Sebewaing Brewing Company

First Photo of Orion Nebula

Wolverine Chair and Furniture Company (left) where the first use of hydroelectric power in the United States

The American’s Brewers Association has the Sebewaing Brewing Company with various names starting as early as 1875 under the name of Sophia Braendle.  Many labels of beer produced establish the start date of 1880.  The first label to print this is Old Style from 1934.  It appeared several more times on Stock Ale, Sport (brown label), Old Style (Lion Head), and all of the versions of the Sebewaing labels including bock.  Surprisingly, it did not appear on the other popular labels of Sport (yellow label), Golden Pheasant, Club, and Pride of Michigan.

For the printed established date of 1880, here are some famous events that occurred that same year.

Enjoy!

Jan 1st – Building of Panama Canal, begins
Jan 27th – Thomas Edison patents electric incandescent lamp
Mar 23rd – Flour rolling mill patented (John Stevens of Wisc)
Mar 31st – 1st town completely illuminated by electric lighting (Wabash, IN)
May 18th – 6th Kentucky Derby: George Lewis aboard Fonso wins in 2:37.5
Jun 1st – 1st pay telephone installed
Jun 1st – US census at 50,155,783
Jun 16th – Salvation Army forms in London
Jul 16th – Dr. Emily Stowe becomes the first woman licenced to practice medicine in Canada.
Jul 21st – Compressed air accident kills 20 workers on Hudson River tunnel, NY
Jul 23rd – 1st commercial hydroelectric power planet begins, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Aug 2nd – British Parliament officially adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
Sep 30th – Henry Draper takes that 1st photograph of Orion Nebula
Oct 4th – University of California founded in Los Angeles
Nov 2nd – James A Garfield (R) elected 20th US President
Dec 20th – NY’s Broadway lit by electricity, becomes known as “Great White Way”

Breweries were plentiful throughout Michigan in 1917.  The Michigan Department of Labor documented 87 breweries during this time.  Some were under the same name located in different geographical areas of Michigan and others under the same name split the work between brewing and bottling.  The size ranged from two employees to over three hundred.  From brewing in barns to multistory brick buildings, there was a demand in all parts of Michigan for beer.  Information about these breweries can be found in the report to the left and an extracted table at the bottom of this post.  This 1918 report documents businesses in Michigan and provides vast amounts of statistics for things like hotels, prisons, restaurants, and so on.  It also lists code violations and what action needs to be taken to correct.

The significance of this report and its relationship to breweries is that it was published one month before the start of prohibition in Michigan.  With legislation potentially impacting their livelihood, the conversations of owners and employees must have been emotional.  To have an inspection and census done in 1917 ordering code violation corrections to outlawing the end product less than one year later had to be gut wrenching.

In the report, and at the bottom of this post, inspection dates, number of male and female employees, children working under age 16, and the major commodities offered are listed.  For the breweries, our own Huron County Brewing Company of Sebewaing is on the list with six employees that are all male.  In total for the 87 breweries in Michigan, there were 2,447 employees.  2,377 were male, 67 female, and 3 under the age of sixteen.  What did these people do for work after prohibition?  Many of the breweries closed while some re-tooled and made other products.  The top three brewery employers at the time were Stroh’s (318 employees), Goebel (204 employees), and Detroit Brewing Company (161 employees).  Pfeiffer was close to the top with 157 employees.  Fascinating information so far and there is much more information to glean from this fantastic report!

The table below is a list of all of the breweries extracted from the report with the related data.