Mile Marker 66: Milwaukee Beer Barons

Join us as we wander through a midwest cemetery, searching for some other folks and happen to get the graves of a couple major influences in the beer world poured right down our throats.

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References used in the podcast:
https://theclio.com/entry/83937 

https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/blatz-brewing-company/

https://milwaukeenotebook.com/2021/06/30/the-forgotten-milwaukee-river-park/

https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/oldmilwaukeehotels

https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/historic-beer-birthday-joseph-schlitz/

http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/140/Milwaukee.pdf

Transcript

Key: Drifter, Male voice. Gypsie, Female voice

Uplifting rock/western tune plays for 15 seconds, music begins to taper down then:

(Drifter) Welcome to the Rebel At Large Adventure Podcast. I’m Drifter

(Gypsie) And I’m  Gypsie

(Drifter) Talking about Ghost towns,

(Gypsie) Graveyards,

(Drifter) Outlaws, Heroes

(Gypsie) And Ladies of the night.

Music tapers to an end

(Drifter) Howdy folks, Thanks for joining us for yet another adventure. Today we wander around a midwestern cemetery and happen upon some historical figures in the world of beer. First we’re going to touch on a bit of important and impactful history for the United States.

(Gypsie) On January 16, 1919 the 18th amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. Section one states, (Drifter) after one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. (Gypsie) The following year every state in the United States became a dry state. This act became known as the Volstead Act or the National Prohibition Act. 

(Drifter) The prohibition act was pushed by the Anti-Saloon League, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as well as churchers. They felt that if liquor was banned it would eliminate poverty, there would be a reduction in violent acts, it would create happier families, and reduce workplace accidents. (Gypsie) Some states and counties were already restricting the sale and consumption of liquor but now every state had to abide by the new law. Ironically by making the sale of liquor illegal all they did was create more criminals. People were going to drink and they would do it any way they could. Speakeasies began popping up all over, they became very creative at making booze as well as transporting it. 

(Drifter) Though they did see a decrease in crime the first few years, things began to get worse than they were before. The jails were becoming overcrowded, people were dying from drinking homemade alcohol at an alarming rate, and there is also the organized crime that came with it. Turf wars were started in bigger cities with more people either going to jail or being killed. The police could not keep up with it. A lot of people lost their jobs when the breweries and distilleries were closed down. And the government lost a lot of money from taxing the sale of booze. 

(Gypsie) In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president. He campaigned that he was going to repeal the 18th Amendment. No surprise he won the election and he was a man of his word. In December 1933 one representative from each state met in Washington DC to discuss the 21st amendment. On December 5 at 3:32 Utah gave the 36th vote needed to repeal the prohibition and the people were able to legally drink once again. I find this funny because Utah was one of the driest states before the 18th amendment went into effect because of the amount of mormons living in the state. 

(Drifter) With the anniversary of the repeal of prohibition just a few days ago we thought it would be fun to talk about some men who played a big role in bringing beer to the states. While we were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin a few years back, as we do, we spent quite a bit of time wandering around cemeteries. We went to the Forest Home Cemetery to visit the Davidson family, of Harley Davidson, and found some really beautiful headstones there. We later started to do some research on the people laid to rest there and found that several of the headstones belonged to men who owned breweries. So crack open a cold one and enjoy a drink with us as we tell you about these men. 

(Gypsie) Valentin Blatz was born on October 1, 1826 in Germany. His father operated a brewery and when Valentin was 14 he started working with him. Around the age of 18 he started working with other breweries to get a better understanding on the process of creating beer. In 1848 he immigrated to the United States and was living in Buffalo, New York.  He worked for about a year in New York at a brewery before he moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin. When he arrived in town he got a job working as the brewmaster for John Braun’s Cedar Brewery. During this time it was common for the employees of a brewery to live with the owner. Valentin became friends with John and his wife and was a great employee. Within two years he had saved up 500 dollars (Drifter) (over $15K). (Gypsie) He decided to venture out on his own and opened a brewery. 

(Drifter) Sometime in 1851 John Braun was thrown from his horse drawn beer wagon killing him. On December 4th that same year Valentin married John’s widow Louise Margarethe Schmidt. Blatz then combined the two breweries and created the City Brewery. Production at first was small with only 500 barrels annually being made. By the 1860s he became one of the largest breweries in Milwaukee. In 1865 he opened an agency in Chicago to take advantage of the saloons and retailers there as well as selling to individual consumers. 

(Gypsie) (Drifter) In 1872 a fire damaged most of his building. Rather than folding up and quitting he hired August Gunzmann to design and build for him a new and larger brewery. He had it built in the Teutonic German Renaissance Revival style, this was very popular back then as most of the residents in the area were German or German-American. His new building was a state of the art building, it came with its own bottling and packaging system. By 1875 he was up and running and was the first brewer in Milwaukee to ship his beer nationally. The following year his beer won top prize at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. By 1880 he was producing over 100,000 barrels a year and had expanded the brewery to over three city blocks. 

(Drifter) Valentin also invested his money in real estate. He purchased Pleasant Valley located by the Milwaukee River and turned it into Blatz Park, also known as a beer garden. During this time it was very popular for families to go to beer gardens, politicians would meet here and unions were formed in these places. It was common for a beer garden to be located in a wooded area and sometimes by water. Some beer gardens had outdoor venues with live music, restaurants, and even exotic plants and birds. By World War 1 many of the beer gardens began to fade into history. The Blatz estate continued to own Blatz Park until 1928. The park was sold to the city with plans to construct a riverfront drive but nothing ever came of it and eventually everything was taken over by nature. 

(Gypsie) In 1897 Valentin also invested in the Hotel business. He purchased the Central Hotel, made major renovations to the building and changed the name to the Blatz Hotel. He even had a bar located on the ground floor called Blatz Bar. For 1.25 to 2.00  per day a person could stay at the hotel(Drifter) ($45-$72), (Gypsie) if you wanted a room with a bath it would cost you 2.50 to 3.50 a day (Drifter) ($90-$125). (Gypsie) Every room had hot and cold water in it. It was once located on the southwest corner of East Water and Oneida Street now known as Water and Wells. The building was torn down in 1968.

(Drifter) In 1889 Valentin incorporated his brewery and changed the name to Val Blatz Brewing Company. He was producing over 200,000 barrels annually and had a capital stock of 2,000,000 (Gypsie) (Just shy of $65M). (Drifter) Shortly After he incorporated, a group of British investors attempted to buy out and merge Blatz with Pabst and Schiltz for $16,500,000 (just over $540M). The offer fell through and in 1891 Blatz ended up selling out to United States Brewing Company for around $3,000,000 (Just over $98M). He did put in the contract a stipulation that allowed him to still have full control of the Milwaukee operations. 

(Gypsie) In 1894 Valentin and his wife took a trip to California to enjoy a more mild winter. His wife was not doing well and they felt this would help her. After spending three months there they traveled back east. One his way back from the trip he unexpectedly passed away at the Hotel Ryan in St. Paul Minnesota. According to the Weekly Wisconsin (Drifter) “Mr. Blatz was taken ill Saturday morning but it was not thought that anything very serious was the matter. About 10 o'clock in the evening he stepped from his room for a moment and on his return sank into a chair and died before medical aid could be procured. Dr. Talbot Jones, who was called, pronounced the cause of death heart disease complicated by a stomach trouble.”

(Gypsie) His body was returned to Milwaukee and his wife had a large, and beautiful mausoleum built for him, we have pictures of it and will post them on the website. He was 68 years old when he passed away. At the time of his death he was one of Milwaukee’s wealthiest men with an estate estimated at 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 (Drifter) ($208M-$277M). (Gypsie) His son Albert took over as president of the company after his father passed away. The company did well until prohibition came into effect. The United States Brewing sold Blatz to Edward Landsberg in 1920. Landsberg was able to keep the business going when he started selling malt syrup, sodas, and near beer. The business was sold again in 1943 to Schenley Industries. Four years later it was named the 9th largest brewery in the United States. Over the next ten years sales began to decline and the brewery was sold again in 1959 to Pabst. The company was then consolidated into their own plant and the large Blatz brewing complex was closed down. In 1986 the building was placed on the National Register. Two years later the building became the first industrial building in the city to be transformed into residential apartments. The Blatz beer brand still lives on in the portfolio of the Pabst Brewing Company. 

(Drifter) The next fella we want to talk about is Joseph Schlitz. He was born in Rheinhessen Germany on May 15, 1831. During his studies he took a four year course in bookkeeping. He immigrated to the United States and arrived in Milwaukee in 1850. (Gypsie) Now we need to tell you about someone else to help you better understand how Joseph was able to get into the brewing business. (Drifter) Georg August Krug had immigrated to the United States from Miltenberg, Bavaria Germany around 1848. He opened a small restaurant located at 4th and Chestnut Streets in Milwaukee.  The following year 1849 he married Anna Maria Hartig. Anna managed the restaurant and this gave August time to work on starting a brewery. 

(Gypsie) In 1850, Georg’s father came to visit him. He brought with him Krug’s 8 year old nephew August Uihlein as well as 800 dollars in gold (Drifter) (just shy of $31K)(gold was valued at about $20 per ounce, so he would have had about 40 ounces of gold. Today, gold spot prices are $1754 per ounce. So, the gold equivalent as of today would be valued at over $70K). (Gypsie) The money was used to expand the brewery and hire 4 more employee’s with one of them being Joseph Schlitz. Georg worked hard at expanding his brewery and built the first underground brewer’s vault. He tunneled into a hill and this provided him the cool temperatures needed for brewing and storage. August also got to work building large buildings to manufacture his beer, the building was located at 420 Chestnut Street. 

(Drifter) By the mid 1850’s August was a large beer distributor and one of his competitors was Valentin Blatz. His brewery turned from 250 barrels to 1500 barrels a year. Things went down the tube for August when he fell down a hatchway. Several days later, december 30, 1865, he passed away from his injuries at the age of 41. He was laid to rest in the Forest Home Cemetery. So let's get back to Joseph now and how he falls into place now that August has passed away. 

(Gypsie) Some sources say that August knew he was not going to survive his injuries and told his wife to marry Joseph. Or maybe his wife knew that Joseph understood the business and that if she married him he would help her continue to run it. One thing that is certain is that when August passed away, the eleven lots of real estate he owned was estimated at a value of 20,050 (Drifter) (Just over $366K). (Gypsie) There was a total of 15,296.76 in claims and demands against the estate (Drifter) (Just over $230K) (Gypsie) and that included 276.50  that was owed to Joseph (Drifter) (Around $5K). 

(Drifter) Two years after August passed away in 1858 Joseph and Anna were married. Joseph then invested his own money into the company and had the name of the brewery changed to Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company that same year. The company continued to grow and by 1867 they were brewing 5,775 barrels a year, making it the 4th largest brewery in Milwaukee, with Blatz brewing being in 3rd place. 

(Gypsie) The great Chicago fire, though devastating for many, brought Joseph great success. He donated thousands of barrels of beer to the city when many of their breweries were destroyed by the fire. He used it as an opportunity to build his distribution in Chicago making his company become known as (Drifter) “the beer that made Milwaukee famous.” (Gypsie) Many of the Chicagoans became loyal drinkers to his brand after this. This was the start of him becoming a national distributor. He continued to expand the business and eventually became the largest brewery in the U.S. 

(Drifter) Joseph had been away from home for 26 years and in 1875 he decided to make the trip back home. On May 7th he was on the steamship Schiller as it was entering the English Channel. Unfortunately the fog was too dense and at 10pm the ship crashed into Bishop’s rock. The captain was able to back the ship off the rock but the sea was too rough. This caused the ship to be flung into the rocks three more times causing more damage. Pandemonium ensued on the ship and all the passengers rushed to the lifeboats. But they quickly found that either the boats were damaged from crashing into the rocks or they had not been maintained and were unsafe to use. 

(Gypsie) Unfortunately, when the captian fired off his gun it was thought to be a signal that they had made it safely through the islands. Also it was dark, the seas were very rough, and the fog was making it impossible to see anything. No boat was sent to rescue them until the following morning. When they arrived they found only 5 survivors. In total 37 people survived the wreck, the death toll for the passengers and crew was 335. Anna offered a reward of 25,000 dollars for the recovery of Joseph's body but it was never found (Drifter) (the reward would have been over $677K today). (Gypsie) In 1880 a sea captain arrived in New York and wrote to the Shiltz family saying that he had the body of Joseph. The family sent someone to investigate the claims and found them to be untrue. Anna had a cenotaph erected in the Forest Home Cemetery . On the base of the monument is a rendering of the ship the Schiller at sea. So I found this out while doing research that a cenotaph is a monument for someone who is not actually buried at the location. 

(Drifter) Anna did receive 50,000 dollars from Joseph’s life insurance policy and used that to help keep the brewery going (Gypsie) (Just over $1.3M). (Drifter) Joseph and Anna did not have any children together, so she turned to her nephews from August Krugs side of the family for help. Remember when we told you about 8 year old August Uihlein coming to the U.S.? Well he stayed and as he got older started working with Joseph and learning how to manage the company. Now 33 year old August was put in charge. He along with his two brothers Henry and Edward were able to not only keep the business going but they were able to turn it into a huge success. It was considered at this time to change the name however the Schlitz brand was too well recognized.

(Gypsie) In 1877 they were the 10th largest US brewer and by 1895 they were the third largest. When prohibition came into effect the company changed the name to Joseph Schlitz Beverage Company. They then began producing near beer, soft drinks, malt syrup and even a chocolate candy named “Eline.” Once the repeal of prohibition happened the company went back to brewing beer and growing its production. Over the 40 years they stayed near the top of being the largest beer producer. The company began to decline when they started making changes to the recipe. Consumers felt the beer flavor was gone and that it went flat too fast. The company also did not make any light beers like its competitors were starting to make. 

(Drifter) In 1982 Schlitz was eventually sold to Stroh Brewing of Detroit Michigan. The status of the Schlitz name declined to the point it was considered cheap beer. In 1999 Pabst purchased the Schlitz brand. The formula for the original beer was lost during the 1970’s but research has since been done and the former Schlitz is now being produced. The new beer along with new advertisements was released in 2008. In 2009 former 1968 Playboy Playmate Cynthia Myers became the spokesperson for Schlitz. (Gypsie) Today you can still buy Schlitz and I think that it is awesome that Pabst, one of the rivals during its heyday, was able to save the company and bring back the original recipe! 

(Gypsie) We also found inside the Forest Home Cemetery Frederick Pabst is laid to rest there. His headstone is extremely large and features a woman on the steps that looks to be crying on it. We are not going to get into the history of Pabst at this time as we don’t want to turn this into too long of an episode. So thanks for spending time with us and celebrating the repeal of the prohibition and learning about two of Milwalkees major brewers. 

(Drifter) Alright, I think that wraps up our Milwaukee visit for the moment. Are you doing a dad Joke?

(Gypsie) An elderly man was stopped by the police around 2 a.m. and was asked by the officer where he was going at this time of night. The man replies, “I am on my way to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effect it has on the human body as well as smoking and staying out late.” 

The officer then asks “Really? Who is giving that lecture at this time of night?” 

The man replied, “That would be my wife.” 

(Drifter) Thank you all so much for joining us again and supporting the Rebel At Large Adventure Podcast. If you want to stay up to date with us we are most active on the Instagram (Gypsie) @rebelatlarge, (Drifter) we post photos of our adventures on our website (Gypsie) rebelatlarge.com where you’ll find links to our new merch store, Patreon if you want to help fuel the adventure, email if you want to get in touch with us as well as links to our other social deals.

(Drifter) We’ll talk to ya here in a couple of weeks, (Gypsie) Safe Travels, (Drifter) We’ll see ya down the road.

https://theclio.com/entry/83937 

https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/blatz-brewing-company/

https://milwaukeenotebook.com/2021/06/30/the-forgotten-milwaukee-river-park/

https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/oldmilwaukeehotels

https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/historic-beer-birthday-joseph-schlitz/

http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/140/Milwaukee.pdf

Welcome to the Rebel At Large Adventure Podcast, I’m Drifter, and I’m Gypsie. Talking about Ghost towns, Graveyards, Outlaws, Heroes, And Ladies of the night.

Howdy folks, Thanks for joining us for yet another adventure. Today we wander around a midwestern cemetery and happen upon some historical figures in the world of beer. First we’re going to touch on a bit of important and impactful history for the United States.

On January 16, 1919 the 18th amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. Section one states, after one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. The following year every state in the United States became a dry state. This act became known as the Volstead Act or the National Prohibition Act. 

The prohibition act was pushed by the Anti-Saloon League, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as well as churchers. They felt that if liquor was banned it would eliminate poverty, there would be a reduction in violent acts, it would create happier families, and reduce workplace accidents. Some states and counties were already restricting the sale and consumption of liquor but now every state had to abide by the new law. Ironically by making the sale of liquor illegal all they did was create more criminals. People were going to drink and they would do it any way they could. Speakeasies began popping up all over, they became very creative at making booze as well as transporting it. 

Though they did see a decrease in crime the first few years, things began to get worse than they were before. The jails were becoming overcrowded, people were dying from drinking homemade alcohol at an alarming rate, and there is also the organized crime that came with it. Turf wars were started in bigger cities with more people either going to jail or being killed. The police could not keep up with it. A lot of people lost their jobs when the breweries and distilleries were closed down. And the government lost a lot of money from taxing the sale of booze. 

In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president. He campaigned that he was going to repeal the 18th Amendment. No surprise he won the election and he was a man of his word. In December 1933 one representative from each state met in Washington DC to discuss the 21st amendment. On December 5 at 3:32 Utah gave the 36th vote needed to repeal the prohibition and the people were able to legally drink once again. I find this funny because Utah was one of the driest states before the 18th amendment went into effect because of the amount of mormons living in the state. 

With the anniversary of the repeal of prohibition just a few days ago we thought it would be fun to talk about some men who played a big role in bringing beer to the states. While we were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin a few years back, as we do, we spent quite a bit of time wandering around cemeteries. We went to the Forest Home Cemetery to visit the Davidson family, of Harley Davidson, and found some really beautiful headstones there. We later started to do some research on the people laid to rest there and found that several of the headstones belonged to men who owned breweries. So crack open a cold one and enjoy a drink with us as we tell you about these men. 

Valentin Blatz was born on October 1, 1826 in Germany. His father operated a brewery and when Valentin was 14 he started working with him. Around the age of 18 he started working with other breweries to get a better understanding on the process of creating beer. In 1848 he immigrated to the United States and was living in Buffalo, New York.  He worked for about a year in New York at a brewery before he moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin. When he arrived in town he got a job working as the brewmaster for John Braun’s Cedar Brewery. During this time it was common for the employees of a brewery to live with the owner. Valentin became friends with John and his wife and was a great employee. Within two years he had saved up 500 dollars (over $15K). He decided to venture out on his own and opened a brewery. 

Sometime in 1851 John Braun was thrown from his horse drawn beer wagon killing him. On December 4th that same year Valentin married John’s widow Louise Margarethe Schmidt. Blatz then combined the two breweries and created the City Brewery. Production at first was small with only 500 barrels annually being made. By the 1860s he became one of the largest breweries in Milwaukee. In 1865 he opened an agency in Chicago to take advantage of the saloons and retailers there as well as selling to individual consumers. 

In 1872 a fire damaged most of his building. Rather than folding up and quitting he hired August Gunzmann to design and build for him a new and larger brewery. He had it built in the Teutonic German Renaissance Revival style, this was very popular back then as most of the residents in the area were German or German-American. His new building was a state of the art building, it came with its own bottling and packaging system. By 1875 he was up and running and was the first brewer in Milwaukee to ship his beer nationally. The following year his beer won top prize at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. By 1880 he was producing over 100,000 barrels a year and had expanded the brewery to over three city blocks. 

Valentin also invested his money in real estate. He purchased Pleasant Valley located by the Milwaukee River and turned it into Blatz Park, also known as a beer garden. During this time it was very popular for families to go to beer gardens, politicians would meet here and unions were formed in these places. It was common for a beer garden to be located in a wooded area and sometimes by water. Some beer gardens had outdoor venues with live music, restaurants, and even exotic plants and birds. By World War 1 many of the beer gardens began to fade into history. The Blatz estate continued to own Blatz Park until 1928. The park was sold to the city with plans to construct a riverfront drive but nothing ever came of it and eventually everything was taken over by nature. 

In 1897 Valentin also invested in the Hotel business. He purchased the Central Hotel, made major renovations to the building and changed the name to the Blatz Hotel. He even had a bar located on the ground floor called Blatz Bar. For 1.25 to 2.00  per day a person could stay at the hotel($45-$72), if you wanted a room with a bath it would cost you 2.50 to 3.50 a day ($90-$125). Every room had hot and cold water in it. It was once located on the southwest corner of East Water and Oneida Street now known as Water and Wells. The building was torn down in 1968.

In 1889 Valentin incorporated his brewery and changed the name to Val Blatz Brewing Company. He was producing over 200,000 barrels annually and had a capital stock of 2,000,000 (Just shy of $65M). Shortly After he incorporated, a group of British investors attempted to buy out and merge Blatz with Pabst and Schiltz for $16,500,000 (just over $540M). The offer fell through and in 1891 Blatz ended up selling out to United States Brewing Company for around $3,000,000 (Just over $98M). He did put in the contract a stipulation that allowed him to still have full control of the Milwaukee operations. 

In 1894 Valentin and his wife took a trip to California to enjoy a more mild winter. His wife was not doing well and they felt this would help her. After spending three months there they traveled back east. One his way back from the trip he unexpectedly passed away at the Hotel Ryan in St. Paul Minnesota. According to the Weekly Wisconsin “Mr. Blatz was taken ill Saturday morning but it was not thought that anything very serious was the matter. About 10 o'clock in the evening he stepped from his room for a moment and on his return sank into a chair and died before medical aid could be procured. Dr. Talbot Jones, who was called, pronounced the cause of death heart disease complicated by a stomach trouble.”

His body was returned to Milwaukee and his wife had a large, and beautiful mausoleum built for him, we have pictures of it and will post them on the website. He was 68 years old when he passed away. At the time of his death he was one of Milwaukee’s wealthiest men with an estate estimated at 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 ($208M-$277M). His son Albert took over as president of the company after his father passed away. The company did well until prohibition came into effect. The United States Brewing sold Blatz to Edward Landsberg in 1920. Landsberg was able to keep the business going when he started selling malt syrup, sodas, and near beer. The business was sold again in 1943 to Schenley Industries. Four years later it was named the 9th largest brewery in the United States. Over the next ten years sales began to decline and the brewery was sold again in 1959 to Pabst. The company was then consolidated into their own plant and the large Blatz brewing complex was closed down. In 1986 the building was placed on the National Register. Two years later the building became the first industrial building in the city to be transformed into residential apartments. The Blatz beer brand still lives on in the portfolio of the Pabst Brewing Company. 

The next fella we want to talk about is Joseph Schlitz. He was born in Rheinhessen Germany on May 15, 1831. During his studies he took a four year course in bookkeeping. He immigrated to the United States and arrived in Milwaukee in 1850. Now we need to tell you about someone else to help you better understand how Joseph was able to get into the brewing business. Georg August Krug had immigrated to the United States from Miltenberg, Bavaria Germany around 1848. He opened a small restaurant located at 4th and Chestnut Streets in Milwaukee.  The following year 1849 he married Anna Maria Hartig. Anna managed the restaurant and this gave August time to work on starting a brewery. 

In 1850, Georg’s father came to visit him. He brought with him Krug’s 8 year old nephew August Uihlein as well as 800 dollars in gold (just shy of $31K)(gold was valued at about $20 per ounce, so he would have had about 40 ounces of gold. Today, gold spot prices are $1754 per ounce. So, the gold equivalent as of today would be valued at over $70K). The money was used to expand the brewery and hire 4 more employee’s with one of them being Joseph Schlitz. Georg worked hard at expanding his brewery and built the first underground brewer’s vault. He tunneled into a hill and this provided him the cool temperatures needed for brewing and storage. August also got to work building large buildings to manufacture his beer, the building was located at 420 Chestnut Street. 

By the mid 1850’s August was a large beer distributor and one of his competitors was Valentin Blatz. His brewery turned from 250 barrels to 1500 barrels a year. Things went down the tube for August when he fell down a hatchway. Several days later, december 30, 1865, he passed away from his injuries at the age of 41. He was laid to rest in the Forest Home Cemetery. So let's get back to Joseph now and how he falls into place now that August has passed away. 

Some sources say that August knew he was not going to survive his injuries and told his wife to marry Joseph. Or maybe his wife knew that Joseph understood the business and that if she married him he would help her continue to run it. One thing that is certain is that when August passed away, the eleven lots of real estate he owned was estimated at a value of 20,050 (Just over $366K). There was a total of 15,296.76 in claims and demands against the estate (Just over $230K)and that included 276.50  that was owed to Joseph(Around $5K). 

Two years after August passed away in 1858 Joseph and Anna were married. Joseph then invested his own money into the company and had the name of the brewery changed to Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company that same year. The company continued to grow and by 1867 they were brewing 5,775 barrels a year, making it the 4th largest brewery in Milwaukee, with Blatz brewing being in 3rd place. 

The great Chicago fire, though devastating for many, brought Joseph great success. He donated thousands of barrels of beer to the city when many of their breweries were destroyed by the fire. He used it as an opportunity to build his distribution in Chicago making his company become known as “the beer that made Milwaukee famous.” Many of the Chicagoans became loyal drinkers to his brand after this. This was the start of him becoming a national distributor. He continued to expand the business and eventually became the largest brewery in the U.S. 

Joseph had been away from home for 26 years and in 1875 he decided to make the trip back home. On May 7th he was on the steamship Schiller as it was entering the English Channel. Unfortunately the fog was too dense and at 10pm the ship crashed into Bishop’s rock. The captain was able to back the ship off the rock but the sea was too rough. This caused the ship to be flung into the rocks three more times causing more damage. Pandemonium ensued on the ship and all the passengers rushed to the lifeboats. But they quickly found that either the boats were damaged from crashing into the rocks or they had not been maintained and were unsafe to use. 

Unfortunately, when the captian fired off his gun it was thought to be a signal that they had made it safely through the islands. Also it was dark, the seas were very rough, and the fog was making it impossible to see anything. No boat was sent to rescue them until the following morning. When they arrived they found only 5 survivors. In total 37 people survived the wreck, the death toll for the passengers and crew was 335. Anna offered a reward of 25,000 dollars for the recovery of Joseph's body but it was never found (the reward would have been over $677K today). In 1880 a sea captain arrived in New York and wrote to the Shiltz family saying that he had the body of Joseph. The family sent someone to investigate the claims and found them to be untrue. Anna had a cenotaph erected in the Forest Home Cemetery . On the base of the monument is a rendering of the ship the Schiller at sea. So I found this out while doing research that a cenotaph is a monument for someone who is not actually buried at the location. 

Anna did receive 50,000 dollars from Joseph’s life insurance policy and used that to help keep the brewery going (Just over $1.3M). Joseph and Anna did not have any children together, so she turned to her nephews from August Krugs side of the family for help. Remember when we told you about 8 year old August Uihlein coming to the U.S.? Well he stayed and as he got older started working with Joseph and learning how to manage the company. Now 33 year old August was put in charge. He along with his two brothers Henry and Edward were able to not only keep the business going but they were able to turn it into a huge success. It was considered at this time to change the name however the Schlitz brand was too well recognized.

In 1877 they were the 10th largest US brewer and by 1895 they were the third largest. When prohibition came into effect the company changed the name to Joseph Schlitz Beverage Company. They then began producing near beer, soft drinks, malt syrup and even a chocolate candy named “Eline.” Once the repeal of prohibition happened the company went back to brewing beer and growing its production. Over the 40 years they stayed near the top of being the largest beer producer. The company began to decline when they started making changes to the recipe. Consumers felt the beer flavor was gone and that it went flat too fast. The company also did not make any light beers like its competitors were starting to make. 

In 1982 Schlitz was eventually sold to Stroh Brewing of Detroit Michigan. The status of the Schlitz name declined to the point it was considered cheap beer. In 1999 Pabst purchased the Schlitz brand. The formula for the original beer was lost during the 1970’s but research has since been done and the former Schlitz is now being produced. The new beer along with new advertisements was released in 2008. In 2009 former 1968 Playboy Playmate Cynthia Myers became the spokesperson for Schlitz. Today you can still buy Schlitz and I think that it is awesome that Pabst, one of the rivals during its heyday, was able to save the company and bring back the original recipe! 

We also found inside the Forest Home Cemetery Frederick Pabst is laid to rest there. His headstone is extremely large and features a woman on the steps that looks to be crying on it. We are not going to get into the history of Pabst at this time as we don’t want to turn this into too long of an episode. So thanks for spending time with us and celebrating the repeal of the prohibition and learning about two of Milwalkees major brewers. 

Alright, I think that wraps up our Milwaukee visit for the moment. Are you doing a dad Joke?

An elderly man was stopped by the police around 2 a.m. and was asked by the officer where he was going at this time of night. The man replies, “I am on my way to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effect it has on the human body as well as smoking and staying out late.” 

The officer then asks “Really? Who is giving that lecture at this time of night?” 

The man replied, “That would be my wife.” 

Thank you all so much for joining us again and supporting the Rebel At Large Adventure Podcast. If you want to stay up to date with us we are most active on the Instagram @rebelatlarge, we post photos of our adventures on our website rebelatlarge.com where you’ll find links to our new merch store, Patreon if you want to help fuel the adventure, email if you want to get in touch with us as well as links to our other social deals.

We’ll talk to ya here in a couple of weeks, Safe Travels, We’ll see ya down the road.

Begin 30 seconds of the same uplifting Rock/Western tune as the introduction.

 
 References:

https://theclio.com/entry/83937 

https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/blatz-brewing-company/

https://milwaukeenotebook.com/2021/06/30/the-forgotten-milwaukee-river-park/

https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/oldmilwaukeehotels

https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/historic-beer-birthday-joseph-schlitz/

http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/140/Milwaukee.pdf