Artifacts & Some History

In November of 1901, Alvin Hemrich purchased the Grays Harbor Brewing Co. from receivership for $3000 and went forward with plans for a more modest brewery.  By the time production commenced, in May of 1902, Alvin had dropped the name Grays Harbor Brewing Co. in favor of the Aberdeen Brewing Company.  The first draught beer was placed on the market on the 21st of May, and was warmly received.  The bottling line had a capacity of 10 Barrels, or 1680 quart bottles per day.  By 1906 the brewery employed 25 people, and produced $200,000 worth of beer a year. Increased sales and demand required even further expansion.  In order to increase capacity an annex to the plant was erected in June 1907.  In 1915 Washington voted to go dry, with statewide Prohibition to go into effect on January 1st, 1916. This terminated the production of all alcoholic beverages. Most breweries were forced to close, but the Aberdeen Brewing Co. stayed open by increasing their production of soda waters. This enterprise was named the Prima Bottling Works.

(History courtesy of Gary Flynn www.brewerygems.com)

Established in Healdsburg, California on June 26, 1886 Mr. Louis Jaffe purchased the Pridham Vineyards comprising of 264 acres of wine and brandy grapes.  The firm began business in Seattle on August 4, 1889, just months after the great fire had swept the city.  Circumstances forced Jaffe to set up at a location on what was then known as Old Mill Street just above Third Avenue South in a 15x70 ft tent.  It was around 1893 that the firm began to show up in city listings and its business was closely tied in with the Imperial Liquor Company whose owner was Joseph L. Jaffe.  Throughout its existence it was both a retail and wholesale establishment located at 115-117 Second Avenue South.  Jaffe & Co. also owned a saloon in Spokane and a retail/wholesale location from 1892-1915 which closed due to Prohibition.

The Butler Hotel or Hotel Butler in Seattle was one of the leading hotels in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  It was located at the corner of Second Avenue and James Street, in what is now the Pioneer Square-Skid Road National Historic District.  Hamm & Schmits were listed as proprietors during the Prohibition era, the building also contained the Butler Drug Co. and the hotel's "Rose Room" was repeatedly cited for flouting the laws against the consumption of alcoholic beverages during Prohibition. The hotel closed in 1933.

Alfred Bachtold and Charles Achermann hailed originally from the German speaking part of Switzerland.  Emigrating as youths to the United States, both found occupations in other states until joining forces in Walla Walla, Washington, in 1897 to create a major West Coast wholesale liquor firm. An early ad from the firm indicates a modest beginning with the company having offices and its cellars in the basement of the Dusenbery Building, located between 2nd and 3rd Streets in Walla Walla.  The company was an agent for Sutter Home Wines, Olympia Beer, Jesse Moore Whiskey, Lash’s Bitters and other house brands such as "Blue Stem, “White Cloud,” and “B & A Rye".

Crescent Foods Inc. is a Seattle based spice and seasoning firm which began in 1883 under the name Crescent Manufacturing Company as a small supplier of vanilla extract.  After the discovery of gold on the Klondike River in Canada in 1897, the company expanded rapidly by selling a spice and preservation packet popular with the gold rushers. In 1905, Crescent struck gold itself when a company chemist and salesman concocted an imitation maple flavoring dubbed "Mapleine".  "Mapleine" won a worldwide market and dramatically expanded Crescent's scope. The company was sold in 1989 to McCormick & Company, Inc., based in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1990, Crescent Foods consolidated its three Seattle-area facilities (including a factory, laboratory, and warehouse) into one 105,000 square foot space in a Kent office park. 

The most prominent "boomer" and promoter of Port Angeles was Col. James S. Coolican, president of the city's Board of Trade.  In the Summer of 1901, he organized the Angeles Brewing & Malting Co. in Chicago, with local investors.  Not long after the projected May '02 date they had "Angeles Beer" on the market.  However, in spite of their best efforts the company was struggling to pay its debts.  The brewery had serious competition in the Seattle market which prevented them from becoming a serious contender around the Puget Sound area.  However, they did get some welcome exposure with the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.  At that illustrious event they won a Gold Medal for their beer and issued an etched glass heralding that accomplishment.  Due to the effects of numerous saloons shutting down, and stiff competition in Seattle, the company did not work its way out of bankruptcy and on 30 April, 1913 controlling interest in the Angeles Brewing & Malting Co. was sold to a group of Seattle investors for $65,000. 

(History courtesy of Gary Flynn www.brewerygems.com)

The Everett Bottling Works was founded in 1902 by Peter Edward Misgen and Alexander E. Kick, who also founded the Sedro‐Woolley Bottling Works in 1903.  In 1906, Kick became sole-owner of the company which bottled a variety of local sodas as well as beer from the Angeles Brewing & Malting Co. of Port Angeles.  It stopped bottling Angeles Beer due local Everett prohibition laws taking effect in 1911 and the bankruptcy of the Angles Brewing and Malting Co. in 1912.  Kick continued to bottle a variety of sodas until he retired and sold the company to the Pepsi Bottling Co. of Everett in 1961.  He passed away in Scottsdale Az. in 1981 at the age of 98.

J. G. Fox was a distributor and bottler of soda and beer in Seattle and other locations throughout Washington State.  Born in La Crosse Wisconsin, he arrived in Seattle in 1890 and went to work for the Seattle Brewing and Malting Co as head bottler and later secretary of the company.  He opened the J. G. Fox & Co. in 1905 which was the bottler for SB&M's "Bohemian Beer" which was located at 1500 Grant St. in Georgetown.  He was granted a license from the city in 1906 to bottle liquor at a new location across from Recreation Park - 5th & Republican St. and began bottling a variety of soft drinks and beer for local breweries.  He bottled beer for the Angeles Brewing Co. which featured a new bottle stopper that required no opener or key and after prohibition was a stockholder in the Peninsula Brewery in Port Townsend.  He died in November 1946 at the age of 79.