Charles Beckman Hides, Furs, and Coal

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Beckman FursArlene Nimtz-Schweitzer posted this photo on February 1, 2014 in the Facebook Group “You know you are from Sebewaing, MI when …”.  She asked the question: “Match holder from Chas. Beckman, where was this in Sebewaing??

Here are the responses/comments from the post:

Mark W Rummel No idea, Arlene. He probably ran it from his house, or a garage. Anyone have other ideas?

Scott M. Thede According to the Ellen Taschner report related to the Sebewaing Brewing Company, the location of this business was the brewery sometime after the start of Prohibition and 1924. Here is a quotation from Ellen’s paper: “Shortly after the 18th Amendment took effect, the Sebewaing brewery building had been bought by Charles Beckman, a dealer in hides and furs who needed a storage place for his wares. The basement of the brewery was an ideal place for hides and furs, because a low, even temperature could easily be maintained. Beckman used the building until 1924 when a group of business men bought it from him and setup equipment for the manufacture of liquid malt, which they sold to people who wanted to make their own brew. The name of the company was now changed to Sebewaing Products Company.” The entire paper can be ready here:https://sebewaingbrewingcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Sebewaing-Brewing-Company-1968-Ellen-Taschner-Final.pdf

Mark W Rummel Wow – makes perfect sense to me. They had to do something with that building during Prohibition, so a hides/fur guy could find uses for it. They also made home products for people to make their own beer as Sebewaing Products Company (I believe that’s true, Scott M. Thede ?) To show how dumb ProMalt Extract Containerhibition was, people could make their own beer, for personal use, but couldn’t buy real beer. Sheesh.

I met a man in 1972 named William Wreford, who said his father had moved the family to Sebewaing to run the Brewery right after prohibition had ended. So, after Prohibition ended, we went back to brewing beer, as we should have.

Scott M. Thede Yes, your info is correct Mark on the product offered before Prohibition ended. I assume this was a son and his father also named William B. Wreford was the President of the brewery from 1933-1936 and passed away on May 8, 1944.

William Harder (Posted the Malt Extract container photo)

Thank you to Arlene Nimtz-Schweitzer for posting the photo.

Otto H. Thede’s 1936 Union Book Returned to Family

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Front Cover of Union BookAfter some negotiating with an e-Bay seller, I was able to acquire my grandfather’s union book from 1936 when he was a truck driver.  His dues were $1.  Aside from hand written content on the front and inside cover, the rest of the book was not used (e.g. travel, expenses, etc.).  It could have been sold in an estate sale or perhaps was part of the brewery paperwork that was left in the building.  Click on the image to the right to look at the book contents.

The union book is from the International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal, and Soft Drink Workers.  This union merged with the Teamsters in 1973 according to this WikiPedia entry.

It is good to have a item belonging to my family back again.

1959 Aerial Photo of the Brewery

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1959 Aerial Photo of BreweryWhen I lived next door to the brewery, I remember people occasionally coming over to the house and asking for permission to walk the brewery property so they could look at the buildings and take pictures.  Technically, my grandfather Otto Thede would have been the one to clear it with since he was the last president and general manager when it closed and assigned the disposition of assets by the State of Michigan.  Anyway, my parents sorted things out and as people did the walk-around,  they took pictures, lots of pictures.  Where are they now?  I imagine stuck in shoe boxes handed down to family members that may not even know what the pictures are about.

I have made numerous requests for photos of the brewery out of people’s personal collections on the Sebewaing Facebook Group page, a newspaper article in the Huron Daily Tribune, and directly from the website.  No luck yet.  With the lack of pictures, I am looking at historical archives to see if photos may have been taken in other ways.  My latest research is looking for aerial photographs.  In the last few days, I was successful finding a 1959 photo the shows all of the buildings, the drives/alleys, the delivery trucks, and probably some employees parked while working. It looked like a prosperous operation! The year 1959 was their first million dollar year at $1,113,878!

Please, if you have any photos of the brewery, please contact me so I can make them part of this website.  Of the nine websites I host and maintain, this website is by far the most popular with 15,000 visitors since its creation on October 2013.  It is the most definitive collection of materials and information for the Sebewaing Brewing Company.  Let’s make it better with more pictures!