Forgotten Brewery Caves - Farewell Farmersville

Information on the brewery outside of tiny Farmersville Wisconsin is hard to come by. It was in Section 26 of Leroy Township, Dodge County, and was started by a man named George Schmid.

Schmid was born in Bavaria in 1829.  There, and what better place really, he learned the brewer's trade before immigrating to America in 1853.  He spent three years in Milwaukee before starting his own brewery.  He was a substantial farmer as well with a large house and barns on the site.  Production was approximately 100 barrels per year.

The next owner appears to have been Nicholas Weidig.  He was born in Dodge County in 1849, briefly served in the 44th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry at the end of the Civil War, then moved to Leroy township in 1868.  He worked for a time at one of the breweries in nearby Mayville before acquiring the Farmersville brewery.  He took over some time before 1880 and increased output to approximately 175 barrels per year.  The brewery appears to have closed some time in the 1890s.  With such a small output it was probably little more than a supply for local farmers and taverns, perhaps a bit more resilient in the face of mass marketing and economy of production by the nearby Milwaukee breweries.

This map shows the brewery location in 1890. 

The cave associated with this brewery is not actually on the site of same, it is a distance away and on private property.  The entrance is difficult to impossible to locate unless you know where to look.

The cave is, alas, in the final stages of collapse.

The chamber beyond has caved in, the one closest to the exit is half filled with debris.  Interestingly the bricks still retain a nice coat of whitewash after all these years.