The Siamese Twins of Chippewa Falls

In 1867 the population of Chippewa Falls was somewhere around 2000.  Given the nature of those times the ratio of men to women was quite high.  It's true that families were bigger then, but there would not have been that many babies born per year.  So what are the odds of twins?  (Supposedly 1% if you must know.)  How about Siamese twins?  Well those odds might be as extreme as 1 in 200,000 births.  But, odds or not, this could happen anywhere.  And in July of 1867 it happened at Chippewa Falls.

I ran across this story by accident, seeing it repeated in newspapers across the region.  Papers swiped from each other pretty regularly then.  My quick scan for the name of the parents involved found no mention in the local paper, which I found puzzling.

As it happens, there was a long, front page article, but it was sensitive enough to omit the name of the family involved.  You can read it in its entirety if so inclined, I present it for your perusal. 

The name was mentioned in reports from other newspapers.  John Clemens was a supervisor at the Mill.  His abilities were highly thought of.  Of his wife I can learn much less.

The article has the feel of a "silly season" bit of journalism, as far fetched tales seemed to be circulated widely in late summer.  But the poignancy of the tone, and the direct mention of the other people involved - the physicians in particular - give this credibility in my eyes.

Of the man who purchased the embalmed bodies of the twins to subsequently display for profit, I shall restrain my comments other than to say it's a famous name hereabouts.  He went on to become mayor. There's a street named after him. 

The Electrocuted Owl

OK, technically this both is and is not the right picture to go with the story that follows.  As I've documented previously the first actual dedicated movie theater in Chippewa Falls was purpose built as The Victor.  Later it was purchased by the Rex Brewing Company of Duluth and renamed, logically, The Rex.

It had a mix of movies, live vaudeville, community theater, boxing matches.  But for sheer oddity, how about this from 1923:

Alas, I scanned the newspapers for an image of the Electrocuted Owl and came up blank.

Murder on the Old Eau Claire Road

Like most communities from the lumber era of Wisconsin, Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls were where they were because of the water.  Specifically the Chippewa River.  This was both the highway down which prosperity flowed - in the form of log drives - and the power source that turned timber into cash.

But the same things that make for a good lumber town also complicate other forms of transportation.  You'd imagine that commerce between the two places would be carried out with boats...until you remember that there water levels were extremely variable.  Despite the big dam at Chippewa being able to regulate things a bit, it would often be the case that the river was too low for practical boat transport....or at other times such as spring, too high.  To say nothing of full of tens of thousands of logs!  And in the winter everything froze.

So for reliable, year round transportation the two communities were linked very early on by road.   

Its course is a little hard to track.  It came out of the north side of Eau Claire and roughly followed the course of modern day Hwy 53.  That would of course be Old Hwy 53, now redubbed Business 53.  It certainly arrived at the National Presto Plant - once a maker of pressure cookers and earlier of artillery shells - the location of a hostelry known as Halfway House.  It then swung over to where Lake Hallie connects with the Chippewa River, as this was the site of an early lumber mill.  Then after being lost in what is now suburbia and gravel pits it reappears near modern day Casper Park and arrives at the former site of Frenchtown.  The ferry there took you across to Chippewa Falls.  Very little remains today.  

Here's a map showing the course of the road.  This map is probably circa 1878.  The railroad is shown - it came in '74, but Frenchtown is still standing before the floods of '80 and '84.

The road went through some lonesome places.  It still does today.  At one such place murder most foul occurred in 1872.

Rolfson was traveling from Minnesota.  Arriving in Eau Claire he inquired about the price of the stage to Chippewa Falls.  Feeling the price was a bit steep he decided to hike it.  Somebody knew he was carrying a large sum of money, and was waiting for him.  He tried to save a dollar.  It cost him his life.

Despite a very hefty reward I can find no evidence that the guilty parties were ever brought to justice.   

Note:  It is not clear that the 1870's stage service ran on the same road Rolfson took.  If you study the map you can see that a less direct route did run on the west side of the river.  This was a later addition, in the heyday of Frenchtown before the Civil War there was only what is now called The Old Eau Claire Road.

The Mystery of Wardell's Ginger Ale

Here is our starting point.  It is a "hutchinson" style soda bottle.  These were pretty much the standard pop bottle in the 1880's and 1890's.  

The embossing reads R.T. WARDELL EAU CLAIRE WIS.  That little gizmo in the bottom of the bottle is the stopper.  Replacing earlier corked bottles this allowed you to open up a bottle, drink some of it, and reseal it.   

So, what's the story here?  Well, its complicated.

The earliest local clue is from the summer of 1884.  Summertime is generally when pop bottlers started a venture, or advertised an existing one.  From an Eau Claire paper of June 21st we read:

"R.T. Wardell, of Michigan, is opening up an establishment on the West side for the manufacture and sale of ginger ales, etc."

There is a bit of confusion in early reports.  At one point it was said to be an F. Wardell starting the business.  And embarrassingly, on the July 3rd, the paper described ginger ale as an alcoholic beverage.  A hasty 4th of July retraction was published:

The reference to three million bottles being sold in the previous year is rather audacious.  Where?  And by whom?

Wardell bottles from Eau Claire are pretty scarce.  R.T. gets mentioned briefly among citizens signing a petition in 1885.  After that there is but one enigmatic and somewhat jokey reference from 1886...and this from a Minneapolis newspaper.

It sounds like somebody the editor knew well, perhaps on a drinking buddy sort of level?

As it happens there was another branch of the Wardell family over in St. Paul, Minnesota.

John G. Wardell is said to have moved from Battle Creek Michigan to the Twin Cities in 1882.  After briefly being in Minneapolis he set up shop in St. Paul, doing business as The Spa Bottling Company.  He was quite successful, both at the original Spa Bottling company and later, in 1900, when he left that firm and started his own venture.  The Consolidated Bottling Company became Highland Spring Water company later in 1900, actually lasting until the mid 1960's.  For more on this branch of the Wardell clan I found THIS quite helpful. 

When Spa got started in 1882 it had Minneapolis and St. Paul branches, and was variously described as having relocated from Grand Rapids Michigan or being an offshoot of an earlier company there.  John G. Wardell is described as being "....long connected with the Grand Rapids house..." I'm not sure how that fits with the report of him being from Battle Creek, but they are not far apart. 

John G. was born in 1857.  R.T. is described as a young man in 1886.  They must have been related.  Same last name, both came from Michigan, both in the soda business.  The presumed difference in ages does not fit for father and son, but perhaps brothers?  Maybe he was a sort of black sheep of the family.  The claim of three million bottles sold in 1883 is hard to believe.  Maybe if the output of the Minnesota and Michigan branches was combined.  Interestingly there also was a Diamond Ginger Ale sold out of Connecticut starting in 1865.  Maybe that three million figure suggested an early franchise set up?

John G. lived a long and productive life.  He died in 1935, his son and grandson carrying on the business.  Heck, I might have had a swig or two of Highland Spring Water when I was a kid.

Eventually I tracked down an on line City Directory of Grand Rapids from 1880.  John G. Wardell is listed as a "clerk" for Mills and Lacey.  No listing of them in the beverage business.  Robert T. Wardell was, if I am reading the abbreviation corrctly, a cradle maker!   There is one soda bottler and one ginger beer manufacturer listed,  but oddly the Wardells do not seem to have been associated with either.  

A Few More Tales of the Bloomer Brewery

On my recent visit to the Bloomer Brewery building I heard a few stories of the place.  For some reason there are plenty of 'em.  Perhaps it makes sense.  This is the sort of small town where people remember things, and the physical survival of the place encourages that.  

It's early days were pretty much the usual tale of fires, ownership changes and so forth.  It's when Prohibition came along that things got interesting.

Jacob Breunig bought the brewery in 1915.  Four years later alcohol became illegal.  That did not seem to deter him, and the tales of Prohibition era moonshine are backed up by a raid by the "Revenuers" in 1928.  Bruenig sold the brewery to an A.L. Lipschulz of Saint Paul.  This was probably in 1934; the architectural drawings we saw last time are associated with the sale.  The new name "Bloomer Beverage Company" dates to this time.

After a few years he sold out to a man named Tankenoff.  Oddly the product line trended towards ales instead of lagers.  In this era their products were often named "Al's"after Mr. Lipschulz. 

Business was so-so.  This was not the sort of drink most rural Wisconsinites favored, and I've heard there was lingering resentment on the part of local authorities after the whole moonshining thing.  To be fair I've also heard that the Chippewa County sheriff of that era turned a blind eye to this sort of thing.

It was the US Army contract that kept the business going.  Shipping their ale, now rebranded as Buckingham Ale, to the UK was good business.  

After the war the brewery closed.  And the building was used for many things.  Storage, but that's boring.  How about a worm farm?

People like to fish in these parts.  Fish like worms.  Worms like a nice cool basement.  What could possibly go wrong?  Well, the place had rats.  Solution? Rat poison.  New problem?  Rats defecating on the worm beds left traces of poison that killed all the nightcrawlers.

OK, how about a fish farm?  The accounts I've heard vary a bit.  Sometimes the rats re-enter the story.  But the more detailed version is that they were trying to raise some sort of trout.  These are a finicky thing to aquaculture, and if someone forgets to turn on the circulating pump one day.......

At various times parts of the sprawling complex seem to have been vacant.  Our discussion at the bar turned to the issues of homelessness, and I was told that one time there was a guy living somewhere in the place.  He started a fire and died.  The fire department put out the smoldering fire and tossed his body rather unceremoniously onto a snow drift.

My revisit to look for the caves was prompted by a bar patron partly falling into a hole where one of the cave's vents finally washed down whatever it was filled with in the 1920's or so.  And as it happens, falling into things is a theme here.  One time when a guy renting out some space drove his truck in, a wheel sunk deeply into the ground.  They had found the original well from the brewery.

Delightfully it was excavated, cleaned up, and a new top put on it.  The above ground stonework in this picture is new, as of course is the sensible grate on the top.  The well goes down a long, long way.

The cheerful guy on the left has been associated with the building for a half century or more.  He still does maintenance, and had lots of tales of what state the place was in when he arrived on the scene in the early 1970's.  When the well was found they got a guy with climbing equipment to come over from the local creamery.  I guess tanks and chimneys there needed cleaning.  My bar pal put on the harness, lowered himself way down there and called to the people up top to take a look.  He'd gotten a box of iron pyrite - aka fools gold - and scattered it around.  Obviously there was brief but intense excitement.

I do hope he was wearing that green plaid shirt and hat, and that it was Saint Patrick's Day....

Forgotten Brewery Caves - The Bloomer Mystery Deepens....

I like historical mysteries.  Sometimes the lead me on a merry chase.  Such is the case with the cave associated with the Bloomer Brewery.  My first two posts on this are worth a read to get context.  Oh, TLDR?  Well here's the basic dates and data.  BLOOMER PART I.   and BLOOMER PART II.

1872 brewery established.  Presumably a lagering cave was created at that time.

1880's two fires damage or perhaps destroy the original brewery.  First of several rebuilds and additions begin.

1934 - We have a nice architectural drawing of the place.  New data!

1964 - a survey by the Department of Defense is taken of underground spaces in America.  Places where citizens might ride out a nuclear apocalpyse.  The caves of the Bloomer Brewery were rated for over 500 people!

mid 1970's.  My friends at the bar start working at the place.  

Just recently the cave area was showcased with nice new woodwork and framing.  I wish more caves were given this respect.

About those new friends.  I'd made arrangements to revisit the site after new owners bashed a hole in the wall exposing a cave I'd suspected was there but now, yes NOW I would get all the answers.  One of the folks I had lunch with had actually fallen into a hole out back of the building, tipping them off to an underground space!  That's what prompted them to have at the back wall of the known - but rather tiny - caves for a look see.  The hole is visible in the above photo.  Let's take a peek.

First, here's a look at the back wall today.

A ladder was helpfully obtained.  Looking at the newly created hole we can see that it went through some newer, definitely 20th century, materials that had been plastered over.  I'm thinking 1920s.

And what lies beyond?

Huh.  There's only about another 15 feet of cave back there.  With of course a vent hole that is just the right size to put a leg down into.  Glad nobody got hurt.  I see no plausible side passages.  The black material might be tar adhesive for cork, but given the state of disrepair is more likely nasty fungus stuff.

So how to put this all together?

Please consider this nothing more than educated speculation.  But I have had a chance to examine the brewery caves of enterprises large and small, old and new, successful and....otherwise.

I think what we are seeing here is the original 1870's lagering cave.  It's not big, but just maybe big enough.  The brewery put up around 500 barrels of beer in 1875, and if we assume it was not all in one batch you could almost manage it with this space.  Or a bit more, but we'll get to that part.  There have always been features of this cave that did not make sense.  For instance the rather formidable "ante chamber".  For a simple cave that lead into the nice convenient space of the brewery basement this engineering is rather over the top.

I wonder if this was actually a cave adjacent to the original brewery?  Fires in 1882 and 1883 did a lot of damage.  After the second fire the brewery was rebuilt on a larger scale.  Honestly this complex of buildings and additions is quite the architectural mess.

Let's tidy things up a bit.  Here's what the brewery looked like in 1915.

The cave we've been looking at is, of course, straight back from those big double doors.  The massive barn like structure on the left is certainly the 1880's rebuild.  Or part of it.  Now, in 1934 there was a detailed architectural study made of the structure.  

You can see the big wing off to the left.  That's the 1880's "barn" area.  Now full of ageing vats.  They would have had mechanical refrigeration by then.  You can also see up at the top, the little extension that is the two chambers of the "caves".  You do NOT see the space beyond the wall, so that was sealed off by the 1930's.  You also do not see any other caves coming off what looks like solid back walls.  But if they ignored one sealed off archway it is reasonable to assume they could ignore others.

The area to consider carefully is in that 1880's addition.  It was not open for a look on this visit, but last time I was there here's the back wall of it.

Drywall.  Or maybe just mostly dry.  This was installed during the memory of my friends up at the bar.  They spoke admiringly of the massive construction of the wall hidden behind it.  And told me that water seeping through was a big enough issue that they had to install drain pipes back there to divert it.  Oh, and it seemed to be particularly bad around some odd places that looked like sealed off doorways.....

Until some day when the moisture finally wins and the drywall is replaced, I'll just keep assuming that there are additional storage caves back there.  The output of the brewery in the 1880's was presumably more than the original cave could handle, and I deem it unlikely that they'd have gone early for the mechanical refrigeration.  It was not a successful enough operation to be an early adopter of expensive new technology.

That leaves one additional mystery.  How would you fit 500 plus nuclear refugees into this place?  Per the 1934 drawing there was no way they could have shown whoever came around for a look any caves that would come close.  So it must have been the basement space in my last photo.  And while this is cheating a bit I want to be fair.  The ceiling of this was supporting huge brew kettles and other heavy things.  It is supported by beams and girders, and has a ridiculous composition of thick layers of wood and three or four inches of honest to goodness concrete.  It would be a plausible fallout shelter despite having its front section be above ground.  A number of civil defense signs found in this area would seem to back this theory up.

Maybe when the inspector came around in the early 1960's he looked at the actual cave, shook his head sadly....and then got into a friendly discussion with the locals over a couple of beers.  "Ah, heck.  Close enough for Government work!"

I would be remiss if I did not mention that the Old Bloomer Brewery Bar and Grill  served up a great burger and fries, and although I was - due to other commitments - not able to enjoy a beer or two, that should not stop any of you from doing so!

Baseball....and a lot more, at Athletic Park

My recent post on the Baseball Riot of 1903 gave me a nudge to finish up a bit of research that had previously only been a vague set of questions.  And, the history of Athletic Park in Chippewa Falls did not disappoint.  So lets talk about it's rise, heyday, decline, fall and revival, shall we?

I suppose there is no way to know just when baseball - and other things - were first played here.  In the 19th century, heck on into our times, kids got a pickup game going on any open space.  But it is safe to assume that there was nothing organized before the Great Floods of 1880/84.  And a birdseye view from 1885 shows nothing but an empty field.

But in 1894 a couple of local businessmen got their act together and built something more substantial.  Nice leveled off field, grandstand bleachers.  Interestingly the accounts of the day suggest that there were some previous bleachers but that they were not that great.  So I'd theorize that the site was in use for playing ball starting at some point between 1885 and 1894.  Here's the best view of Athletic Park, from a birdseye view created in 1906.

Chippewa River behind the grandstands.  Canal street off a ways beyond the outfield fence.  Not too much else right at hand, although as I mentioned previously somewhere nearby was the Rosseau House, pioneer boozery of our fair community.  It survived the floods and was moved to someplace very close to the ball field.  I'm not sure which building.  And to put a sort of end point on the story, here's a plat map from 1938...it shows the site vacant.  But not forgotten!  Construction of the city ball field on the spot must have come later.  Post WWII I figure.

So, on to what happened on the grounds of Old Athletic Park.

The history begins, naturally for baseball, in the spring.  Of 1894 specifically.  The May 15th edition of the local paper announces that a five acre lot "on the South Side" had been purchased and that work was about to start.  The primary purpose was baseball but there was mention of also putting in a bicycle track.  An ice skating rink came later.

By the end of May games were already being played.  It was mentioned that ladies got free admission, and that there were provisions for 40 - 50 carriages....you could watch the ball game from the comfort of your 19th century horse n' buggy!

By June construction had begun on a grand stand that could hold 700-800 fans.  Brief mention that it was much sturdier than an earlier structure could mean there had been previous play on the site....or maybe they just tossed out some simple bleachers in May.

It's not easy recounting the ball games, and other things, that happened at Athletic Park.  It is clearly a story too long for a casual posting - and too short for a book.  So here's a sampling.  Bear in mind that this was a privately run, for profit enterprise, and so the level of hype and hoopla is significant.

There were of course amateur teams representing most of the area communities.  Eau Claire, Mondovi, Rice Lake.  And further afield, from places like Minneapolis and Saint Paul.  

Of somewhat greater interest were the specialty teams.  Married Men vrs. the Less Fortunate.  Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire Post Office employees squaring off.  There was a game between railroad union members from Chippewa Falls and from the adjacent suburb of Irvine, aka Wallerville.   

Businessmen took on Bankers, the two high schools in town played each other (usually in football), enigmatic local teams such as The Crescents and Moonshiners played for a $20 "stake".

Some of the games thus undertaken are a bit, well, jarring to modern sensibilities.  In 1910 a team called Baby Bliss' Fat Men came to town.  The aforementioned Baby Bliss was a 640 pound catcher, with the rest of the team of like proportions.  They came out of Waterloo Iowa, courtesy of the Fat Men's Amusement Company.*

In 1901 a team of Native Americans came up from Nebraska.  The Nebraska Redskins took on the Chippewa Whites.  

On at least two occasions local Gun Clubs held competitive pigeon shoots.  Not clay pigeons, real ones.  In 1896 one such 3 hour exhibition had the Chippewa Falls squad beating the Eau Claire group by a tally of 48 - 47 dead birds.

Of the most interesting game played I'll have more to say on another occasion.  But this was an era of "Bloomer Baseball".  No, not teams from the neighboring community of Bloomer, but "girls" teams that barnstormed playing men's teams.  In August of 1909 The Chicago Ladies came to town.  As was generally the case, there were a couple of guys on the team, usually playing higher skilled positions such as pitcher and catcher.  They were expected to wear wigs.  I'm not sure if they had to wear skirts, or later the weird short pants called "bloomers" after the Suffragette, Amelia Jenks Bloomer!

As the years went by things started changing at Athletic Park.  There were more football games.  And the facility must have gone down hill a bit.  By 1911 it was referred to as Old Athletic Park, and by 1919 it was just called the Southside Ball park.  By then the newspaper was openly saying a new field was necessary, and indeed one was built at the current fairgrounds around that time.  The last game I can find referenced was in June of 1919, and it was noted that the field was in poor shape with lots of tall grass growing up.**

We've certainly seen in modern times that sports facilities are built, age, decline.  Communities build newer, better ones.  At this point in history the South Side really was a seedy part of town.  And perhaps the disruption of World War I and the subsequent influenza pandemic contributed to the grass growing tall on a once busy sports complex.

-------------------------------------------------

* Here's the sad story of Baby Bliss.  The team was short lived but amazingly there are some surviving photos and jerseys out there....

** Another factor may have been the death of Maurice Poznanski, one of the businessmen who launched this venture.  He passed in 1917.  Odd that his name is still on the property map two decades later.  Especially since the Poznanski had by the time of his death, moved to Minneapolis and changed his name to Pond.

The Baseball Riot of 1903

In honor of the start of Pitchers and Catchers reporting to Spring Training, a little baseball story from the history of Chippewa Falls.  It happened here:

This is a birdseye view created in 1906.  The ball diamond is fainted titled "Athletic Park". It is on the South Side of town, in roughly the area once known as Frenchtown.  To be more precise, Frenchtown historically was in the open area just downstream from the ballpark, but people still used - in fact still do use - the term a bit liberally.  And in this case perhaps appropriately, as Frenchtown was always the site of much mischief...  

The story is related in an article dated August 18th, 1903, with the title:

BASEBALL GAME ENDS IN TROUBLE

It sounds like quite the messy affair.  Evidently the Eau Claire manager, a man named Peterson, refused to take action when a group of his fans got out onto the field and obstructed the base paths.  Chippewa Falls fans obviously took exception to this and went out to try removing them by force.  

It was said that at one time there were three "scraps" going on - presumably individual or group in nature, and that there was work for "an army of policemen".  There actually were some police officers on hand, and they came in for criticism for not collaring the ring leaders.  Arrests were made, most notably of a Chester Bell.  He was said to be doing no worse than several others, but as we'll see, he was a dubious character.

With the score actually being debatable due to fan interference, the umpire eventually adjusted the final tally from 8-5 for Chippewa Falls to a 9-0 victory.  I'm aware of no existing rule that would justify this.  Although the Eau Claire manager came in for criticism, and may also have been arrested, the teams were not involved and were said to be gentlemen.   

A few parting thoughts on the nature of lawlessness on the south side of Chippewa Falls.  As mentioned above, this is in a loose sense the area called Frenchtown.  This was the earliest European settled site in the current city limits and has always been a place of raised glasses, raised tempers and mischief.  That remarkable pre-Civil War community was essentially wiped out by floods in 1880 and 1884.  But.....  The oldest and most notorious saloon in old Frenchtown, the Rosseau House survived the floods and was taken a couple hundred yards upstream to a location described as "..moved to the ball park.." where it continued on as a saloon.  Sadly for today's narrative it had been moved again one year prior to the Baseball Riot and converted to a private residence  another couple hundred yards up on higher ground.

Chester Bell would seem to be a 20th century version of a typical Frenchtowner.  I may be mixing up two different men here, but the newspapers of both Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire have numerous references to a man of that name.  In the 1890's he was a peripheral figure in a burglary ring and escaped from the Eau Claire jail.  Recaptured he did a few years behind bars.  Later a gent of the same name had several instances where he claimed to suffer injuries, usually walking on old plank sidewalks, and sued for damages.  Certainly seems like our lad.  Being tossed in jail after the baseball game he was given the option of paying a $100 fine or sitting it out and having his day in court.  He went with the former.

And then tried unsuccessfully to have the money paid back to him!

Athletic Park was built in 1894, although there are suggestions that the site may have been used informally for a longer time.  It's demise is not well documented, but by 1919 subscriptions were being sought to fund a new field on the site of the Fair Grounds over on the "respectable" side of town.  Over those roughly 25 seasons a lot of interesting contests were held there.  But those ae stories for another day.

Interestingly, the legacy of baseball on this exact spot continued.  I came to town in 1985.  It was a decade or so later when my oldest son was playing ball.  One year, perhaps 1987 or so, the baseball playoffs for his league were thrown off schedule by several days of torrential rain.  His game was rescheduled, and moved to Murphy Field, an old and seldom used facility on the south side.  I remember that we didn't play all that well in this game, but that the field was impressive.  Back behind home plate there were huge walls rising up, clad in some sort of cement if I remember rightly.  Not long after this area became pat of the sprawling city yard waste dump and gravel storage lot.  Until about 9 years ago there was still a lonely concessions stand along the first base side, waiting for customers who would never return.  

Here's the site today, with Murphy Field and Athletic Field roughly marked off.   Athletic Park in blue, with the batter hitting the ball from roughly where the word Riverside sits.  Murphy Field in red, where none of our little leaguers were in danger of plunking one into the river despite the outfield being in that direction.  Those buildings around the edge are on top of that big wall.  Fun to have a century of baseball, and more, in one spot.  Notice that there is a rail line, more riverbank, and a new road since the early days.

Soda Bottling in Chippewa Falls - Part Three, and Some Mysteries

I actually got started on doing the story of the later Soda bottlers of Chippewa Falls when my brother gave me this:

At first glance its nothing special.  Just a wooden box with the company name painted on.  But taking a closer look we see......

There are some painted over letters.  Hard to bring out in a photo, they can more easily be felt.  I think they were originally branded on with a hot stencil as was the usual practice with wooden beer and soda boxes.  That accounts for the slight depression of the lettering, which reads:

ST. PAUL BOTTLING COMPANY

BEVERAGES

ST. PAUL, MINN.

This one lead me on a bit of a chase.  Before I had fully deciphered it I was wondering if it might have come from THIS company.  The time period would fit.  But on closer reading I figured out that this St. Paul Bottling Company was from St. Paul, Virginia!  Nobody would ship a batch of cheap wooden boxes that far.

There was another St. Paul Bottling Company in the far more plausible St. Paul, Minnesota, but my first source put it in the 1880s.  It was probably the bottling branch of one of the big St. Paul breweries back in the day when the law required a bit of corporate separation.  But that's a bit far back for a soda box that presumably was in use in the 1950's give or take a few years.  So it was time for a bit more digging.  And that lead me to this 1898 bit:

This tells a story.  I tend to think of the beer brewing industry as being a place of massive closures and consolidations.  And it was.  From a peak in the 1870s where every town of any consequence had one or more breweries the industry had whittled down to a few dozen survivors during my thirsty college years.  The soda industry had something similar happening, although the same Prohibition in the 1920's and 30's that wiped out any borderline breweries proved a short term life saver to small bottlers.  But eventually, Coke, Pepsi and a few others just took over the soft drink world.  And still dominate it today if you exclude weird new creations like Energy Drinks.

The new St. Paul Bottling Company was going at least into the mid 1920's, but don't know exactly when they went under.  Wooden cases can and do sit piled up in warehouses for decades, so I assume H & H bought these sometime soon after their founding in 1946.  Unless in fact C.E. Kleis had stockpiled them earlier.

With a story like this there will always be things we can't know.  So I'll conclude with another small mystery. 

I'm still wondering why C.E. Kleis would have moved all the way to Chippewa Falls to engage in the soda business.  His dad had been running a very successful one right in Dubuque since the early 1860's.   

Was there some connection between Dubuque Iowa and Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin?

Sometimes you find unlikely clues.

Back in the 1980's I was new to town.  There was a development project going on along the river front.  This was one of the earliest parts of Chippewa Falls, and I was pleased to get permission to do a bit of salvage archaeology on the site before the bulldozers made a hash of it.

One of the many early artifacts we came up with was an 1850's bottle from Dubuque Iowa.  It was from Belcher & Company, one of the earliest soda bottlers in the state of Iowa.  

It seems such an odd coincidence, although coincidence is of course quite likely.  But you don't suppose that maybe, a young C.E. Kleis the senior was working for Belcher in the years before starting his own company?  And maybe came up river to the wilderness of Chippewa Falls circa 1860?  (For reasons even my imagination can't conjure up!).  Chippewa Falls is a pretty town now and was likely even nicer back then.  Nice enough for for Kleis the Elder to recommend that his son C.E. Junior pursue an opportunity to buy out Albert Nunke some forty years later?

(Incidentally, the bottle shown here is quite likely the very example my brother and I dug up.  They are super rare, and we made sure it ended up in the collection of one of our Iowa friends).

Soda Bottling in Chippewa Falls - Part Two, Times More Recent....

Here's Part One of the Story

Between Albert Nunke and his father in law, soda pop production in our community was "all in the family" from the 1860's to the dawn of the 20th century.  But then, in 1904, Nunke sold the business to a man named C.E. Kleis out of Dubuque Iowa.

Kleis puzzles me a little.  His father had been bottling soda in Dubuque since the 1860's, and had a seemingly very successful business.  So why didn't the son take over?  One of those little mysteries without answers.

Although Kleis bought the business, and would have been laboring in the bottling plant out back, it seems likely that the Nunkes continued to live in the house.  An old patient of mine remembers Mrs. Nunke - probably from the 1930's - as being a very stern and crabby woman!  History is interesting...someone I knew had known the daughter of a man who was bottling pop during the Civil War!

Kleis in some ways kept things much the same.  His first bottles were of the soon to be outmoded "Hutchinson" style, just as Nunke had used.

But change was on the horizon in the soda pop business.  

Crown top bottles, the ones you had to pry off the bottle cap with an opener, became the norm by about 1910.  The Great War pulled America in, and we became part of the wider world.  And then in 1919 the ill considered experiment of Prohibition was launched.

This was in general a boon to soda manufacturers.  I mean, people gotta drink something!

The location next to Irvine Park was a lucky accident.  Soon a fellow named Leidhold stepped up.  In a 1909 article in the paper it is noted:

TO PARK VISITORS

"C.M. Leidhold has filled a long-felt want for visitors and picnic parties at the park.  He has erected a building 12x16 feet just west of the Kleis pop factory and will serve lunch, ice cream, soft drinks and candy.  Tables to sit down at and eat lunch or ice cream.  Parties who do not care to build a fire to cook coffee can have it cooked in the good old way at the stand.  Don't fail to visit the stand.  The down town sausage shop will be closed at 7 o'clock evenings except Saturday."

(I assume that last part was some other stand that Leidhold ran?)

Business seems to have been good.  Kleis ads from the 1920's list an array of products for sale.  Most were generic names, suggesting they were made by Kleis:  Orange, Lemon and Lime Crush.  Cherry, Raspberry, Birch Beer.  Cream Soda, Ginger Ale.

Hires Root Beer makes the list, presumably an early example of bottling under license.  Oddly, Iron Brew was also offered for sale.  I only know this as the vile concoction that is the unofficial soft drink of Scotland.  But it actually was originally an American product!

The Kleis family seems to have been fairly prominent socially as well.  The paper has lots of references to Mrs. C.E. Kleis having ladies in for tea, or going off to make social calls here and there.

Kleis had a good run.  But it was not without a few difficulties.  At some point the original Nunke bottling works burned down.  Kleis moved the operation, apparently to this spot:

The building on the end, 19 East Central Street.  A location that no longer exists.  The building had an interesting history.  It was the original City Library, then became arguably the first dedicated movie theater in Chippewa Falls.  

In January 1946 the Kleis bottling works was sold to a partnership of Sylvan Hurt and Clarence Holtz, who continued the business as H & H Beverage.  Holtz, who ran a candy company, dropped out a few years later and his "H" was taken over by Walmar Hurt, Sylvan's younger brother.  I actually knew this guy, as he lived until 2010!  As you'd expect from a more recent company, there are lots of examples of H & H products out there.  Many are "painted label" sodas, and most were bottled under license.  Here's a few ads and artifacts from H & H.

This ad is from 1967....99 years of soda pop in Chippewa Falls.  Vess was a brand out of St. Louis that H & H made under contract.

A few years later, in 1973, came the news that H & H was being purchased by J D Distributing Company.  There was mention of a move to a new plant under construction on the East Hill, but that location is empty and looks to have been that way for a good while.  The notice of purchase lists a price $15,000, which seems pretty low.  The new owners were planning on phasing out the H & H brands and "distributing the Grafs label".

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The Leidhold food stand might still be standing!  Here's a curious structure of about the right dimensions.  It is on the back side of the block from the Soda plant, in a westerly direction.  It "looks" like a common woodshed, but has an atypical location fronting right onto the street.  There could have been steps going down to the park below.  It's hard to say since this area does not appear on plat maps of the city in this era.

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To be complete I should mention that the Chippewa Spring Water Company was also active in this era, and did sell an assortment of flavored things you could call soda pop.  Another story, and one that also needs to be updated.  Another day.

Soda Bottling in Chippewa Falls - Part One, the Early Years

When you study the history of a Wisconsin community the Brewing Industry looms large.  Most medium sized towns had several breweries and they were a significant element of local culture.

Soda pop bottling is mostly unrecognized.   

So I guess it's time to revisit, update and extend the history of soda pop bottling in Chippewa Falls.

I've covered some of this in the past.  For instance the brief attempt by Schofield, Garon and Hebert to establish a soda pop factory in the late 1860s.  They seem to have set up shop, ordered the equipment and bottles, gotten things going....and then quit after a few months in 1868.

I think that, among other problems, they had a measure of competition.  Matt Johannes had come to next door Eau Claire in 1860, starting the areas first soda pop factory a few years later.  He may well have operated in Chippewa Falls too.  Fragments of his distinctive 1870's bottles turn up on occasion, and he is known to have owned commercial property in town. 

A 1936 newspaper article with the headline "Landmarks in Chippewa are Being Razed" has this to say:

"Two of the oldest landmarks in Chippewa Falls are being torn down.  They are the two buildings located at 409 and 411 Bridge Street, owned by Mrs. Albert Nunke of this city.  Both are frame buildings and were erected about 60 years ago (Note, that would only put them in the late 1870s)....The properties were formerly owned by Mrs. Nunke's father, the late Math Johannes of Eau Claire."

The article mentions that various businesses were carried on there, including a tailor and a barber shop, but the logical thing for a soda pop bottler to do with a building in a near by community would be to sell pop there!

While a storefront operation would do just fine to store, sell and most importantly to collect your returned bottles, it would take a bit more involvement to actually set up and start manufacturing soda.  Perhaps after a while business was good and the bother of hauling wagon loads of clinking bottles with sticky residue all the way down to Eau Claire just got to be too much.  And Johannes also needed to do something with young Albert....

Albert Nunke was born in Prussia in 1853, emigrating to the United States in 1867.  In 1874 he joined the army, serving five years and supposedly being engaged in various skirmishes with hostile Indians.  He turns up in Eau Claire circa 1879 and spends the next few years learning the 

soda business from Matt Johannes.  While also apparently making goo goo eyes at the boss's daughter Mary!  After marrying the gal Nunke started his own bottling works in Chippewa Falls, with the most likely starting date of 1882. 

Nunke's factory and his home - still standing btw - was on Jefferson Street.  In the 1880's this would have been on the edge of town.  But it turned out to be a pretty good location.  Because eventually it would be right next to the biggest park in the city.  Irvine Park specifically.  But the benefits of that would come to the next owner of the business, as the park was not officially established until 1906.

Albert Nunke's life, at least the part after the Indian fighting days, does not sound very interesting.  He bottled soda pop until 1904.  I found one mention of him at that time also being involved in, of all things, selling washing machines...maybe bottle washers?  His second career was selling insurance, something he did up until his death in 1920.  He was also a City Councilman for many years.

His later life was characterized by ill health.  He had heart troubles and was diabetic, in an era before effective treatments.  So his passing was not a surprise.  But....he went out with class.

It seems his daughter Mayme was getting married.  With Albert's failing health there was discussion of whether the ceremony should be delayed.  But he insisted that it go on as scheduled, saying "Never postpone it on my account.  I will be there to eat a piece of wedding cake."

Strong words, but his strength failed him.  But the wedding went off as planned.  When he was told that it had happened he was too weak to speak, but is said that a "smile of satisfaction" came over his face.  He died the next day.

Here's a photo of the Nunke House.  The soda plant was back behind it.   

For the continued story of soda pop in Chippewa Falls, there will be a Part Two shortly.

The Taverns of Old Chippewa Falls - Part Three. The Earliest? And some other Guys.

For those who live elsewhere, Wisconsin has a long established "tavern culture".  Not quite as integral as pub culture in England, but still very important.  So it's natural for a local historian to want to explore its origins.  And also, its much harder than you'd think.

Regards Chippewa Falls the two complicating factors are where exactly you draw the community lines, and the reality that every hotel, store, boarding house and for all I know, church, would offer you a taste of something on request.  So what constitutes a tavern?

My criteria are that an establishment must be called a "tavern" or "house", it must be in the current city limits, and it must be 1860 or earlier.  The Civil War and its aftermath completely transformed the community.  A big chunk of the population departed to join the Union Army, and when they returned its hard to call it the Pioneer era.

I've already covered some early taverns and their owners:

Moses Hebert, or "Old Moses".  He shows up in the 1870 census as Moses Aber.  But he is mentioned as being in the liquor business in the 1850's.

Peter Rosseau, who seems to have been the sort of unofficial Mayor of Frenchtown.  He was probably operating the Rosseau House in the 1840s.  And although the history of Frenchtown is fragmentary there would have been other establishments operating early.

Oh, and then there's the whole crazy Mother Fossler story.

Let's add a few more from the 1860 Census.  It gives a few names.  Not much more than names, but still something.

Ferdinand Tish.  Saloon.  Age 32, born Germany.  Value of property $200.

Peter Lamare.  Saloon. Age 27, born Germany.  Value of property $500.

Peter Lazo.  Saloon Keeper.  Age 60 and born in Canada, so evidently not the same guy listed above.

And then there's Tim Hurley, who was pouring drinks in 1849.

Hurley was one of a crew of guys who came up from Galena Illinois in 1848, shortly after Wisconsin became a state.  The lead mines were playing out a bit, and a wealthy merchant named Bloomer decided to round up a crew of river men and perhaps under employed miners, come upriver and try a new venture.  Going past Chippewa Falls they started to build a mill upstream at a location called Eagle Rapids.  How the nearby community of Bloomer got its name is a little...complicated.

Mr. Bloomer decided this was not for him, so after a short time he sold his interests to some locals and went home.  Hurley and some other guys lingered on, getting involved in the unpleasant lynching I've mentioned earlier.

Hurley's establishment was variously described as a tavern and a place where gambling went on.  It was not spoken of favorably.  That's just about all I can tell you regards Mr. Hurley.  He was said to have married, almost certainly a local Ojibway woman, and was still here for the 1850 census albeit being listed as a laborer.

Beyond that point he is lost to history, what with a common name and an era where very little of what was going on was written down at all.  I wonder if he, like others in that footloose time he decided to try his luck out in California when the Gold Rush got well and truly started....

Trying to pin down a location for Hurley's tavern is no easy task.  But I think I can put you close.  In a time before significant road travel everything faced onto the river.  The banks are altered somewhat since then, but that narrows it down.  It is also fair to assume that he would not be set up in the "company town" area right near the Falls.  So in this photo I'm standing approximately where the first tavern on this side of the river would have been.

On the left is the building where our robotics team got its start.  It is now an upscale "Market Place" where you can purchase interesting food and such.  The small building on the other side of the parking lot is The Ritz, a sort of benign descendent of the first drinking and gambling joint.  I have it on good authority that you can get a glass of refreshment and some quasi-legal "pull tabs" there.  And back behind, on the part of the block across the alley, you can see a single large tree.  This is not the sinister white pine on which the Native man was hung in 1849, but is in roughly the same location.  Also quite near the 1850's first cemetery of Chippewa Falls.  Happier vibes as seen on a sunny, early fall day.