Author Archives: Scott Thede

The Great Proxy Battle

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On Tuesday mStockorning, March 23, 1965, the brewery president Kenneth F. Chappell got more than he bargained for in a special meeting called to vote on the sale of the business to Buckeye Brewing out of Toledo, OH.  Employees of the brewery, local citizens, and trusted stockholders turned over their proxy votes to lawyer Alfred E. May.  May presented approximately 42,000 shares against the sale while opposing directors and brewery management presented 10,000 shares in favor of the sale.  The document shown here was used to vote down the sale (click the image to the left to see it).  If you would like to read more about what happened during this special meeting, click here to read the article in the Sebewaing Blade from March 25, 1965.

There was a second meeting in Birmingham, MI on Wednesday, March 25 that included chairman William E. Francis who did not attend the March 23rd meeting.  Click here to read the article in the Sebewaing Blade.  There was no resolution and the decision was put on hold until the annual meeting on April 20th.  In the meantime, valuable time was ticking away with no new beer production.

Finally, April 20th came and the decision was made to not sell the brewery with 54,910 shares against the sale to 14,017 for the sale.  Also, a new board and officers were selected with the main goal of resuming operations as soon as possible.  See this article from the Sebewaing Blade here for more information.  The brewery started operation again on Monday, June 7, 1965.

 

Sebewaing & Sport Beer on the Move for This Family

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What it must have looked like with trucks coming in and out of the brewery driveway to load for new deliveries and unload return bottles and barrels.  Ken Bolzman, one of the truck driver in the fleet for the Sebewaing Brewing Company from 1955-1961 may remember.  The Bolzmans not only had members of the family working at the brewery, they were great customers and appeared to like Sport Beer as can be seen in the photo.  This is from 1955 at Maurice and Irene Bolzman’s hoBolzman Family 1955me.

15) Herman and 1) Ida Bolzman (Haag) they are the ones responsible for this group 2) Symbria and brother 16) Leo Sherping, children of 4) Alice Bolzman 3) Vern and 5) Annabelle Bolzman (Wagner) Taking Picture) Ken and 6) Ruth Bolzman (Armbruster) 8) Elmer and 10) Helen Mitchel (Bolzman) 18) Maurice and 9) Irene Bolzman (Leskowich) and Irene’s brother 14) Andrew Leskowich playing the accordion 7) Howard and 17) Laverne Sandy Bolzman-Griffith 1957Bolzman (Mast) 12) Earl and 11) Elise Mast (Gall) 13) Floyd Bolzman.

The Bolzman start them out young.  Here, in 1957, Sandy Griffith (Bolzman) daughter of Ken and Ruth Bolzman teething on a Sebewaing Beer Bottle.  Ruth claims she walked into this situation after shopping.

Trucks1(1957) The two semi-trucks in the back were used by Hilbert Bergman who delivered to A & P food stores throughout the state.

(1957) Front view of the Sebewaing Beer delivery truck.

(1957) Ken Bolzman standing in front of his delivery truck.  Ken only had one accident going into a ditch where the brewery sent out a wrecker and a milk truck to pull it out.  A single ½ Trucks4barrel and 2 cases of beer were lost in the acciTurcks3dent.

(1957) This is one of the first Ford trucks featuring the Tilt-A-Cab option.

All photos and detail were provided courtesy of Doug Bolzman.

Remember Sebewaing Beer

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What did Sebewaing Beer taste like?  What about Sport, Golden Pheasant, Club, or any of the other labels?  A few weeks ago, a post was made on the Sebewaing Facebook page asking members to participate in a survey.  All of the unique formulas were presented as questions.  As a point of order, the Sebewaing blue label was repackaged as Club and Golden Pheasant so those labels were combined.

The survey says . . .

Beer SurveyIt looks like Stroh’s is a good bet for most of the labels with Pabst Blue Ribbon as runner up.  So the next time you have a beer, maybe you want to remember Sebewaing Beer and order a Stroh’s, PBR, or whatever label most reminds you of Sebewaing.  Thank you to those that participated in the survey.