The Hudson Road Brewery, Menomonie WI - Part I

The historic breweries of Menomonie Wisconsin have a bit of a reputation among local history buffs....it is felt that they are poorly documented due in part to an aversion by the local paper to mentioning intoxicating beverages.  But actually there is plenty of info out there, so much so that my write up of the "Hudson Road Brewery" is stretching out into a multi part story.   So here goes...

The location of this brewery was atypical.  It was two miles west of Menomonie near a road that continued on, logically enough, to another early community called Hudson.  There was pretty strong Temperance sentiment in early Menomonie so perhaps the inconvenient site had that as part of the motivation.

The brewery was started in the "mid 1860's".  According to Doug Hoverson's Magnum Opus on Wisconsin brewery history the enterprise is first listed in 1866 but might have been up and running a year or two earlier.  The initial proprietor was a man named August Geisert, who managed a production of 400 barrels in 1870.

Geisert died (by various reports in either 1872 or 1881) but there is also a "Mrs. Geisert" to account for.  She ran "the Brewery Saloon" according to a 1873 article that mentions a $5 fine for selling liquor on the Sabbath.  It sounds like a rough place if it is indeed the same "Mrs. Geisert's saloon" where, in August of 1881, a patron was found dead in her well after a drunken altercation.  Various public calls to have her license revoked ensued.   

At some point a partnership acquired the brewery.  This was Fred Wagner and a pair of brothers named Roleff.  (Likely Frank and William, both Menomonie saloon operators).  When?  The best info comes from a newspaper article of May 1874 that describes a fire that destroyed the brewery "a few miles west of this village".  It indicates that it was at the foot of a bluff and that it was new, only in operation for 2-3 months.  This often indicates a rebuild rather than an entirely new facility.

An early credit report said that business was slow and perhaps their product was not good but they did build it up into a solid business.  There was an associated picnic grounds and perhaps a dance hall.  Local German societies met there.  I did find a sad incident from 1879 where their brewmaster, a chap named Samuel Kraunz, jumped off a wagon at the picnic grounds and broke his leg.  Despite having it set he "was taken insane" a few days later and died.

Then in 1883 disaster struck again.  The brewery burned with its entire contents.  

By now Fred Wagner was the sole proprietor, and after initial suspicions of arson he reported that it was a problem with the ventilation of the malt kiln.

Despite losses in excess of insurance an ambitious rebuilding was undertaken.  300,000 bricks.  Elevators to "do the labor of nine men".  A three story 52 by 132 foot structure that contained "A mammoth malt kiln for the manufacture of light malt and beer equal in quality and color to that made in Milwaukee."

Here's a photo taken a few years later that nicely shows the "mammoth malt kiln".

photo from Dunn County Historical Society

But perhaps it was just a bit too much.  The 1880's were a time when the big breweries were starting to ship beer by rail to local depots in places like Menomonie, and to "capture" chains of brewery owned saloons.  In the late 1880's the business faltered.  After a short period of being leased by a man named H.H. Brown (known to history mainly from tax records and a thank you from the local scribes when he sent a fresh keg over to the newspaper offices) a new owner came onto the scene in 1887.  

The Burkhardt family had arrived.

continued in part II