| E. Bleemel Brewery
1837 - 1848
Mathias Mogger Brewery
1848 - 1868
Kaufmann & Mayer
1868 - 1869
Anton Mayer
1869 - 1889
Terre Haute Brewing Company
1889 - 1918
1934 - 1959
(photo courtesy
Bruce Mobley)
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Chauncey Warren and Demas
Deming, Sr. started the Terre Haute Brewing Company in 1837 at 8th and
Poplar Street. Later this site was used by Earnest Bleemel's brewery
until Mathias Mogger bought the business in 1848.
A. Kaufmann and Anton Mayer bought it in
1868 and it became Kaufmann & Mayer later that same year. Mayer bought
out the Kaufmann family's in 1869 when he died.
Anton Mayer was an immigrant from
Wurtemberg, Germany and was employed in a brewery there before he
moved the the U.S. at age 16. He worked for 8 years as a brewer in
Cincinnati, becoming a brewmaster.
Meanwhile, the Terre Haute Brewing
Company, owned by Fred Feyh, Coelstein Kinzle and Theodore Kriescher in
the 1870s and early 1880s, was at the southwest corner of First and Ohio
streets.
Mayer sold his company in 1889 to
Crawford Fairbanks (of the Indiana Distilling Co. - see bottom of this
page), John H. Beggs, and Deming. It was then merged into the Terre
Haute Brewing Company. At this time it occupied 2 blocks at 9th and
Poplar and produced 30,000bbl annually.
By the turn of the century, THBC was
the 7th largest brewery in the US. Stables were a block away with 50
Clydesdales and Belgians delivering beer to the immediate area. They had
expanded to 901-935 Poplar St. by 1910.
Not all was rosy in a city awash in
beer. In the early part of the century Terre Haute was called the "Paris
of Indiana" or more often "Sin City" due to the wide-open nature of the
mayors' corruption. Sporting houses, and saloons without closing hours
were the most obvious public aspect of the local political machine being
funded by brewery money. Mayor Bidaman was impeached in 1906 and Mayor
Roberts convicted of election fraud in 1915, serving time.
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"THE CALL IS CHAMPAGNE VELVET
This is evidenced
by Government records, which, like figures, do not lie, it is
evidenced by the imperative necessity of enlarging materially what
is already the largest brewery in Indiana. This steady increase in
the consumption of Champagne Velvet is due to the appreciation of
the public that it is the best bottled beer that has ever been
placed on the market, it is a popular tribute to the superiority
of Champagne Velvet over all other beers. Champagne Velvet is the
beer for your home. One bottle will satisfy you of this. Terre
Haute Brewing Co. Terre Haute, Ind" - Ad in the Coshocton, Ohio,
Daily Age, June 21, 1907 |
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"The Terre Haute Brewing Company has adopted a "layoff" system by
which all employees may get a share of the work. The decreased
output, owing to the increasing "dry" territory, has diminished
the amount of work to be done. It is said one of the glass
factories which makes beer bottles exclusively and in which
Crawford Fairbanks, of the Terre Haute Brewing Company, is the
largest stockholder as well as the largest customer, will close
for the summer season a month earlier than usual. The Glass Bottle
Blowers' union has been caring for a number of unemployed men for
some time, as the greater part of the product of the glass
factories in Terre Haute is beer bottles." - Fort Wayne
Journal-Gazette, Mar 17, 1909
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In 1910, Crawford Fairbanks sold some
of his interest in the brewery and instituted a financial reorganization
with Thomas Beggs buying a big portion of the stock.
Crawford Fairbanks joined Tom Taggert
and W.W. McDeal, president of the Monon Railroad, in the formation of
the French Lick Springs Hotel Company.
Closed at the onset of prohibition. New
president, Oscar Baur, reorganized THBC in 1934. Baur was a former Terre
Hautean who returned to the city in 1933 with his brother, Jacob,
specifically to re-start the brewery. He started the motto "The Beer
with the Million Dollar Flavor" and for publicity insured the formula's
secret for one million dollars.
By 1935 distribution of Champagne
Velvet had expanaded to 19 states and was eventually sold in all 48.
The Atlantic Brewing Company bought the
assets in 1958 and operated it for one year.
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"Greatest flavor advantage in brewing history!
From first pour
to last, there's more liveliness, sparkle and vitality in every
drop of CV. Live flavor that gives you a keener, brighter, more
satisfying taste. That's because CHAMPAGNE VELVET is especially
brewed to stay lively longer. That's why light, lively CV tastes
much better! Plus all this, CHAMPAGNE VELVET, the Beer with the
Million Dollar Flavor, is as calorie free as beer can be." - Ad in
Holland (Michigan) Evening Sentinel, May 5, 1954 |
The Champagne Velvet brand name
appeared in 1904. Other brands included 76 Ale, 20 Grand, America's
Pride, Barbarossa, Blackhawk, Radium, and, starting in 1957, Red Top.
The CV trademark ended up with G
Heilman (brewed in Evansville's Sterling Brewery), then Stroh, Schlitz,
and Pabst. They ceased production of CV in the late 1960s. The name was
bought back in 2000 at the new Terre Haute Brewery (below).
There are a lot of pictures of the
Terre Haute Brewing Company at the
Indiana Historical
Society Digital Image Collections.
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Located on the bluff between Water and S. First
Streets on a site previously occupied by the home of the Link family.
This residence had been changed to a boarding house that rented rooms to
"organ grinders, rag pencil peddlers, itinerant musicians and
miscellaneous street hawkers".
Brewpub.
Founded by Mike and Teri Rowe and Gary and Diane Richards in the same
building as the old Terre Haute Brewing Company.