A History of Brewers in Portsmouth, Ohio: With an Emphasis on the Portsmouth Brewing Company

By William Cullen

A History of Brewers in Portsmouth, Ohio, with an Emphasis on the Portsmouth Brewing Company: Part IIthe 20th & 21st Centuries is a continuation of A History of Brewers in Portsmouth, Ohio, with an Emphasis on the Portsmouth Brewing Company: Part One: The 19th Century, also available through Xlibris Publishing. The second book picks up where part one left off, moving on from the demise of brewery patriarch Julius Esselborn to his sonsPaul Esselbornturbulent tenure as general manager of the Portsmouth Brewery, as well as his contributions to Portsmouth as a community leader. From there, the book recounts the many uses of the brewerybottler to car dealership to arcadebrought on by the Prohibition and post-Prohibition era before returning back to its original roots as a craft brewery by two local brothers, Steven and Ira Mault.

These two books are a look back into the history of Portsmouth, Ohio, my hometown, from the viewpoint of beer brewing, a major part of this community from its very early days to its present and, hopefully, well into its future.

Cheers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543459326

William Cullen

William M. Cullen is a Portsmouth, Ohio native who currently lives in nearby Ashland, Kentucky. Mr. Cullen earned an MBA from Marshall University, located in nearby Huntington, W.Va. In his spare time, Mr. Cullen is known to enjoy traveling this great tri-state region of our country, learning about its unique history.

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Copyright © 2017 by William Cullen.

Library of Congress Control Number:             2017916479

ISBN:                   Hardcover                       978-1-5434-5930-2

                            Softcover                         978-1-5434-5931-9

                            eBook                               978-1-5434-5932-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

‘The Riverboat-man’ symbol is a copyrighted symbol of the

Portsmouth Brewing Company. Design by Bauer Graphic of Portsmouth, Ohio.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 10/26/2017

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Twentieth Century: Moving On, Prohibition, Other Uses & Revival

Twenty-First Century: Rebuilding a Legacy

Appendix I: Chronology of the Brewery Owners:

Appendix II: A List of some beers produced by Portsmouth Brewing Company:

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Again, I wish to acknowledge that this is not a complete comprehensive history of brewers in Portsmouth, or of The Portsmouth Brewing Company. The reason for this is because I did not have access to any personal family or business records from those who had once owned and operated breweries in Portsmouth, Ohio, especially in the early years; nor were there any personal or business records available in the archives at Portsmouth Public Library. What I have here is collected from the Portsmouth City Directories, various books (see Bibliography), Wikipedia, but mostly from The Portsmouth Times (est. in 1858) and The Portsmouth Daily Times via newspaperarchieve.com.

What you will read is a chronology of the various businesses associated with brewing in Portsmouth with lapses from one account to another, sometimes skipping over several months or years, creating a somewhat disjointed history about the history of brewers in Portsmouth. However, it is my hope you will find an appreciation for what I was able to piece together about this important industry which I believe is a cornerstone of this community.

I had begun my research in earnest, using a two-phase approach. First phase consisted of just using the names of the various primary owners of the Portsmouth Brewery building while the second phase consisted of using the various business names associated with the brewery building; and as I went along it turned out to be more than just the history of The Portsmouth Brewing Company, it turned into a history of brewers in Portsmouth. Therefore, I do hope that you find the history of brewers in Portsmouth as interesting as I have had.

Again, I wish to acknowledge and thank the truly wonderful librarians in the Henry A. Lorberg Local History Room at the Portsmouth Public Library in Portsmouth, Ohio for their valued assistance on creating this historical account of brewers in Portsmouth. Their kindness, their generosity, their tips - but mostly their patience - will forever be appreciated.

I would also like to acknowledge my appreciation of the staff at The Minnie Winder Genealogy and Local History Room at the Boyd County Public Library in Ashland, Kentucky. Their assistance and their website – thebookplace.org – were of tremendous help; and I wish to give thanks the staff of the Elizabeth H. Smith Genealogy Room at the Sylvester Memorial Wellston Public Library in Wellston, Ohio for their assistance.

Furthermore, I also wish to acknowledge the writers, known and unknown, from The Portsmouth Times and The Portsmouth Daily Times for their numerous articles that went into the development of this historical work.

I also wish to acknowledge the appreciated assistance of the Scioto County Auditor and Record Offices at the Scioto County Courthouse. Their assistance in looking up old records was most kind and generous.

I want to acknowledge a few of the informative websites I had used in the forming of this history: Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org, Newspaperarchive.com, Ohiogeneaologyexpress.com, Ohiohistorycentral.org, Rootsweb.ancestry.com, Wikipedia.org, as well as many more for their invaluable information.

I wish to give special acknowledgement to former Brewmaster Emily Uldrich - who is an historical person in her own right - for her valued insight into the history of Portsmouth Brewing Company. Without her insight I would have overlooked so many amazing accounts of its wonderful history.

And last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank the Mault family, as well as the management and staff at Portsmouth Brewing Company, for their valued contribution to this work.

Throughout this work you will see historical monetary figures updated for 2017, such as $22.05 (approx. $881.00) from 1901. These updated figures are based on a conservative annual inflation rate of 3.23%.

Also, I tried to find as many lifespan dates (b - d) as I could. If you don’t see any beside a particular individual it is because I could not locate one, or there were too many dates to tell which one belonged for that particular individual.

TWENTIETH CENTURY:

Moving On, Prohibition,

Other Uses & Revival

As the Twentieth Century began, in 1901, Portsmouth still had five breweries, along with 62 saloons.

The Windisch-Muhlhauser Brewery and ice house was still located on the northwest corner of Fifth and Market Street, still being operated by August Maier (1849 - 1916).

The Foss-Schneider Brewing Company, having moved the year before from 153-155 Second Street, was now located at 318 Second Street, and was still being operated by Henry B. Ruel (1864 – 1930, formerly of West Virginia).

The Pabst Brewing Company was located at 134 Second Street and was still being operated by Hugo W. A. Doebler (1865 - ?, formerly of Germany). Mr. Doebler had also owned the Portsmouth Inn, which had been located at 924-926 Waller Street.

The Finlay Brewing Company was still operating at 227 Market Street, with newlywed Jacob P. Findeis (1870 - 1918) still as its operator. Mr. Findeis had married Elizabeth Geisler (1872 - ?) on June 29, 1898 and they had taken up residency at 1012 Ninth Street in Portsmouth. Mr. Findeis, also, continued to run his saloon on Third Street, which had been prospering. It was here that a man could still buy a ‘schooner of beer’ (a large glass container holding a pint’s worth) for a nickel.

And last, but not least, there was still the Portsmouth Brewing & Ice Company located at 260 Second Street, now owned by Julius Esselborn’s widow, Mrs. Pauline Esselborn; and along with her son, Paul Esselborn, who, at the age of 26 years old, took over the day-to-day operations at the brewery, becoming its General Manager. Plus, Julius’ cousin Oscar Knorr (1861-1928) remained on as solicitor as well.

Even though Paul had taken over the day-to-day operations it was his mother who had become Portsmouth Brewing & Ice Company’s ‘official’ President, holding that position until the business was sold at the advent of the Ohio Prohibition in 1919; and becoming President made Mrs. Esselborn the only other woman to ever own the brewery, up to that point in its history, after Mrs. Thomas Muhlhauser had inherited the brewery upon her husband’s passing back in 1858.

Paul Julius Esselborn (1874-1940) had been born in Cincinnati, Ohio in January, 1874; and by the time he was 15 years of age, in 1889, his father had bought the Portsmouth Brewery and moved his family to that city. After graduating from Portsmouth High School (presumably the Class of 1892) Paul, at the age of 19, in 1893, took an apprenticeship position with the Phoenix Brewing Company in Pittsburgh (est. in 1843 by Adam Wood, becoming the Phoenix Brewery in 1862), staying in that position for several months. Then, in 1894, he began attending the University of Cincinnati before going on and completing his education at The College of Agriculture and Brewing at the Weihenstephan College (est. in 1803) in Freising, Germany, in the Bavarian region, in 1896. The college had earned the honor of Royal Bavarian Academy for Agriculture and Beer Brewing the year before.

After graduating Weihenstephan, Paul came home, taking up residence at 1618 5th Avenue, and began working in his father’s brewery before inheriting its day-to-day operations in 1900, upon his father’s passing. And as the years went by, Paul had also become a member of the Board of Trustees with The Portsmouth Banking Company, before it became The Portsmouth National Bank, serving as a vice-president. He had also served as a trustee for the local water works, both of which were certainly connected to his family’s business interests.

The only other business in the area concerning the processing of beer was a beer-bottler, and that business was operated by Adolph Hurth (1838 – 1926). Mr. Hurth had been a native German (believed to be a Prussian) who had emigrated to the United States in either 1853 or 1854, at the age of 15. His bottling operation had been at 210 Market Street; and he had, quite possibly, bottled, at least, for the Finlay Brewing Company since it was closest to him, if not some of the others.

The Hurth Hotel, still located on the northeast corner of Chillicothe and Third Street in Portsmouth, is named for Adolph Hurth.

On March 23, 1901, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported a number of changes that were to take place at the University of Cincinnati. Among these changes was the resignation of Dr. F. G. A. Davidson, professor of Romance Languages, who desired to leave the University in order to look after his father’s large estate. President Ayres, of the university, had recommended that Emilie Esselborn be appointed to Dr. Davidson’s position for the remainder of the session; and this was agreed upon by many of her peers.

However, a committee had to decide whether Emilie Esselborn should be given the title ‘Dean of Woman’, in addition to being appointed a salary of $600 per year (approx. $23,698.00). Miss Esselborn, having received the position, garnered many wishes from her friends who felt she had been eminently qualified for the position to which she had been chosen.

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) Lodge, # 154, on March 27, had elected officers for the coming year: W. B. Ahsman, Exalted Ruler; Fred N. Tynes (1870 – 1930), Esteemed Leading Knight; Vallee Harold (the Portsmouth Postmaster and Editor of The Portsmouth Times, at the time), Esteemed Loyal Knight; Paul Esselborn, Esteemed Lecturing Knight; H.S. Grimes, Trustee - for five years - and T. B. Nichols, Tyler, a Sentinel.

Jack Reichert, of San Francisco, California, was the national organizer of the Knights of the Royal Arch (Freemasonry) and he had meet with considerable success in Portsmouth on May 11. The local order had thirty-five members, including former brewery owner Frank Kleffner (1832 – 1918) as its President, and Paul Esselborn as its Secretary. This was one of the few fraternal orders, in the United States, that a saloon keeper could enter and obtain benefits.

By June 15, the Portsmouth Board of Trade had been reorganized, having a membership of nearly one hundred strong, with Paul Esselborn being listed as its newest member. The reorganized board meant business, having already begun the work of endeavoring to bring new industries to the city.

On August 24, Paul Esselborn had gone to Cincinnati to participate in a golf game, a favorite pastime of his.

During the first week of September an appeal had been filed in the court of Squire Daniel Shakespeare (1842 – 1914, who had emigrated from England), the Common Pleas clerk. This case initially came before Squire Shakespeare on July 29 when plaintiffs Samuel Morgenthau and John Eah sued Louis H. Baum (1861 - ?, a Portsmouth native whose father, Louis Baum, emigrated from Germany). The plaintiffs had been fish dealers in Cincinnati and they were suing Mr. Baum for the sum of $22.05 (approx. $881.00), with interest dating from March 18, 1899, claiming that Mr. Baum had not paid for a consignment of fish they had sent to him. Mr. Baum counter-claimed, saying the fish had arrived spoiled. The initial judgement was for the plaintiffs. Therefore, Mr. Baum came back with an appeal, claiming that plaintiffs were not residents of Wayne Township, Scioto County, Ohio and could not sue him in a Wayne Township court.

That appeal was denied.

It was Paul Esselborn who had secured Mr. Baum’s bond for security of costs; and how these two men knew each other is not readily known, except to say that both were local businessmen.

Mrs. Esselborn advertised on October 5 for a man to perform general house and garden work; he was to apply at 135 Gallia Street, where Portsmouth’s financial district is located today.

In mid-October Oscar Knorr and Paul Esselborn had attended the Ohio Brewer’s Association convention, which had been held in Ironton, Ohio. Ironton had been founded in 1849 by John Campbell (1808 – 1891), a prominent pig-iron manufacturer from Brown County, Ohio. The convention, originally, had been planned for Columbus; however, out of honor to its former president, Leo Ebert (1837 – 1908, formerly of Germany) of Ironton, the convention had been transferred to Ironton where the Columbus breweries – L. Hoster Brewing Co. (est. in 1836), Born & Co., Capital Brewery (est. in 1859), Nicholas Schlee & Sons, Bavarian Brewery (est. in 1870) and Columbus Brewing Co. (est. in 1898) – covered all expenses, which had exceeded $10,000.00 (approx. $399,473.00); and each of these breweries had come together, three years later, to form the Columbus Associated Breweries Company in 1904.

It had been reported, on November 9, that Dr. William Davis Tremper (1851 – 1928, of Ohio), a local dentist, Harry Esmond Taylor (1873 – 1932, of Ohio), Paul Esselborn, William H. Schwartz (1869 -?, of Circleville, Ohio) and Tracy B. Johnson (1860 - ?, of Ohio) had been named to the committee for arranging the annual memorial exercises of the Portsmouth Elk Lodge, Local 135.

~

Frank V. Knauss (1850 – 1930, formerly of Pennsylvania) and Paul Esselborn, representing a committee of the manufacturers of Portsmouth, met with the water works trustees of Portsmouth on January 31, 1902, reporting the results of their investigation of the water works systems of Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. The two gentlemen explained the system at use in Covington, where Covington had a pumping station built near the Ohio River which had a tunnel running from the station out into the Ohio River at a place where the water was deep and had a swift current. The gentlemen then advised the trustees to engage the services of one Mr. Gustave Boscarren, an expert engineer located in Cincinnati. They had said they had met with Mr. Boscarren, explaining to him the situation in Portsmouth, inviting him to come to that city and have a look at the situation, submitting their plans and estimates of a new water works to him. Mr. Boscarren, having looked over their plans, had said, ‘it would be simply impossible to ever establish a good intake at the present location of their pumping station in Portsmouth’.

Come March 18 the city of Portsmouth had expressed its willingness to do its share towards seeing Burgess Steel and Iron back in operation again, formerly located on the Scioto River at Fourth Street in the Boneyfiddle District. This willingness had been demonstrated at a meeting held at the city council chambers when the Board of Trade, of which Paul Esselborn had been a committee member, formally offered to give the men of BS&I, who were figuring on restarting the mill, $20,000 in cash (approx. $773,948.00) to assist them in getting the mill back into shape for operation.

This offer was somewhat less than the BS&I men had asked for; however, after consulting amongst themselves, they decided that they would accept the offer and go right ahead with their plans; and, in addition to the money, the Board of Trade also offered the BS&I men an option on some fourteen acres of land adjoining the BS&I property.

‘The Horsemen’, who were formulating plans to form a fair association, had held a meeting at the Washington Hotel (built in 1901), the corner of Second and Market Street, on the evening of March 24. They had organized a stock company, raising $5,000.00 (approx. $193,486.00), with Paul Esselborn being one of its many contributors. The money was to be for a half-mile race course out near Yorktown; and there was also to be stables and a grandstand. The company was to be incorporated, at which time a permanent organization would become effective.

(What came of this, I’ve not been able to find out.)

On the morning of April 5 Paul Esselborn filed several expense accounts with the Scioto County Clerk’s office, having spent $63.75 (approx. $2,467.00) to ‘down’ George Brandau (1844 – 1931, formerly of Germany) as a Water Works trustee. Most of this expense was for literature in which Mr. Esselborn intended to use to educate the public as to his qualifications for the office.

A week later, on April 12, Paul Esselborn had attended the beautiful wedding of his good friend and follow businessman Christopher Heer of the Heer Shoe Company of Portsmouth. Mr. Heer was marrying the much beloved daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. E. de Bruin of nearby Winchester, Ohio - Mamie de Bruin. Paul Esselborn had acted as an escort and as one of the best men. It was said to have been a grand affair.

Then, a couple of weeks later, on April 26, Paul’s older sister, Emilie Rosalie Esselborn (1872-1957), married Dr. William Henry Crane (1869 - 1906) of Cincinnati, a practicing physician. Dr. Crane was a member and professor of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine (est. in 1857). It, too, had been a marvelous affair.

In May, Bookkeeper Ernest ‘Ernie’ Schmidt resigned from Portsmouth Brewing & Ice Company, taking a position in Chicago, Ill. George A. Zeisler (1877-1959, formerly of Mason City, West Virginia) was named as his successor.

Mrs. Wells A. Hutchins entertained on July 9 at her beautiful new home on East Second Street in honor of her niece, Miss Franklin, of Pittsburgh, PA. Paul, Juliet and Laura Esselborn had attended the informal occasion.

A big golf tournament had been set for Labor Day, September 1. The contest was to be held according to match-play rules, with a cup going to the winner. In order to save time, the first round was to be played on August 30. Players who intended to enter the tournament had to notify Laura Esselborn before evening, August 29, by calling phone #1454. (This number was the Esselborn’s private line.)

Paul and Laura Esselborn were involved in a double-mix foursome of golf on the afternoon of September 12.

There had been considerable talk that autumn about Portsmouth not having a football team that season, though organizing a team began to look brighter when Fairfax H. Dickey (1882 – 1948, formerly of Kentucky) and Paul Esselborn stated they would make an effort to gather together some of the available men in the area for a meeting, at which time they would put forth an effort to form a team. Even with the loss of several key players there had been ample material and men for a team.

Come Thanksgiving, the Elk Club held its most important event of the year - the Grand Masquerade Ball. Paul Esselborn and Fred N. Tynes were the Masters of Ceremonies, with music being furnished by the popular Euclid Mandolin and Guitar Club. Starting at 8:30 that holiday evening the Grand March had been led by Paul Esselborn and Anna Varner, a very tall and stately pair, in whose wake followed over thirty couples of gaily attired masqueraders. Laura Esselborn wore a black and red costume, decorated with cords.

On December 10 Paul Esselborn had been a business visitor to Cincinnati; and again on December 13.

On the afternoon of December 20 Paul Esselborn served as the best-man at the wedding of Dr. James F. Edwards (1871 - ?, formerly of Pennsylvania), who had married Marjorie Franklin.

Juliet and Laura Esselborn had entertained on Christmas afternoon with an ante-nuptial favor for Georgia Crawford, whose wedding to Mr. Harry Merrick, of Washington, D. C., was to be among the highlights of the Christmas holiday season.

~

The Elks’ circus committee, consisting of Edgar G. Miller (1877 -?), Frank W. Moulton (1877 – 1947, of Lucasville, Ohio), Paul Esselborn and Harry Taylor, held a meeting on the evening of April 1, 1903. They went over the preliminary work for a circus to be held in June. They had signed a contract, as well as decided to give away, on the last day of the circus, two prizes: one for the adults and one for the children. For the adults, they could win a horse and buggy and the child would receive a handsome new bicycle. All the adults had to do was purchase a ticket of $.20 cents (approx. $7.50), while the children had to purchase a ticket of $.10 cents. The aggregate value of the prizes was over $200.00 (approx. $7,497.00).

During the third week of June the Elk’s held their circus with Paul Esselborn serving as the Grand Master.