibitionists were working for anti-liquor laws in several states and gaining support for a constitutional amendment to prohibit alcoholic beverages.

The movement for legally enforced prohibition had its first victory when the United States Senate voted in favor of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on August 17, 1917. Four months later, the House of Representatives also passed the amendment. The next step, ratification by the states, was completed on January 29, 1919. The amendment officially took effect on January 16, 1920. However, prohibition actually arrived even before the amendment became official, and even before the October 1919 Volstead Act was passed. Even though the First World War had officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, the U.S. Senate did not ratify the Treaty, and wartime legislation passed in November 1918, establishing prohibition on the sale of alcohol during the war went into effect three days after the Treaty of Versailles was signed on July 1, 1919. ⁵³

In the weeks before the July 1 date, Fond du Lac’s liquor dealers hoped for a Presidential reprieve from the war-time prohibition since the fighting in Europe had ended months before, on November 11, 1918. H.P. Kuicks, a Fond du Lac wholesale vendor of liquor, was not optimistic. He told The Daily Commonwealth that he did not expect any relief from President Woodrow Wilson. He was preparing to stop selling alcohol as of July 1. A.F. Watke, another wholesale liquor dealer in the city, said, “It appears the nation will go dry July 1. The only way out is for the President to declare mobilization [for the war] complete.” ⁵⁴

On June 24, 1919, the Wisconsin State Senate passed a measure that it was hoped would legalize beer containing no more than two and one-half per cent alcohol by volume, but the Assembly failed to pass it days later. ⁵⁵ The Senate also voted to make it legal for Wisconsin brewers to produce what was called “near-beer,” a malted beverage designed to taste like beer yet contain no alcohol, after national prohibition took effect. Sander Brothers Brewing, like other breweries in Fond du Lac, had already stopped brewing on May 1, and the company was selling off its beer inventory in order to use up stocks prior to July 1. This firm indicated on June 23 that they were contemplating the option of brewing near-beer in their plant after prohibition took effect. ⁵⁶

As July 1 neared, it became apparent that hope had run out for those who made their living selling alcoholic beverages. On June 28, The Daily Commonwealth ran an editorial wishing good luck to all the soon-to-be unemployed bartenders in Fond du Lac. The paper’s editors expressed hope that the period of adjustment after July 1 would make all the saloonkeepers better off in the long run. ⁵⁷

On June 30, Prohibition Eve, local brewers, saloons and dealers were selling off the last of their inventory. The Kummerow & Menge dealership had sold out its complete stock of liquor by ten a.m. A.F. Watke sold over thirty cases of hard spirits and filled several hundred jugs for customers. ⁵⁸ That night, revelers from all over the city went wild. The Daily Commonwealth observed, “The last days of the Babylonian Era had nothing on June 30, 1919.” Saloons were packed for one last night of mayhem. A party at the Fond du Lac Elks’ Club was awash with liquor. Most notably, a gang of drunken men and boys paraded screaming through town, swinging beer bottles and singing, “I’ve got the blues, I’ve got the blues, I’ve got the alcoholic blues” and “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here.” ⁵⁹ Right up to the last moment, Fond du Lac’s drinkers insisted on going out with a bang.

The next day, America woke up dry. On July 1, the sale of alcoholic beverages was now illegal. Ironically, the Wisconsin cities of Ashland and Madison had voted to go “wet” after two years of prohibiting the sale of liquor during the war, a law that was to go into effect the same day that the nation went “dry.” ⁶⁰

The Eighteenth Amendment took effect on midnight, January 16, 1920. After that time, any production of alcoholic beverages was prohibited constitutionally. The Daily Commonwealth reminded local citizens that “zero hour is 12:01 tonight.” To clear up any confusion, the paper also warned, “Alcohol, brandy, whiskey, rum, gin, beer, ale, porter, wine, or any spirituous, vinous, malt or fermented liquor, liquids and compounds, whether medicated, proprietary, patented or not, and by whatever name called, which contains one-half of one percent or more of alcohol by volume and which are fit for beverage purposes may not be manufactured.” ⁶¹ That night, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union hosted a celebration at the library hall in Fond du Lac. They opened by singing “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “America” before listening to a speech by John Strange, the former Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin and president of the Strange Paper Manufacturing Company of Neenah. Strange’s topic was “The Wisdom of Prohibition.” He said, “The paramount need of the day is law enforcement,” and that prohibition is “morally, socially, and financially” valuable. His remarks were applauded and the event’s finale was a rendition of the song “Victory” sung by Fond du Lac resident Herb Fenner. ⁶² The song was fitting. It was true—those who favored prohibition had had their victory.

Brewers and their supporters had been complacent and had done too little, too late to fight prohibition. A blend of Progressive-era social reformism and an anti-alcohol fever, combined with World War I-era distrust of Germany and all things German, helped to topple the unprepared brewers. How does one defend intoxication in the face of moral posturing and ethnic stereotyping?

Wisconsin’s fifth largest industry was being forcibly shut down by a constitutional amendment. In these dark times, brewery workers, tavern owners, inn keepers, farmers, bottlers, coopers, cork makers, and shippers were all deeply affected by the change in federal law. Major brewing centers such as Milwaukee were hit especially hard. A few brewers, such as Milwaukee’s Miller, were able to make it through the prohibition era by producing sodas, seltzers, and near-beers. However, most brewing businesses crumbled and folded.

Ultimately, most Americans came to view the Eighteenth Amendment as a failed social experiment. Organized crime built a dynasty around the alcohol black market. Some of the liquor not bought through criminal channels was disguised as medicine and sold by traveling “doctors,” often with disastrous results due to lack of proper safety procedures in preparation. In some areas, “ridge-runners” or “moonshiners” set up stills in rural areas where they fashioned home-made spirits. Even in modest homes, otherwise law-abiding folks broke federal law by making liquors on their stoves and in their bathtubs. In 1925, the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, who was visiting the United States, when asked what he thought of America’s prohibition of alcohol, wryly responded, “Great! When does it begin?” ⁶³

People found their way around the law, and the level of criminalized activity was so extensive that it was an impossible task for the Federal government to control it. The criminal black market and other adverse latent effects of institutionalized prohibition were gradually seen to outweigh, by far, any benefits and value gained from the experiment and its consequences.

In February 1933, Congress submitted a repeal resolution of the Eighteenth Amendment to the states. In March, Congress passed the Cullen Act, which redefined the meaning of the term “intoxicating beverage,” making beer with 3.2 per cent alcohol legal to manufacture and sell. Finally, on December 5, 1933, the entire “Noble Experiment” was brought to a close. The Twenty-First Amendment was ratified, repealing prohibition nationally. Although a few states, such as Kansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma, maintained their own alcohol prohibition laws, in most states brewing was re-established as a legal business. ⁶⁴Celebrations commenced all over the nation, not the least in Wisconsin.

Franklin Farvour tells of the night that the news of the official repeal of prohibition reached the town of Ripon, in Fond du Lac County. A peculiar, yet familiar noise rose from the old Haas Brewhouse: “Steam was up in the brewery. The brewery whistle sounded and it didn’t quit. Irate citizens called the police department and the one night-duty man, my grandfather, went to the brewery to get things quiet. When he got there, much to his chagrin he found the mayor, J. Harold Bumby, pulling the whistle rope. The noise didn’t stop for some time.” ⁶⁵

For the next four years, John Haas’ old brewery was back in operation under new ownership and known as the Ripon Brewing Company. Under two different presidents, brew-master Jack Wittstock was able to produce 6,000 barrels each year. The brewery obtained a copyright on its main brand “Old Derby,” but unfortunately the brewing industry became a different ball game after prohibition: the smaller brewery became, for the time being, a thing of the past. The Ripon Brewing Company ceased operations in 1937. ⁶⁶

Amid the celebration in Fond du Lac, Bechaud brewery reopened. One new, if ephemeral, entrant into the Fond du Lac array of brewing concerns was announced, too. The “Pioneer Brewery” is said to have produced only one barrel of beer before it disappeared. Pioneer’s location and proprietors are not known. An idea, an announcement, a supposed barrel of beer, and a mystery are all that remain of the firm. ⁶⁷

Sadly, most of the brewing companies in Fond du Lac never reopened. The Star Brewing Company, Adolph Engel & Son, Excelsior, and the Sander Bros. Brewery were among the many brewers across the nation who shut down forever as a result of a decade of Prohibition under the Eighteenth Amendment. ⁶⁸Many of the brewing companies who did manage to re-open closed shortly thereafter.

By the end of 1933, Bechaud Brewing was the only commercial beer maker left in Fond du Lac, and they, too, were on the ropes. There were two major reasons the brewing industry was difficult for firms to re-enter in the 1930s. First, Prohibition had ended at the same time the American economy was in the darkest days of the Great Depression. Funds for investment in new enterprises were difficult to obtain. Secondly, the industry had changed too much for smaller companies to survive in the new envrionment. Big companies with more resources became predatory towards the minor brewers. Like Rip Van Winkle, small brewing companies awoke to find a different world, one in which making good beer was simply not enough. A brewing outfit that could not play the game of market economics stood to lose everything. While companies like Pabst and Anheuser-Busch were moving to nationalize their products and push local competitors out, small brewers like Bechaud just tried to stay afloat and keep their local sales comparable to those of the nationally-advertised beers. Additionally, there was new competition for manufacturers of non-alcoholic drinks. Fountain sodas and other soft drinks had become very popular during the 1920s, particularly among young people, and this group had always been an important market segment for beer makers. ⁶⁹

The Bechauds halted production in 1937, but they kept the business intact until 1941, when the brewery officially closed. Bechaud, like all the others, became a piece of Fond du Lac’s brewing history. The building still stands, although it has remained empty for years at a time. For a time it housed the city’s buses during the 1960s. The lakeshore property once platted by the company as a potential brewing site never saw any brewery built there, and it is now know as Bechaud Beach. ⁷⁰ In the 1990s, the Eleventh Street brewery building was a grain co-op, but the words “BREW HOUSE,” AND “[B]ECHAUD BREWING CO.” could still be seen on the façade, a visible reminder of the building’s almost seventy year stint as the cornerstone of Fond du Lac’s largest brewing company.⁷¹ The brewing industry in Fond du Lac persisted for eighty-eight years after the Freys began brewing their beer at Macy and Division, but after 1941, Fond du Lac was without a commercial brewery.

During the turbulent years of World War II, the anti-German sentiment of the era of the First World War did not recur. By this time, American brewers, even those with German roots, were thought of as purely American. Knowing that soldiers, sailors and marines liked beer as much as anybody, the wartime government and the beer makers set aside fifteen per cent of the industry’s production for enlisted men. These young men, many of whom had been loyal drinkers of their local brews, were thereby exposed to many national brands, helping establish new brand loyalties that undermined the few remaining local breweries.

The war also produced a remarkable expansion in the nation’s economy. Brewing businesses grew right alongside other industries. Nationally, between 1940 and 1945, brewers increased their annual production by fifty-one per cent to a whopping 80 million barrels. ⁷²

In the decades after the war, brewing continued its growth, but the whole industry was faced with major changes. Due to advancing technology and improved transportation, the nation seemed to be shrinking. Places such Los Angeles and Milwaukee were no longer so far apart. If a company were to survive and compete, it now had to brew, sell and advertise nationally. The brewing industry was in transition, and some beer makers came to excel at the games of buyouts, takeovers and marketing wars. The G. Heileman Brewing Company of La Crosse, for instance, acquired dozens of brand names over the years. Brands that came from the formerly independent companies acquired over the years included Lone Star, Blatz, Carling, Colt .45, Rainier, Mickey’s, Schmidt, Kingsbury, Grain Belt, National Bohemian, Stag, Sterling, Falls City, Wiedeman, Tuborg and Blitz-Weinhard. ⁷³ Stroh’s of Detroit was an even bigger player in the buyout game. The company purchased the larger Milwaukee Schlitz Brewing Company and the entire Schlitz family of beers in 1982. Stroh’s acquisitions have included Augsburger, Goebel, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, Piels, Schaefer, Thunder, Red Bull, Signature and Primo. Even though the Stroh’s Brewery in Detroit has not made beer since 1985, the company as a whole averaged production of over 18 million barrels annually by 1994. ⁷⁴ In 1996 Stroh’s orchestrated another large takeover when it acquired fellow takeover giant G. Heileman Brewing.

Miller and Anheuser-Busch, the industry leaders, in addition to acquiring a multitude of brand names, have constructed brewing facilities in cities all across the United States and vigorously market their beers worldwide. Cities with Anheuser-Busch breweries include St. Louis, Los Angeles, Tampa, Houston, Jacksonville and Newark. Miller brewing operates facilities in Milwaukee, Fort Worth, Trenton, Ohio, Albany, Georgia, and Irwindale, a suburb of Los Angeles. ⁷⁵

Fond du Lac brewers could not begin to compete in this struggle among giants. The same was true for most breweries statewide. Of the eighty-eight in operation in 1937, only a few remain in business today. Some, lacking the capital and resources of the giant beer makers, had to give up without even trying to compete in this new market. Such was the case for Fond du Lac’s Bechaud. Others hung on for decades before shutting down. Among these smaller companies were Rahr’s Brewing of Green Bay, which closed in 1966, the Potosi Brewing Company, closed in 1972, the People’s Brewing Company of Oshkosh, which ended operations in 1972, Oshkosh Brewing, the original makers of Chief Oshkosh, closed in 1971, and the Berlin Brewing Company, which folded in 1964. ⁷⁶

Bigger brewing companies also continued to fold over the years. When these companies could no longer stay in business, they attempted to sell off what they had that was of value. Some sold their brewing facilities to other beer makers, but these facilities usually were usually far from state-of-the-art. Almost all of the brewers, however, were able to sell their brand names. Blatz, Schlitz, and Pabst may all have ceased operations in their original plants, but these beers are still sold, or at least one can buy a beer with one of these names on the label. Even Old Milwaukee, made for years in Schlitz’s Milwaukee brewery, is now made in a Minnesota brewery by Stroh’s of Detroit. ⁷⁷ Confusing? A misrepresentation? Schlitz itself, more than a quarter of a century ago the second largest brewer in the nation, has been closed for years. Schlitz beer is still available, but this brand is also made at one of the facilities owned by Stroh’s. ⁷⁸

Since 1850, nationwide, hundreds of brewers had emerged intact after such calamities as the Panic of 1857, the temperance movement, Prohibition, the Great Depression and six American wars, but ultimately the majority could not survive the era of beer nationalization. Today, the modern beer industry is a product of what University of Maryland sociologist George Ritzer calls the process of “McDonaldization,” meaning a standard formula that is followed by all competing businesses, one in which variations are hard to find. Both brewers and consumers have come to value the efficiency, calculability and predictability they can find only with major national brands. ⁷⁹ A Budweiser in Boston tastes the same as a Budweiser in Seattle. Miller Lite always tastes like Miller Lite, no matter how many cans one opens. A few multi-billion corporations, all producing similar-tasting beers, control most of the American brewing market.

Today, there are only a few breweries in Wisconsin. The two major brewers are Miller, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the Philip Morris Corporation, and G. Heileman, owned by Stroh’s. Moderately sized breweries include Sprecher of Milwaukee, Stevens Point Brewing, Joseph Huber Brewing of Monroe, and Leinenkugal’s of Chippewa Falls, owned by Miller. Wisconsin’s smaller breweries, or micro-breweries, include Capital Brewing of Middleton, Cherryland Brewing of Sturgeon Bay, Fox River Brewing of Appleton, the Appleton Brewing Company, Rowland’s Calumet Brewing of Chilton, Brewmasters of Kenosha, the Water Street Brewery of Milwaukee and the Lakefront Brewery, also of Milwaukee. ⁸⁰

The city of Fond du Lac has been without a commercial brewer in operation since 1937. The possibility of some individual opening a micro-brewery in the city is increasingly likely, but no major brewing company is likely to be located in a small city like Fond du Lac.

While there is increasing popular enthusiasm for distinctive micro-brewed beers, there is little reason to expect a return to an era of small brewing companies situated in every town. Micro-brews are popular, but the large corporations have already exploited this fad and are currently brewing beers under names that make it seem they are produced in micro-breweries. The products of the quaint-sounding “Plank Road Brewery,” for example, are made right alongside Miller’s other beers in the giant vats of Milwaukee’s “Miller Valley.”

While the commercial brewing of beer in Fond du Lac is a piece of history, a tour of the city quickly reveals that drinking beer is a favorite activity of many in Fond du Lac, as it has been since the early days of the city. Since early beers came exclusively in large barrels, saloons were popular from the city’s founding. Except during the Prohibition era, the saloon or bar business has been steady down to the present.

Already in 1876, Fond du Lac had seventeen taverns on Main Street between Merrill Avenue and Western Avenue. ⁸¹ The 1998 Fond du Lac Yellow Pages listed forty-eight taverns in the city of Fond du Lac. There were also forty-two liquor-serving restaurants. ⁸² These drinking establishments have certainly helped hatch their share of trouble over the years, as police reports indicate, but no doubt thousands of friendships have also been made within the walls of these businesses.

Additionally, there is more packaged beer available now than there ever was in the nineteenth century, when beer was more likely to be tapped into a pail and carried to workplace or home for consumption. There are dozens of beer retailers in the city. A variety of beers are available, and not only at the taverns but in Fond du Lac homes.

The beer that is drunk in the city has changed. Nobody can be found quaffing a bottle of Schussler’s beer or Bechaud’s Empire, nor can anyone find a barrel of Sander’s or Frey’s beer to tap. One cannot even find a beer that is made in Oshkosh today. Ultimately, however, the drinking of beer in Fond du Lac does not revolve around brand names or breweries. Beer consumption is no longer a matter of health or necessity, for water is generally safe to drink in Fond du Lac. On one level, Fond du Lac’s love affair with beer is about tradition, and it is about a way of life. The beer drinker is a profound product of human society and history.

The modern beer industry reflects the contemporary times, but the local perspective on beer remains little changed. Even though the choice of beverage may be Coors, Miller Lite, or Michelob instead of Bechaud, local people are still out there, right now, in Fond du Lac’s taverns, parks, porches and garages, talking to friends, throwing a ball around, working on cars, listening to the game, or rejoicing at the arrival of the weekend, many with a beer in their hands.

1 - Jerry Apps, Breweries of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), 3 return

2 - Clayton Roberts, David Roberts, A History of England, v. I (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1991), 30. return

3 - Apps, Breweries of Wisconsin, 5-6. return

4 - Coopers were important because they crafted wooden storage barrels for holding, aging, and transporting vital beverages. return

5 - Apps, Breweries of Wisconsin, 7-8. return

6 - Chronicle of America (Farmborough, England: Chronicle Communications Ltd., 1993), 922-923. return

7 - History of Fond du Lac County (Chicago, Illinois: Western Historical Company, 1880), 858. return

8 - Apps, Breweries of Wisconsin, 15-16. return

9 - Wayne L. Kroll, Badger Breweries, Past and Present, (Jefferson, Wisconsin: 1976), 25-26. return

10 - Michael Mentzer, Fond du Lac County: A Gift of the Glacier (Fond du Lac, Wiconsin: Fond du Lac County Historical Society, 1991), 36-37. return

11 - Ibid., 58-61. return

12 - A brew kettle is the (usually large and made from copper) container in which fermented grain malt is brewed into beer. Some modern brew kettles at major breweries are three to five stories tall. return

13 - Ale is heavily flavored, bitter malted beverage in the English style. return

14 - Apps, Breweries of Wisconsin, 15-16. return

15 - Mentzer, 60. return

16 - Ibid., 115. return

17 - Kroll, Badger Breweries, Past and Present, 25-26. return

18 - History of Fond du Lac County (1880), 806. return

19 - Kroll, 25-26. return

20 - A.T. Glaze, Incidents and Anecdotes of Early Days and History of Business in the City and County of Fond du Lac from Early Times to the Present (Fond du Lac, Wis.: P.B. Haber Printing Co., 1905), 197. return

21 - History of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin (1880), 893. return

22 - Kroll, Badger Breweries, Past and Present, 120-121. return

23 - Apps, Breweries of Wisconsin, 60. return

24 - Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press, 1993), 196. return

25 - Ibid., 210. return

26 - Apps, 18. return

27 - Ibid, 19. See also Thomas C. Cochran, The Pabst Brewing Company: History of an American Business, (New York: New York University Press, 1948). return

28 - World Almanac and Book of Facts 1995, (Mahwah, New Jersey: Funk & Wagnalls, 1995), 381; Apps, 21. return

29 - Ibid., 18. return

30 - Kroll, 26. return

31 - R.T. Elliott, Saloons of Fond du Lac (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin: R.T. Elliott, 1997), i, vi. return

32 - Kroll, 26. return

33 - History of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin (1880), (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1880), 858. return

34 - Kroll, 26. return

35 - Ibid., 26 return

36 - Maurice McKenna, History of Fond du Lac County, (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912), 477-478. return

37 - Kroll, 25. return

38 - History of Fond du Lac County (1880), 871. return

39 - 1880 Fond du Lac City Directory (Fond du Lac, WI: Holland Co., 1880), 306. return

40 - Kroll, 25 return

41 - History of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin (1880), 806. return

42 - Fond du Lac Journal, January 6, 1881, 3. return

43 - Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, May 16, 1881, 4. return

44 - Apps, 40-41. return

45 - Kroll, 1. return

46 - Apps, 20-21. return

47 - On activities of Fond du Lac’s early temperance societies, see Kate G. Berres, “The Temperance Movement in Fond du Lac, 1847-1878,” in Clarence B. Davis, ed., Source of the Lake: 150 Years of History in Fond du Lac (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin: Action Printing, 2002), 55-70. return

48 - Ibid., 63. return

49 - Glaze, 227. return

50 - Berres, 56. return

51- In a sign over the establishment’s door, Schmidt’s Sample Room still advertises the incident. return

52 - Stan Gores, “The Night Carry Nation Pulled out her Hatchet at E.J. Schmidt’s Bar,” The Fond du Lac Reporter, June 25, 1986, 64-65. return

53 - Apps, 66. See also Edward Behr, Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America, (New York: 1996), and Joseph Schafer, “Prohibition in Early Wisconsin,” in Wisconsin Magazine of History, IX:3, March 8, 1925, 281-299. return

54 - The Daily Commonwealth, June 19, 1919, 5. return

55 - The Daily Commonwealth, June 27, 1919, 1. return

56 - The Daily Commonwealth, June 24, 1919, 8. return

57 - The Daily Commonwealth, June 28, 1919, 6. return

58 - The Daily Commonwealth, June 30, 1919, 2. return

59 - The Daily Commonwealth, July 1, 1919, 1. return

60 - The Daily Commonwealth, June 30, 1919, 1. return

61 - The Daily Commonwealth, January 16, 1920, 1. return

62 - The Daily Commonwealth, January 17, 1920, 4. return

63 - Clifton Daniel, et al, eds., Chronicle of America (New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1997), 661. return

64 - Bill Yenne, Beers of North America (New York, NY: Gallery Books, 1986), 90-93. return

65 - Apps, 73. return

66 - Kroll, 121. return

67 - Kroll, 26. return

68 - Ibid., 25-26. return

69 - Yenne, 93. return

70 - Ruth Shaw Worthing, The History of Fond du Lac as Told by its Place-Names (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin: R. Shaw Worthing, 1976), 11-12. return

71 - Kroll, 25. return

72 - Yenne, 96. return

73 - Bill Yenne, The Field Guide to North America’s Breweries and Microbreweries (New York: Crescent Books, 1994), 67-68. return

74 - Ibid., 80-81. return

75 - Ibid., 59, 73. return

76 - Kroll, 17, 31-32, 107-108, 114. return

77 - Yenne, The Field Guide to North America’s Breweries and Microbreweries, 81. return

78 - Yenne, Beers of North America, 161. return

79 - George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1996), 9-11. return

80 - Yenne, The Field Guide to North American Breweries and Microbreweries, 58-83. return

81 - R.T. Elliott, Fond du Lac, Past to Present (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin : R.T. Elliott, 1983), 1-5. return

82 - Ameritech Pages Plus (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin: Ameritech Publishing, Inc., 1998), 212-218, 239. return

Copyright Clarence B. Davis 2005. Marian College Press, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin 2005.
Electronic publication by Fond du Lac Public Library has been approved by Clarence B. Davis.

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