Lager, Lymph, Germans and Templars in Manchester---Part 6 of 6
by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer
By 1905, the national “wet vs. dry” debate was fully underway. A “local option” campaign was advocated by the Anti-Saloon League to allow individual cities or counties to express their choice. In the spring of 1909, both Jackson and Lenawee counties voted to go dry, as did several other Lower Peninsula counties, effective May 1, 1910. Consequently, Manchester’s saloon business boomed, but not without consequences. Instances of public intoxication, “scraps”, and accosting of young ladies on the streets became common occurrences, and resulted in an editorial in the Enterprise by Mat Blosser that called for police officers to be more aware and protect the public. The problem only intensified when William H. Lehr moved his saloon to what some people considered too close to the churches. A letter of opposition was published in the Enterprise, signed WCTU, but since there was no law prohibiting the move and the Village Council ignored the situation, nothing was done. Mr. Blosser believed the Council may have been more willing to take action if some of the women responsible had signed the complaint.
The growing boom in the saloon business in Manchester was not a time to be proud of according to Mat Blosser. On December 22, 1910 he wrote a year-end plea: “In looking back over the past year we find that little if any gain has been made by our village in population or in a business way. We will not now discuss the point as to whether the fact of ours being the only “wet” town between Ottawa Lake and Grand Rapids on one [rail]road, and between Bridgewater and Indiana on the other road, has been to our advantage in a business way. But what we wish to talk about is, what are we producing that our neighbors want and will come here to buy, outside of farm products. We have good water powers here and there is water enough wasted every year to turn machinery to keep hundreds of people at work. The ENTERPRISE knows that hundreds of dollars of Manchester money is invested in manufactures in other localities. If it pays to own stock in outside factories, why would it not do so if invested here? Let us get together as business men and property owners, blot the image of the [failed] cement plant and canning factory from our memory, and try and do something to benefit the town and ourselves.”
Charles Adrion Sells Out
Charles Adrion was an active member of the state brewers’ association and regularly attended its meetings in Detroit. The 1907 meeting focused on the rapidly growing Anti-Saloon League and its activities. Prior to the meeting, Adrion had experienced some difficulties on May 23, 1907, when he entered a tub at the brewery for the purpose of varnishing it and the inflammable material took fire, burning his hands, face, and hair. Between his physical injuries and the growing hostility towards brewers, it is speculated that he may have seen this as a time to exit the business and preserve his capital, before the prohibition forces achieved their goal and destroyed his livelihood. On July 1, 1907 he sold the business to George Einkorn, the former brewmaster of Union Brewing in Sarnia, Ontario, and Jacob Hauser, who returned from a laborer’s job in Ann Arbor. The business was renamed the Manchester Brewing Company.
On February 20, 1908, Blosser reported: “Einkorn & Hauser of the brewery have purchased an ice making plant and are busy at work preparing to install it. Their great ice houses and cellars have to be torn out or overhauled, and a large amount of labor performed before the plant is in operation, the cost of which, we understand, will be upwards of $6,000.” Blosser was still promoting Manchester business, even though Manchester’s sole brewery was coming under increased pressure from local prohibitionists.
There are few references to George Einkorn’s operation of the brewery in the 1910s. At some point, Jacob Hauser left the partnership. The saloons continued to operate, but faced increasing pressure from the groups who desired to force “local option” elections. The Wuerthner Brothers clothing store produced a tongue-in-cheek ad in 1914, highlighting the debate between “wet” and “dry” in an upcoming election (Figure 15). The 1914 election did not produce a dry Manchester, as on September 30, 1915, Blosser reported: “There has been some bad feeling over the circulation of local option petitions, as might be expected. One man who signed the petition, it is told, went into a saloon with another man, and called for two glasses of beer. The bar tender served beer to the other man, but sat a glass of water in front of the petition signer with the remark “that’s good enough for you”.
Figure 15 – 1914 Wuerthner Brothers Advertisement
Prohibition Comes at Last
The local issue was overridden by a successful statewide prohibition election in November 1916, when voters ratified a constitutional amendment banning the manufacture, sale, giving away, bartering, or furnishing of any vinous, malt, brewed, fermented, spirituous, or intoxicating liquors, except for medicinal, mechanical, chemical, scientific or sacramental purposes effective April 30, 1918. This act was further enforced by passage of the Damon Act in 1917. Michigan’s law was then superseded by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution (Volstead Act), which became law in 1920. George Einkorn had to shut down the brewery by April 1918, and apparently vandals entered the property some point afterwards and stole all the copper piping. Einkorn took employment as a repairman in a Jackson spring factory, although his family continued to live in Manchester.
On November 9, 1916, Mat Blosser wrote: “We have heard many express sympathy for our townsman, George Einkorn, proprietor of the brewery. He has considerable money invested in the property and will have hard work disposing of it without a heavy loss. In cities brewery properties are converted into other factories and something realized, but there is slight chance of doing so in a country town.” The true measure of despair was provided in a November 14, 1973 letter to Edna Knauss of Manchester from Pauline Einkorn Stone, daughter of George Einkorn, who reminisced: “I was only 3-4 years old when we moved there (Manchester) from Sarnia Ontario about 1906 or 1907. I believe Mr. Adrion and Hauser owned the brewery then and my father first went in partnership with Mr. Hauser. Later he bought his part of the business and then it was a period of struggling to keep above water. All I can remember is how hard my mother and father worked, and just when he was seeing his way clear, the idiots voted it dry in 1918. Naturally everything was lost and finally all the copper in the brewery was stolen so you can see it holds no fond memories for me.”
Various attempts were made locally to develop alcoholic substitutes, according to the March 15, 1917 Enterprise: “Brewers or somebody has produced a near-beer that it is said passed for the real stuff. Retailers are securing samples to try it out before prohibition shuts off the hops and barley brew.” But in the end, all Manchester saloons closed by 1920 except Sloat’s, which became “Sloat’s Soft Drinks – Café”.
The Brewery’s End
The brewery building reached its end on June 24, 1920, with the Enterprise headline “Old Brewery on Fire”. The article read: “An alarm of fire from Geo. Einkorn’s brewery property sent the fire department to the scene about 8:30 Thursday evening. To be sure the village bell was rung but in many cases people did not recognize it as an alarm, consequently were slow in responding. However a good crowd followed the department and hundreds of others came later.
“The blaze, which appeared to start from the vat room, was a stubborn one and though the two lines of hose were soon working and the chemical was in operation, but little headway was made and for a half hour after the fire fighters began operation it looked as though the flames were gaining headway. The work was difficult because of the immense amount of dense smoke and the many partitions and floors but little known. Several times nozzlemen were nearly overcome with smoke on the ground floor and had to be relieved. After two hours of persistent work the fire was practically squelshed [sic], with practically no damage to the exterior of the building, but the ageing tanks and north end of the building badly charred.
“The origin of the fire is unknown. The Schleweis brothers had been there during the day doing some work preparatory to storing pop corn there in the fall, but when they left everything seemed in order and no one had been in the building since.
“The building, which still contains the brewery equipment, is partly of brick and partly of frame construction with most of the frame work on the east side, nearest the residence. Had the workers not been able to conquer the flames there are very grave doubts if the residence could have been saved, as a good breeze was blowing in that direction. It was a stubborn fire and the fighters did a good job. Several of the men of the department were left to watch the building until 6. a.m. and twice the flames broke out afresh but were soon extinguished.”
Figure 16 – Michigan Southern Brewery Bottle
(courtesy of Don Limpert)
The brewery never functioned again as such, nor, to the authors’ knowledge, as any other business. The foundation ruins are still visible behind the current home at 606 S. Macomb Street.
The authors thank Manchester resident Don Limpert for access to his files and the photograph of the Michigan Southern Brewery bottle. Don also reminisced about trips to Manchester told to him by his father who was a student at the University of Michigan Dental School from 1910-12. The elder Limpert would take the train from Ann Arbor to Manchester to visit relatives. While here, he would stop at Wurster Brothers, buy a suitcase and fill it with beer, all for $1.00, before returning to Ann Arbor, which was a dry town. Although this statement has not been verified, it appears to be a reasonable one, given the fact that the Wurster Brothers had acted as the brewery’s general agents since 1887.
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