Anheuser Busch and the St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company

Anheuser-Busch is arguably America's greatest brewer, despite the recent dust-up over Bud Light.  

Anheuser Busch, B. A.

FEB

27

1902

ST. LOUIS, MO.

Circular (or is it a pie- or bottle cap-shaped) date stamp

The St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company was a part of the Anheuser-Busch and Budweiser empire.

Adolphus Busch was the first American brewer to use pasteurization to keep beer fresh; the first to use mechanical refrigeration and refrigerated railroad cars, which he introduced in 1876; and the first to bottle beer extensively. By 1877, the company owned a fleet of 40 refrigerated railroad cars to transport beer. Expanding the company's distribution range led to increased demand for Anheuser products, and the company substantially expanded its facilities in St. Louis during the 1870s. The expansions led production to increase from 31,500 barrels in 1875 to more than 200,000 in 1881.To streamline the company's refrigerator car operations and achieve vertical integration, Busch established the St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company in 1878, which was charged with building, selling, and leasing refrigerator cars; by 1883, the company owned 200 cars, and by 1888 it owned 850.  

American Brewing Company of New York

American Brewing Co. of N. Y.

NOV

17

1898

Langlois scan

Bouche Fils & Co

BOUCHE FILS & CO.

NEW YORK.

Langlois

Champagne company usage of a 4c documentary.  Why did Bouche Fils use this stamp?

Cancel for January 11: Jacob Hoffmann

Jacob Hoffman signed check

JacHoff

January 11/1900

manuscript cancel by Jacob Hoffmann

In a previous post, you can view a June 29, 1898 Jacob Hoffmann bill of lading.  Jacob Hoffmann ran a brewery in New York.

Cancel for December 27: The Christian Moerlein Brewing Company

3 copies of R171 50 cent documentary on document fragment with

Christian Moeriein Brewing Company cancel

The  C.  M.  B.  Co.

DEC

27

1898

Cincinnati,  O.

From Ohio History Central:

Christian Moerlein was born in Truppack, Bavaria, in 1818. He immigrated to the United States in 1841, eventually settling in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1842. In 1853, Moerlein established a brewery in Over-the-Rhine, a predominantly German neighborhood in Cincinnati. In its first year of operation, the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company produced one thousand barrels of beer. In just over a decade, the brewery produced more than twenty-six thousand barrels of beer per year. Between 1812, when the first brewery opened its doors in Cincinnati, to the enactment of Prohibition in 1920, more than fifty different breweries had operated in the city. Moerlein was the most prominent brewer in the city. He sold his product across the United States as well as to other countries. During this time, no other Cincinnati brewery entered the international marketplace. His most popular beer was "Old Jug Lager Krug-Bier." The brewery made Moerlein a wealthy man. In 1884, he invested some of his profits in the Cincinnati Cremation Company. Investors in the company hoped that cremation would become more popular than burials of deceased persons. They argued that cremation was more sanitary and would benefit the living by limiting the spread of diseases. The Christian Moerlein Brewing Company continued to operate after his death in 1897. The brewery closed its doors forever with the enactment of Prohibition.

Cancel for September 16: Becker Brewing and Malting Company

From the Becker Brewing and Malting Company records of the Utah State University Libraries:

The Becker Brewing and Malting Company (BBMC) was founded in 1890 in Ogden, Utah, by the Becker family and was located on the southwest corner of 19th Street and Lincoln Avenue. Gustave L. Becker was president and treasurer, and his father, John S. Becker was secretary. Albert E. Becker, Gustave’s younger brother, became vice president in 1893.


The company manufactured and sold various kinds of beer, over time expanding its manufactures to include near beer, soft drinks, including “Zest,” ice, and related products. The company sold to a regional market, including the states of Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, and California. A few sales were made as far away as Illinois and Pennsylvania. In 1906, BBMC became agents for the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association.

By the mid-1910s BBMC’s operations began to be challenged by local and state laws restricting the sale of alcohol. As Utah began passing Prohibition laws forbidding the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages, the Becker family examined alternatives. In 1917, BBMC began the production of “Becco,” a very low alcohol (0.3% by volume) near bear. That same year BBMC split its operations. The Ogden operation was renamed the Becker Products Company, and the Becker Brewing Company, which took over beer production, was established in nearby Evanston, Wyoming, which was still a “wet” state. When national Prohibition laws took effect in 1920, however, the Becker companies ceased all beer production. These two businesses operated independently for some years, and apparently remained separate entities even after national Prohibition ended in 1933. By 1968, both Becker companies had ceased operations.

Cancel for June 29: June 29, 1898 Bill of Lading

Yes, June 29, 1898.  Frank Sente sends in this Bill of Lading from the West Shore Railroad of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad for a shipment by the Jacob Hoffman Brewing Company of New York.  The BOL was filled out and a tax stamp applied two days before the tax went into effect.  Not only was the tax stamp not needed, but there were few of the battleship stamps printed and distributed by June 29.  So this is a very unusual and interesting item.

West Shore RR and New York Central and Hudson River Railroad bill of lading for 70 half barrels and 75 quarter barrels of lager beer produced by Jacob Hoffman Brewing Company

Every bill of lading during the official tax period which started July 1, 1898, required a one cent documentary tax stamp

Frank Sente reportes that "by 1898 Hoffman was shipping beer upriver to Rondout(Kingston,NY) from his NYC brewery likely to supply his operation there that serviced daytrippers from NYC to Kingston Park."

Jacob Hoffman's Oriental Brewery letterhead

Cancel for December 24: A. Breslauer & Company

A. BRESLAUER & CO.

DEC

24

1899

MILWAUKEE.

A. Breslauer was a distiller and spirits company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that operated from 1883 to 1918.  I wonder whether the prohibition movement put it out of business, though prohibition wouldn't hit at the national level for another 2 years after Breslauer shut down.  The German Lutherans of Wisconsin were generally a "pro-wet"/non-prohibition force. 

A. Breslauer produced and distributed a full line of beverages that included the following brand names:  "Cheddington", "Connet", "Florida Bitters", "Graham Rye", "Henry Van Eerden Gin", "Kilbourn", "La Belle", "Old Chesly", "Old Hickory", "Palm", "Standard Club", "Topcliffe Gin", and "Waldorf Club."