On Monday, July 3, 1939, Lewis Brothers Big 3-Ring Circus came to town and brought exotic animals including lions.  Tickets were 15 cents for children under 12 years of age and 25 cents for everyone else.  There were afternoon and evening performances.  The adult lions had three newborn cubs that the circus owner did not want to keep.  The lion cubs were purchased by then president of the Sebewaing Brewing Company, J. E. Wurm.  Though World War II was looming, the brewery was thriving after a half-a-dozen years when Prohibition was repealed.  The brewery was the pride of Sebewaing providing an income for twenty or so families and a product that was consumed while socializing or relaxing after a hard days work. When people traveled throughout Michigan, if they said they were from Sebewaing, there was an immediate recognition to the beer brewed in this town.  After the acquisition of these lions, the brewery had a pride of its own that more than doubled in size over the next year to a total of seven.

J. E. Wurm had a specially designed trailer constructed that could transport lions around with the brewery’s traveling salesman, Manley Watts.  Requests came from Michigan towns to have the lions and the trailer as part of parades, picnics, and for display.  After the lion house was moved from the back of the brewery to where the McDonalds is now located, an average of 100 cars per week stopped to see the lions. The impact of these animals was enough to have the Old Style label changed from a flying goose to a lion’s head.   In June 1942, due to war related rationing of gasoline and rubber for tires, Dr. J. E. Wurm decided to deny all requests to have the lions transported until the war was over.

As the lions were growing and needed feed, farms were changing from horse driven machinery to gasoline powered equipment.  Farmers did not want to keep animals that cost money to feed and care for and since these horses did not have any other purpose and being in abundant supply, these animals ended up as inexpensive feed for the lions.

Just over two months before the end of World War II, on June 7, 1945, Dr. J. E. Wurm passed away.  This was the end of one of the most notable presidents of the brewery and sadly, likely the end of one of the strongest and most influential supporters of the lion pride.  After years of taking care of the lions, cleaning the living quarters, and the day-to-day feeding/watering, Otto H. Thede had grown tired of this burden and extra work.  One Sunday, along with his son William Thede then a young boy of about eight years old accompanied him with a 22 caliber rifle.  All seven lions were shot two times with hollow point bullets and buried except for one.  A female named Queenie was shot more carefully than the others and turned over to Frank Taschner for preservation at his request.  Queenie can be seen pictured here as a lion cub and later after being preserved.  At the time of this article, the preserved Queenie sits up high in a corner Bay City, MI antique mall and is not for sale.

Like the lions through World War II  being a burden, the closed Sebewaing Brewing Company building complex became dilapidated and crumbling and an eyesore to visitors and village residents.  The Sebewaing Council was faced with removing the dangerous several story structures not to mention a chimney that could be seen for miles.  The disposing of the once prideful establishment of Sebewaing with deed transfer obstacles and property ownership challenges was a several year burden to the village.  After starting the legal steps in 1979, the demolition was completed in October 1984 and the final deed was transferred in June 1985.

The Sebewaing Brewing Company was in operation from before 1880 to 1966 under various names and product offerings.  During this time and for a small town, this place was a major contributor to the economy and livelihood for the Village of Sebewaing.  It provided jobs, products that were sold locally and throughout the state, and a sense of community for the small town of Sebewaing, MI.  The pages here are a place to capture the history of this remarkable place through documented evidence, the knowledge of people that were there, and information passed along.

Otto and Florence Thede

This site, 30 years after his passing, is in dedication and remembrance to Otto H. Thede, the last President and General Manager of the Sebewaing Brewing Company.  Other family members that were once employed at the brewery were Florence Thede, William Thede, and John(Jack) Thede.  Mike Thede also did some work as seen in this photograph with Frank Taschner.

For navigation of this website, a great place to start is the menu or link choice of 1880-1933.  This is a return to the early days of Sebewaing and the start of the brewery.  The next menu choice is the period of 1933-1966 that describes the booming times and financial challenges of the 1960’s when many breweries were either bought up by larger companies or forced to closed their doors.  The next major section is to help understand what happened that resulted in the closing of the brewery.

Fascinating materials are available on the right side of the page under “More Information”.  Everything from the ABA company names, documented labels, a detailed timeline, supporting sources, and even the architectural building plans!  This site is likely the most comprehensive source of information on the Sebewaing Brewing Company located in one place that is easily accessible to all that have a computer and the Internet.

Sebewaing Blade Logo

These materials were gathered with help from other people mentioned on the “Appreciation” page.  Also, hundreds of hours of research between home and the Sebewaing Library have been done painstakingly going through the film archives of the Sebewaing Blade and other newspaper and print sources of the time.  Most of the details and facts have been extracted by the local paper.  Thanks to the late Walt Rummel and the preceding owners for all of the work they accomplished.  There is still more research to do for locating information from the 1950’s and between 1870 – 1933.