I included the information that concerned our ancestors, plus a few paragraphs of interest, but if you are interested in the whole history of Breweries in Dayton I encourage you to go read more.
Chapter One - Dayton's Pre-Prohibition Breweries - Part One
Canal Brewery
In 1851 Coelestin and Anton Schwind opened the Canal Brewery at 14 Logan Street, between Smith and Green streets. Anton left the partnership in 1859. In 1874 George Hecker bought the brewery, Coelestin wanting to give more attention to his other brewery, the Dayton View Brewery. The Canal Brewery produced 124 barrels of beer in 1878, and slipped down to 115 barrels the following year. Mr. Hecker closed the brewery in 1884 and went to work as a maltster for William Silzel & Son, a malt house, which was located at 650 South Main Street.
BIOGRAPHY – COELESTIN SCHWIND
Coelestin, the son of Ignatz and Elizabeth Schwind, was born in Sladtprozelten, Bavaria, Germany on May 19, 1825. He came to the United States in 1850 and settled in Dayton, Ohio. In 1851 he started the Canal Brewery on Logan Street. In 1865 he founded a plant on 212 River Street which later became known as Dayton View Brewery. In between times Coelestin found time to marry Christine Latin on August 28, 1856. They had eleven children. Coelestin died on April 24, 1893.
The Dayton Breweries Company
The Dayton Breweries represented the amalgamation of several breweries in the city of Dayton. The company was organized on March 1, 1904 with a capital stock of two million five hundred thousand dollars. The officers were: President, Adam Schantz Jr.; Secretary and Treasurer, Louis Wehner.
The breweries included in this merger were:
The Adam Schantz Brewery on 114-128 River Street
The Schwind Brewery on 212 River Street
The Schantz & Schwind Brewery on 807 South Perry Street
The Wehner Brewery on Concord and Scoville Streets
The Dayton Brewery on 70 Wyandotte
The Stickle Brewery (City Brewery) on 653-655 Warren Street
The N. Thomas Brewery on First and Beckel (merged with the firm in 1906).
This merger was due largely on the part of Adam Schantz, Jr. The companies affected continued to manufacture products under their own name and label. When told that he had been elected president of the organization Mr. Schantz told Dayton Daily News the following:
"The chief motive of the consolidation of Dayton breweries is to elevate and regulate the saloon business in the city so that it shall be better for the public, the saloonist, and the brewer. It is our intention to keep saloons out of sections of the city where they are not desired. The residents in such communities will appreciate this and it will be better for the saloonist. Time and experience have proved that in the long run saloons in divisions of the city where they are not wanted are not profitable.
"All the companies will be run as they have been operated before the combine. The increase of the business in the past several years will justify the operation of all the plants.
"The main offices of the combine will be in the Arcade, where several rooms are being fitted up. In each brewery there will be an office manager, but all the different bookkeepers in the brewery offices will be placed in a general office in the Arcade. The respective office managers of the brewery plants will be under the directions of the directing head of the combine.
"The regulation of the business of the combine. and all business matters connected with the combine will be managed by an executive board of five members, which shall be composed of Frank Wurfel, Louis Wehner, George Schantz, George P. Sohngen and myself.
"There will be no change in the output. The product of each brewery will be known under the old firm name and will bear the same label as before the consolidation. The idea is to keep each plant as independent as possible under general interests. We believe that perfect harmony will exist between our company and N. Thomas Brewery. Under the operation of the new company we expect to so carefully regulate the saloon business and elevate it that complaints heard in the past shall no longer be heard. More general plans may be discussed and adopted after our board shall have held a business meeting."
In 1904 the fear of prohibition coming to Dayton was strong in the brewing industry. Several other towns throughout the United States had voted to prohibit the sale of liquor within their dry limits. The Temperance movement was literally on the march. Some people thought that their neighborhoods were no longer safe because of the ruffians that frequented the local saloons and that prohibition would solve the problem.
The local brewers came up with another solution. They combined forces and formed The Dayton Breweries Company. If a saloon had a bad reputation, they simply shut off its supply of beer. The saloon would soon go under, and the neighborhood would have the breweries themselves to thank. The brewers hoped to show Dayton that there was no need to regulate the brewery business since they could supervise themselves. Most people were happy with this solution for a while, but prohibition couldn't be held off forever.
The Dayton Breweries Company began to sell off its property with the passing of the Prohibition Act in 1919, and was out of the brewery business as of January 16, 1920.
BIOGRAPHY – ADAM SCHANTZ, JR.
Adam Schantz, Jr. was born December 16, 1867, on River Street, Dayton, Ohio. He was the son of Adam Schantz, Sr. and Salome (Latin) Schantz. He attended the Sixth District School, later known as Emerson School, until he was twelve years old. Adam then joined his father in the meat market for the next few years. He later became a bookkeeper at the Riverside brewery run by his father and his uncle George. When Adam Schantz, Jr. became twenty-one he was given power of attorney by his father to conduct all of the business affairs as he saw fit. From that point on he ran almost all of his father's interests.
Adam Jr. married Mary Eva Olt on January 1, 1901. Mary was the daughter of John Olt, a well known citizen who had extensive interests in the Olt Brothers Brewing Company. Adam and Mary had four children.
When Adam Schantz, Sr. died in 1903 Adam, Jr. was named executive. On March 1, 1904 Mr. Schantz effected a merger of five Dayton breweries, with the Nicholas Thomas brewery joining a couple of years later. This brewing industry became one of the extensive industrial interests in the city.
On March 25, 1913 Dayton was hit by the greatest flood ever seen in the Miami Valley. Adam joined the relief committee. Along with business man John H. Patterson, Adam made an appeal to the citizens of Dayton to raise two million dollars, insisting that only if the people of Dayton opened their heartstrings and purse strings would Dayton come back as a greater and better city. He immediately showed his faith in the city by pledging sixty thousand dollars from his father's estate and another sixty thousand from himself. The speech galvanized the city into action and the two million was raised.
When engineers were making a survey of the Miami River channel through Dayton in the early 1920's, it was determined that it was necessary to make a deep cut into the river bank along River Street to make the channel meet new requirements. The Schwind Brewery and the Riverside Brewery, as well as the small brick house where Adam had been born, were on the grounds that needed to be cleared, and these landmarks were razed.
On October 15, 1907 Adam was elected president of the Ohio Brewers' Association, and for thirteen years held that position, helping with the fight to stop prohibition, a struggle that ended with the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment, resulting in a nation-wide prohibition.
In December 1920 the Dayton Breweries Company started liquidation of its properties. Weary of the struggle Adam, accompanied by his wife, left for Daytona, Florida in search of relaxation and a return to health. On their way there, they stopped off at St. Augustine, Florida for a short time. One early afternoon after lunch, on January 10, 1921 Adam said that he was going out on the porch of the hotel to relax. When he reached a chair he was seen to collapse. By the time help arrived he had passed away.
Adam Schantz was president of the Citizens Lighting Company (this merged and became the Dayton Power and Light Company, of which he became vice-president), president of the Buckeye Building & Loan Association, president of the Dayton Street Railway Company, president of the Gem City Realty Company, president of the Mead Engine Company and many other organizations too numerous to mention here.
Dayton View Brewery
Schwind Brewing Company
Schwind Brewery Company
Coelestin Schwind started the brewery in 1868 on 212 River Street, west of Salem Avenue. The main building, or brewery proper, was 80’ x 70’, two stories high, with a cellar. There were also two ice houses, one 60’ x 60’ and the other 50’ x 56’, capable of storing 5,000 tons of ice (a three years supply at the time) and a double malt kiln which was 18’ x 24’. All of the buildings were made of brick. On the second story, just above the malting cellars, were the hops and barley rooms. The kiln furnace was back and down upon the cellar floor, the kiln itself was over the furnace and ran up through two floors. In the adjoining room was a sixty-two barrel copper kettle, with a mash room and engine room located below. To the rear of the second floor were the coolers. The ice houses were to the west, with beer cellars and fermenting rooms located underneath. The stables and yard were in the back, which extended to the river bank. The water supply for the beer was drawn from wells sunk under the brewery and down below the bed of the Miami River. A puddling house was added in 1888, which was one story high and 22’ x 44’ in size.
The brewery had one rule: "A place for everything and everything in its place." A years' supply of everything was kept on hand.
By 1882 Dayton View was doing $80,000 a year in business. In 1868 the brewery made 1,400 barrels of beer, and employed four hands, and by 1889 they had increased production to 15,000 barrels and had seventeen employees whose total wages came to eighteen hundred dollars a month.
Coelestin Schwind died April 24, 1893. Christine, his widow, took over, changing the name of the brewery to Schwind Brewing Company. In 1900 Michael J. Schwind became president and treasurer, and changed the name to The Schwind Brewery Company.
The brewery became part of The Dayton Breweries in 1904. (See Dayton Breweries Company).
BIOGRAPHY – MICHAEL JOSEPH SCHWIND
Michael Joseph Schwind was born in Dayton, Ohio. He was educated at St. Mary's and also in Windsor, Canada. He was the president of C. Schwind Realty Company and president of the C. Schwind Brewing Company until it became part of the Dayton Breweries, of which he was one of the directors. On February 12, 1896 Michael was married to Louise Eva Schamel. He passed away on December 8, 1909.
Chapter One - Dayton's Pre-Prohibition Breweries - Part Two
Gem City Brewery
George Schantz and Louis Schwind established the Gem City Brewery on May 2, 1888. The new three story brick building was located at 807 South Perry Street on the comer of Bayard Street. The brewery was 4O’ x 175’ in dimension, with outbuildings attached. The company had the capacity of brewing 30,000 barrels of beer a year.
Hubert K. Schwind took over as Vice President of the company after his father's death in 1895.
The company was incorporated into The Dayton Breweries Company in 1904. (See The Dayton Breweries Company).
BIOGRAPHY – GEORGE SCHANTZ
George Schantz was born at Kinzig, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany on April 8, 1851. George's father, Ferdinand, was staunchly opposed to war and to the requirement that young men serve in the army. Because of these views he sent his sons to America. George left with his brothers and came to Dayton, Ohio. He was interested in brewing and opened the Riverside Brewery with his brother, Adam, in 1882. After selling his interests to Adam, George entered a partnership with Louis Schwind and opened the Schantz and Schwind Brewing Company. After eight years the firm merged with The Dayton Breweries Company and George became vice-president, an office he held until his death on December 11, 1917.
Among the many other interests in his life, George also was the director of Dayton Iron and Steel company, director of First Savings and Banking and the Dayton Street Railway company. He was married on September 22, 1886 to Emma Knecht. They had three children. After Emma's death on April 27, 1890, he married Tilla Rehfus.
BIOGRAPHY – LOUIS A. SCHWIND
Louis A. Schwind was born in Dayton, Ohio on September 13, 1854. He was the son of Anton Schwind.
After his fathers' death, Louis stayed with his uncle Coelestin Schwind. In 1888, Louis went into partnership with George Schantz and started the Gem City Brewery. They later changed the name to the Schantz and Schwind Brewing Company.
Only two days before he died he said he had pains in the lower part of his body. Louis had made plans with his son Hubert to go to the Thousand Islands, but didn't feel well, so he didn't want to travel. He told his son to go on without him, and sent his second cousin Adolph Schwind and family on the trip to take care of him.
The pain grew more intense over the next few days. On August 16, 1895 Louis Schwind died. Telegrams were sent from town to town in an effort to find his son, Hubert, but they couldn't find him. Hubert came back and found out his father had died while he was gone.
Main Street Brewery
In 1856 Joseph Schwind started the Main Street Brewery on 199 Main Street, (later renumbered 411 South Main Street), between Franklin and Washington streets. After his death on December 7, 1867 his wife, Agnes, ran the brewery until its closing in 1883. The brewery generated 820 barrels of beer in 1878 and 632 barrels in 1879.
Chapter One - Dayton's Pre-Prohibition Breweries - Part Three
Riverside Brewery
Two brothers, George and Adam Schantz established the Riverside Brewery in 1882. It was located at 114-128 River Street between Salem and Central. The first year the brewery sold 7,000 barrels of lager beer. On June 23, 1887 Adam bought out his brother's interest in the plant. Within two years the plant had grown to seven buildings, including a boiler and engine house and was selling 18,000 barrels a year.
After Adam Schantz's death his son, Adam Jr., ran the plant. The brewery became part of The Dayton Breweries Company in 1904. (See The Dayton Breweries).
When a survey of the Miami River channel was made after the flood in 1913, it was decided that a deep cut into the riverbank along River Street was needed to widen the channel. The Riverside Brewery, as well as a small house where Adam Schantz, Jr. was born, was situated on the ground which needed to be cleared and removed to improve the river channel. This meant the razing of both structures. A large piece of land was left between the river and the street. The heirs of Adam Schantz, Sr. donated this to the city of Dayton in December, 1918. A fountain with a lily was built in memory of Mary Schantz, their mother, and an oak tree was planted nearby in memory of Adam Schantz, Sr., their father. Although the lilies are gone and the fountain runs no longer, the benches that are part of the fountain still overlook the beautiful Miami River, and couples who sit there are shaded by the old oak tree whose branches reach over as if to shelter the monument to his wife from the storms.
BIOGRAPHY – ADAM SCHANTZ, SR.
Adam Schantz Sr. was born in Mittel-Kinzig, Hessen Darmstadt, Germany on September 7, 1839. He was the son of Frederick & Marie Elizabeth (Scheller) Schantz. There were five brothers, all of whom left Germany on April 11, 1854 to escape militarism. Adam was the youngest. They landed in New York in May, 1854. He worked for his uncle, Michael Schantz, who operated a flour mill in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He remained there for about a year, then came to Dayton to learn the trade of butcher from Michael Olt.
In 1857 Adam moved to Chicago and worked for a large beef and pork packing house, which later became Swift & Co. From there he moved to St. Louis and became a butcher. In the fall of 1858 he returned to Dayton, only to make his way to New Orleans a year later. When he reached New Orleans he was hungry, and almost broke. Spying a saloon he entered and purchased a glass of beer, and was satisfying his hunger by eating a free lunch that had been set out, when the owner saw him and said "This is no boarding house: let up." Adam explained his position and said, "Some day I will repay you many times for that which I have already had." True to his word, when Adam again visited New Orleans he paid his respects and his debt many times over.
While in New Orleans he accepted a position from a firm furnishing meat for outgoing ocean steamers. While at this job he met a captain of a boat going to England who gave him permission to work his passage over. On the way Adam fell overboard and had to be saved by the use of a grappling hook. Landing in London his sole possession was a piece of pumpernickel bread. He crossed London and visited his home in Germany. He worked as a meat cutter in Frankfort, Hamburg, then London, where he remained for a year.
In 1862 he found himself again in Dayton. He opened a small meat shop on East Fifth Street, near Brown Street. He later he purchased what was known as the "Six-Mile House," on Covington Pike, keeping a bachelor's hall and conducting his butcher business. On March 29, 1863 he married Salome Latin. They had nine children.
After several successful years, his slaughter house was burned down to the ground, destroying his inventory of lard, tallow, hides and pelts, on which there was no insurance. After he rebuilt his beef and pork packing plant, he traded the property with Joseph Stoecklein for property on River Street. Here he began business on a much larger scale. Yet five years later disaster was to strike again. In 1876 lightning struck the plant, burning it to the ground. The blow was severe, Adam finding out that his insurance had expired at noon. A misunderstanding with the insurance company had been the cause of the lapse. On the following day he gathered together carpenters, stone-masons and brick masons and told them of his financial condition. They all agreed to rebuild the plant even larger than ever, and wait for him to pay at his convenience. With the help of these men Adam went on to establish a business conceded to be the largest in Dayton at the time. He had a stall in the market house, a meat shop at 408 West Third Street and another on River Street.
In 1882 Adam, together with his brother George, formed a partnership and entered into the lager beer industry, calling the brewery Riverside. This partnership lasted until June 23, 1887, when Adam bought out his brother's interest. He immediately enlarged the plant, which was part of the slaughter-house erected in 1876.
During the month of September. 1902, while at his winter home in Daytona, Florida, he was stricken with pneumonia from which he never recovered. In October he was taken to a hospital in St. Augustine, where an operation was performed. It was thought that he would recover, but on April 20, 1903 at 3:45 p.m., he passed away at his home.
Adams’ estate was estimated to be worth a million and a half dollars. He had the dubious distinction of being the largest individual tax-payer in both Montgomery County, Ohio and Volusia County, Florida.
Chapter Two: Breweries Lose the Battle of Prohibition - Part Two
How Beer Was Made
On June 21, 1908 the Dayton Journal ran an article on how beer was made. This was done to assure the public that beer contained no poisons nor come into contact with human hands, so that there was no chance of contamination.
The Brewing of Beer
No city of the same size in the United States can boast of larger breweries than the Gem City and no city, regardless of its size or facilities, can rival the brew of the local plants. Nine breweries, all equipped with the most modem machinery for the manufacture of the highest grade beer and ale, are located in the city and add materially to the standing of Dayton in the industrial world. More than 200,000 barrels are made annually and to the workmen employed in the different departments $300,000 is paid each year in wages.
The breweries are home factories and the beers and ales sold almost entirely to the people of Dayton and the surrounding towns. Although a large profit is made in a year by the brewers, the people are benefited to a considerable extent by having the breweries located in the city. They not only get their money's worth when purchasing any of the products of the breweries, but the expense of maintaining the plants means much to the business portion of the city. More than $500,000 worth of material is purchased yearly for use in the nine breweries and $325,000 is paid out to the allied trades. The real value of this is not to be realized without careful thought.
Although the quantity supplied the various saloons is large, the quality is in every respect the best and is not slighted in any way in order to increase the output.
While beer is in universal use, the process of making it is not known. A general idea is held by all, but the details are most interesting.
The malt used is of the choicest quality, made from the reputable and world- famous Wisconsin barley. The malting system is of the slow process. Before the malt is used in beer, particular pains in dusting and separating all foreign matter are given it, so that nothing but the malt in pure form is used. After grinding comes the process known as mashing. This consists of the ground grain being placed into the mash tub for a specified time. where it absorbs the moisture of filtered and sterilized water. Then what is known as quick malt, a product of rolled and steamed white corn, is added in proportion to the amount of the brew. The contents of the mash undergo the process of mashing under a pressure of steam and hot water of a certain degree being added gradually until 58 R. is reached, this temperature being held from 15 to 20 minutes until the process of conversion has taken place. Then with steam the heat pressure is raised to 60 R. at which point of temperature it is held for an hour, when the fluid or "wort" is drained into the brew kettle.
The brew kettle, 300 barrels capacity, is in itself a work of art, being made of one-half inch hammered copper. When in the brew kettle the malt extract is boiled down to the weight of 14 percent, during which process the most choice Bohemian “imported” hops are added in proportion to the brew.
Taking the brew from the brew kettle it is pumped to what is known as the hop jack, a large tank with a perforated bottom, made of copper.
From this point the wort, or brew, is drained, and then passed over the cooler, the cooler consisting of a series of cold water and refrigerated pipes, the temperature being brought down to 5 R.
From this point the wort, or brew, drains to the fermenting cellar, where it enters large fermenting tubs, when yeast, in proportion of about a pound to the barrel, is added.
The malt sugar in the wort is fermented through its contact with the yeast, thus producing alcohol and carbonic gas: this process requiring a period of from 14 to 16 days, and the temperature being held at 9 R.
After fermentation the fluid, which is now known as beer, is put to a temperature of near freezing in order to settle the yeast, and then being drawn off, the beer enters the storage or aging tanks, where it lies for four months, perfectly quiet, no vibration of any sort being permitted. During this course it clarifies.
From this point it is drawn into what is known as chip casks, where the process of shipping, which lasts about four weeks, removes from the beer all matters, such as small particles of yeast, thus clarifying again. It is put through a course of three filtrations, so that it is absolutely brilliant and is then carried to the bottling department, where the temperature is near freezing.
During the entire course of mashing, brewing, yeasting, fermenting, chipping, etc., human hands do not touch or come in contact with beer. Modem machinery and appliances being such that when set into motion by a system of electrical transmission it does away entirely of being handled by hand.
No floors, walls, ceilings or appliances of whatsoever character could possibly be cleaner, this being under the supervision of a most careful and thoroughly trained brewmaster, who combines the art of brewing with that of the science of chemistry, which is one of the essential features necessary in this particular art. His education and training in this particular art is not confined to the training alone of this country. He is of German extraction, and combined with his knowledge of brewing in this country, he has through several educational trips through foreign lands, acquired the knowledge of how beer is made in foreign countries.
Prohibition Takes Effect
In spite of the passing of many liquor laws by elected officials afraid of losing their jobs, the brewers seemed to be winning the battle. Then, in 1914, the temperance movement gained an advantage. With the start of World War I came a need to conserve grain. Congress passed a bill calling for the complete stop of the production of distilled spirits as of September 5, 1917. President Woodrow Wilson was given discretion to limit or prohibit the manufacturing of beer. On December 11, 1917 he ordered that food materials allowed for the making of beer be reduced by thirty percent and lowered the legal alcohol content of beer to less than 3% weight.
On January 16, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified and nine months later the Volstead Act was passed, which provided means of enforcing the amendment.
Prohibition, called the "Noble Experiment", had begun. The amendment was to go into effect one year after ratification. Dayton was a dry city as of January 16, 1920.
The brewers, seeing that they had lost, began to sell off their properties. The Dayton Breweries, a conglomeration of seven local breweries, had sold all but two of their plants by November 5, 1919. An article in the Journal Herald tells of the selling of the Schantz and Schwind plant.
“The Telling-Belle Vernon company, headquarters Cleveland, one of the largest manufacturers of ice cream and producers of dairy products in the country, yesterday concluded a deal whereby it will acquire the Schantz and Schwind brewery at the foot of Perry Street, of the Dayton Breweries Company.
“The Dayton Breweries company, through the latest deal, is about two-thirds liquidated, having disposed of five of its seven plants. The remaining plants are the Stickle bottling plant at Brown and Warren streets. and the Schantz-Thomas plant at First and Beckel streets. The Stickle plant may be sold shortly, in which the breweries company will erect a bottling plant in connection with the Schantz- Thomas plant.”
The law was to stay on the books for several years. With the coming of speakeasies (illegal saloons), smuggling and bootleggers, also came the gangsters, a criminal element that made money from a law that was hard to enforce and, many claimed, caused more harm than good.
In Philip McKee's book, Big Town, he writes that in 1920, the start of prohibition, there were 681 arrests for drunkenness in Dayton. This had risen to 2,486 people by 1929, making it the second largest year for arrests of that sort in Dayton's history. By 1930 there were 750 speakeasies and 150 private stills, with an output of 4,500 gallons of corn whiskey each week
Firms & Manufactories of Dayton Circa 1889
Riverside Brewery
116-128 River Street
The Riverside Brewery was established in 1882 by George Schantz & Company, the company being Adam Schantz, the present proprietor. During the first year of the firm’s existence about on fourth of the present plant was erected. The firm remained as at first constituted until January, 1887, when George Schantz retired and Adam Schantz has since been the sole proprietor. During the first year the brewery had a capacity of eight thousand barrels per year, but since then its capacity has become fifty thousand barrels per year. The plant consists of seven buildings, including the boiler and engine house and stables. The entire cost of the plant, as it now stands, was about one hundred thousand dollars. During the first year there were sold from this brewery seven thousand barrels. The number of hands at first were ten, and at the present time the number is seventeen. The wages paid to the employees varies from fifty to one hundred and twenty-five dollars per month.
Gem City Brewery
Foot of Perry Street
The latest addition to the brewery interests of Dayton is that of the Gem City Brewery, which was established May 2,1888. The brewery contains one of the finest plants that could be desired. The building is a handsome three-story brick structure, 40x175 feet in dimensions, with outbuildings attached, and the machinery and appliances here in operation are of the latest improved and most modern description, embodying all the most scientific discoveries in the production of the finest quality of malt liquors. The members of the firm, Messrs. George Schantz and Louis Schwind, are thoroughly acquainted with every detail of the business, and exercise their closest personal and practical supervision over all operations. The facilities possessed by the brewery are first-class. It has a capacity for producing about 30,000 barrels annually, and already a very large trade has been established, which is steadily increasing as the high character of the product becomes well known and appreciated. We are pleased to have to chronicle the institution of this undertaking, which, under such responsible management and in possession of all facilities for doing business, can not but result in success of a marked and gratifying nature
