Kewaunee County & 168 Years of Pabst

Pabst Blue Ribbon beer meant sales at DeGuelle’s Liquor Store on 1st and Steele in Algoma and at local watering holes a generation and more ago. Pabst competed with Blatz, Miller’s, Schlitz, and others. Just about everybody has heard of Pabst Bue Ribbon, "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous," but not everybody knows about the Pabst connection with Algoma, or Wolf River/Ahnepee* as it was. It’s a connection dating to 1856.

The Goodrich Line was organized in 1855 and headquartered in Manitowoc. A few years later, the fledgling Kewaunee Enterprize* told its readers that while other lines had side wheelers, Capt. Goodrich felt propellers were more adaptable in ice thus the future. His rickety old propeller Ogontz served lake shore communities before being sold and recalked in 1861, the year before his 158’ side-wheeled steamer Comet was put into lake shore service. Goodrich boats served Algoma into the 1920s.

But it was Goodrich's three-masted barkentine Cleveland that made its first appearance in Wolf River in 1856, thus forming the Pabst connection nearly 168 years ago. Its master was Prussian born, 20-year-old Capt. Frederick Pabst, and it was Pabst who took over as captain of the Comet in 1861. Fred was courting brewer Phillip Best's daughter, Maria, whom he met in 1860 and married two years later. Pabst was popular, and it was said he was "every inch a sailor" who always picked a German crew. The Enterprize told readers that the Comet was one of the best boats on the lake. Pabst began in the ranks as a cabin boy at 8 or 9 years old to beome the youngest lake captain of that time. Kewaunee County residents felt the courtship kept the young captain on schedule as he was alwasy eager to get to Milwaukee.

Capt. Pabst brought new settlers and freight to Kewaunee County, but he also brought the news. In a day before telegraphs on the Peninsula, news came via the boats. Following the firing on Fort Sumter, it was the Comet that brought the news to Kewaunee County. When ice prevented Capt. Pabst from getting around Two Rivers Point, he was forced to return to Two Rivers, however Kewaunee merchant Assemblyman W.S. Finley got off the boat to walk the six miles through the woods to Kewaunee, arriving about 10 PM.

Pabst and the Comet's officers were associated with Wolf River/Ahnepee events, as well as many others along the shore. The summer of 1861 found anxious citizens waiting for the Comet and the newsboys who came with it bringing Milwaukee newspapers informing readers about the war, Baltimore street fighting, the capture of Fort Pickens, and more.

When Kewaunee County had a “draft riot,” it was Capt. Pabst who sailed into town with Co. A. aboard. “Draft riot” sounds far worse than it was, but it did make a point. Drafting was not ethical. Those with money could purchase a disability or an exemption. There were language barriers and for some time, draft lists were not posted. It was predominantly Belgians who were being shafted, although today’s young would use a far stronger word! On Draft Day, Belgians armed with tree branches and pitchforks marched on Kewaunee to Draft Commissioner Finley’s store.

Finley heard the commotion, grabbed his draft box, and skedaddled to the harbor where a Goodrich steamer in port ready to cast off. Maybe he thought he’d be tarred and feathered to be ridden out of town on a rail like Lawyer Neff, but that’s another story. While Finley made the boat and fled to Milwaukee, he left his wife to deal with the angry men. Knowing the “rioters” had to be hungry and thirsty, Mrs. Finley opened barrels and boxes of food. Making their point, the Belgians went home without incident. Meanwhile, Capt. Pabst brought Finley back with Capt. Cunningham (another Kewaunee merchant) with Company A which marched around Kewaunee on the next draft day. Conscripting continued. Besides marching, Company A made a few raids into the countryside searching for delinquent conscripts and the so-called riot ended in Thanksgiving dinner and a future draft where names were pulled from a “hat” by an Appleton man who was certifiably blind.

When Capt. Pabst landed freight and passengers in early December 1861, the pier was covered with snow and ice. Icicles hanging from the steamer’s lines reminded folks winter was not to be trifled with. As Pabst and the Comet left, the Enterprize said they parted with regret and all looked forward to Spring. A week later Milwaukee News told readership that Capt. Pabst had taken command of the Milwaukee-Two Rivers route and planned to carry freight all winter. The News further reported that the Comet was neat, elegant, comfortable and the swiftest sailor on the lake. With Pabst in charge, winter should be one of profit and safety.

According to news, Pabst was in Milwaukee fitting out and renovating the Comet at the end of February 1862 in anticipation of an early spring. Manitowoc Herald wished fair winds and a prosperous season to the Comet which would make weekly trips to Kewwaunee and Ahnepee* The area was looking forward to Pabst and the Comet when the Enterprize reported it got a few coats of new paint for the opening of navigation “with the same genial officers who will always receive a warm welcome.” April 30 was certainly a red-letter day when the Comet came in with passengers and freight. Making daily trips from Milwaukee to Two Rivers, Pabst planned to make Kewaunee County ports on Saturday, known as “Steamboat Day” in Ahnepee, or Sunday.

Capt. Pabst contributed to area’s social life as he did its business. On July 30, 1862, the Enterprize described a pleasant day when a large party of leading citizens from Manitowoc and Two Rivers who came aboard the Comet accompanied by the Manitowoc Brass and Quadrille Band which offered entertainment for the trip. After a short stay at Kewaunee, the boat moved on to Ahnepee so folks were able take hurried looks at both communities. The many who  had never ventured north of Manitowoc County were favorably impressed with the prosperity of farming and business interests in the Kewaunee County wilderness. When the 27^th Regiment was under marching orders and were to leave Wisconsin via the Mississippi River in March 1863, it was Pabst who brought the news.

All good things come to an end and some sources indicate Capt. Pabst’s sailing days ended in December 1863 when he was beached north of Milwaukee during a lake storm. As a family man, the decision was a good one as Fred and Maria had 10 children in a dozen years. Five children survived. Although Fred Pabst was a sailor without brewing experience. he joined his brewer father-in-law who was in ill health. Two of three years later, Fred and his brother-in-law bought out the Best Brewery.

It was in 1844, two years before Milwaukee’s incorporation as a city, that one Phillip Best located in Milwaukee and established the Empire Brewery, also called Jacob Best & Sons Brewery as Phillip’s father Jacob, Sr., and brothers Jacob, Jr., Charles, and Lorenz were part of the company. Charles and Lorenz stepped back and their father retired in 1853. Phillip headed the company and was joined by his sons-in-law, Fred Pabst and Emil Schandein, husband of daughter Lisette. When Phillip retired in 1866 just after the close of the Civil War, Pabst took over.

By 1874 the company was the nation's leading beer producer, which it maintained until about 1900. Part of its growth was greatly affected by the Chicago Fire which was part of the same weather system causing a far greater catastrophe in Wisconsin, the Great Fire of 1871/the Peshtigo Fire. That fire presented new markets as Chicago breweries did not recover, so by 1874, Phillip Best's was the country's largest brewer. When Fred Pabst married Beer Baron Best's daughter, it started the beer dynasty. Ironically, in the years to come, Fred Pabst, Jr. married a Uihlein, and Uihlein was Schlitz beer.

Capt. Pabst was remembered in Ahnapee again early in 1890 when resident William Bie was named First Mate of a new steamship built at Wolf & Davidson's yard in Milwaukee. The new steamer was christened the Fred Pabst and was the largest and finest vessel afloat on the lakes. She was in commission and ready to go for the opening of navigation. The communities that had so much regard for Pabst felt Maria was much like her husband.

Peter Erichsen’s daughter, Anna, was employed by the Pabst family in Milwaukee when she traveled home for the holidays in 1894. When package came from the Express Office, Anna Erichsen found a package of rich and expensive dress goods’ articles. Inside the parcel was a beautiful ladies’ purse containing $25. According to an early February Record, the gift from Mrs. Pabst amounted to a value of about $100. It was Maria Pabst’s way of remembering her domestic who had endeared herself to the family “through the manifestation of zeal and kindness.” $100.00 in 1860 has the same buying power of a little over $3800.00 today.

Not all ran smoothly. Christmas Eve day 1891 changed things for Pabst beer and for other Milwaukee brewers. The International Brewers’ Union lifted a boycott of Milwaukee beer after a year. When Milwaukee brewers accepted an agreement to employ none but union workmen, they again went forward. Under Pabst’s leadership, the company won gold medals at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair. Years later when the company began tying blue ribbons around the neck of its bottles to distinguish it from other beers, customers began asking for the blue-ribbon beer. After winning another blue ribbon at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, the name Pabst Blue Ribbon was born.

Milwaukee County history chronicles Frederick Pabst’s work beyond his captaincy and the brewery. The man who hired German crews when he could also sought to improve life for the city’s immigrants. Providing German books to the German immigrants via a traveling library, somewhat as bookmobiles would 60 or 70 years later, made an impact on his countrymen.

Prohibition did not stop the company which became among the largest breweries in the world. But by then, as in many stories, there was a twist. Fred and Maria’s son, Fred, jr. married Ida Charlotte Uihlein, daughter of August Uihlein. Why is that important? August Uihlein was the chair of Schlitz Brewing Co. which overtook Pabst to become the country’s largest brewer by 1902.

It was in 1923 when the Record Herald harkened back to the old days in an article informing citizens that it was the same Capt. Fred Pabst who adapted to the 18^th Amendment (Prohibition) with a new enterprise in farming. Though the name was the same, the entrepreneur was Fred Pabst, Jr. Fred, Sr. had died in 1904. Fred, Jr. affected farming technology and cheese manufacturing in Kewaunee County just as his father Capt. Fred affected transportation, the Civil War, and beer sixty years earlier.

Going from beer to dairy, Fred Pabst, Jr. contributed to building the dairy industry with impressive innovations. While there were those who felt farming was just a diversion of him, and one that would put others in the poor house, Pabst was pioneering in agriculture and making money.

Because of Pabst the younger, strides were made by demonstrating the value of cow testing, tuberculosis testing, and farm accounting. Pabst had not seen adequate financial returns from his herds when milk was shipped to Milwaukee or Chicago. With that, he built a cheese factory, used his own milk, and employed expert cheese makers and chemists to experiment with technology. Results were shared with the free world.

Pabst was almost an instant diary success and used the Milwaukee Pabst plant as his cheese factory. Within a year’s time, he purchased all the cheese he could buy in both Wisconsin and Minnesota, and then he bought another six million pounds for the largest amount of cheese purchased to that time, December 1923.

Fred Pabst, Jr. created a market for his cheese for which there was no market before. His beer made Milwaukee famous and his agricultural endeavors, said the Stanley Republican, “put the dairy industry  under great obligations to him.”

As early as December 28, 1916, the Congress of American Stockmen announced that Fred Pabst of Waukesha County was continuing as a director of the International Livestock Exposition. In May 1942, he was one of those named to represent Wisconsin breeders at the Holstein-Friesian Association at Minneapolis.

In November 1965, UW College of Agriculture’s Fred Pabst scholarship was awarded to Wayne Seifert of Luxemburg. Seifert was majoring in dairy science when the Record Herald carried the article.

As today’s residents toss back a cold one, there just could be a “relationship” that dates to the 1850s or ‘60s when Capt. Fred Pabst transported their ancestors to Kewaunee County. Area stores and bars sell Pabst Blue Ribbon ensuring that Capt. Fred’s legacy remains in social life and business pursuits across the county.

Notes: *Kewaunee Enterprize was renamed Enterprise in 1865. Ahnepee was the forerunner of Ahnapee which respelled its name in 1873 when it was chartered as a village. The place’s name was incorrectly spelled by the State and others and changed in an “if ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” spirit.

7/19/1895 Algoma Record Herald announced that Pabst was opening a beer depot in the city (then Ahnapee) in the leased basement of  Henry Grimm's Ahnapee House. Herman Bruemmer was in charge.

 Sources: Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record Herald, An-An-Api-Sebe: Where is the River, Kewaunee Enterprize/Enterprise. The 1908 postcard is from the blogger's collection. 

https://www.in2013dollars.com>Inflation; https://www.pabstmansion.com/history/pabst-family/; https:www.wisconsinhistory.org