On Tuesday morning, 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.