Detritus of Empire - Fall of 2019

Summer is over and its time to switch gears.   I'm back in school, taking an electronics course at the local tech.  I'll be doing a number of talks on subjects of interest.  I'm back supervising middle school robotics.  

Until I change my mind and do something else, the Detritus of Empire Line up should be:

Mondays:  What ever I find curious in the world.
Wednesdays:  Local history topics.
Fridays:  Robotics updates.

I'll try to keep it interesting.  I'll also generally avoid the infrequently used subject headings "The Modern World" and "Just Politics".  These topics are at best tedious.

Although I prefer Spring as a season I can't deny that Fall is when many interesting things get up and running.  Travel plans for next year's archaeology jaunt.  A new, rebuilding FIRST robotics team.  And whatever else comes along.

 

The Brewery and Distillery of E.R. Hantzsch

OK, lets start off with another photo of the fabulous E.R. Hantzsch pottery beer...

This one still has the wire bale attached.  It held in a cork and was presumably sealed at Hantzsch's brewery.  But where was that?  If you slogged through my recent entry on Hantzsch you can be forgiven for a bit of confusion.  Welcome to the world of local history research!  Street names change, spellings mutate, buildings burn down and are replaced, sometimes wrong info is put out as accurate.

But a couple of articles from the Eau Claire Leader in 1932 cast a bit of light onto matters.  The interest in whiskey and beer was not doubt enhanced by the presence of Prohibition, although to be fair in Wisconsin the Volsteadt Act was more an abstract concept than the Law of the Land. Perhaps the best way to tell the tale is to quote the articles, with photos, maps and annotations as needed.  First from May 4th, 1932.

SECRET BASEMENT, TUNNEL ARE DISCOVERED IN RUINS OF OLD BREWERY BUILDING.

May Have Housed Secret Still in Old Days.

"In the final operations incident to tearing down Eau Claire's first brewery, the old Edward R. Hantzsch building at 413 South River Street, built during or about the time of the Civil War, workmen Monday uncovered a secret basement, 20 feet long and about 6 feet wide, at the north end of the building."

Here's the site today.  

As the name implies, River Street which is seen above, fronts on the river.  So the building in question faced this way.  As only made sense in the day before railroads...the river was the main transportation artery.  A map of the site from 1883, just a few years after the Hantzsch enterprise vanished.  The text is upside down here as I have rotated it so that you are looking the same direction as the photo.

The building being referred to is in the center of the block.  The little alley you see in the photo seems to be present in this view as well.  No cellar on the north end of the building but there is a well marked as one would expect.

And here's an 1897 view with more detail.  This time I have not rotated it.  You can see the "alley" clearly...right where the number 4 sits.  Note that the "brewery" is listed as vacant and is made of stone.  The back of the alley ends at 410 South Barstow.  Next door is 412, a Sausage Factory at the time this map was made.

To resume parts of the 1932 narrative:

(The secret basement) "..was separated from the main basement by a solid 16-inch stone wall, with no opening from one end to the other."..."Although there was no opening or passageway between the basement proper and this secret chamber, through the partition wall, there was an opening at the east end of the chamber leading to a secret tunnel or passageway which turned south outside the east wall, following that wall south to a point under the old wagon entrance to the brewery building."

This is a bit hard to follow, making it unclear whether the "wagon entrance" was at current ground level with the tunnel under it or perhaps the wagon entrance was below current street level.  The basement was not explored, just filled in with rubble.

The connection between the Hantzsch brewery and distillery is discussed in this article:

"...Hantzsch operated a distillery in the building a few yards east of the brewery building, which abuts on the George Platner building which fronts on 412 South Barstow Street.  The old distillery, which operated under government license, is being remodeled and refitted as a used car exchange."

Both of the plat maps above show a substantial building at 412 Barstow, one that is unlikely to be of Civil War vintage.  But there is that odd partition in the middle of it, so perhaps the allusion to it "abutting" the building at 412 means that it was the back half of it.   Here's 412 South Barstow today.

  

Its a movie theater turned urban church.  The building to the right can be seen at the back of the "alley".  There should be some of the early E.R. Hantzsch building in there somewhere but given the space needs of a theater it could not be much above ground level.

During the renovations at 412 Barstow workers are said to have found lots of lead pipes.  There was speculation of an underground, off the books still, but again the space was not explored and a cement floor was poured over it.

An earlier article on April 30th 1932 gave a few  more details.

- Both the brewery and distillery buildings were owned by a Ross L. Waser who ran a used car exchange.

-The second story of the distillery (fronting on Barstow) had been a small dance hall associated with the enterprise.  Mentions of social events at "Hantzsch's Hall" appear in the 1870's newspapers.  This second story was removed and a roof put on what would become the office of the Waser business.  Note that the modern building is decidedly not a one story affair.  

- The buildings were reported to be 70 years old but in good condition.  The demolition work was quite difficult.

The Hollywood Theater opened for business in 1947 after what is described as a two year building process....prolonged due to war time shortages of materials.

On the whole I'd give the local reporters good marks for their detective work.  It is likely that the building facing River Street was the original part of the complex and from contemporary mentions it can be dated to 1866.  Not Civil War era but close.  Hantzsch was probably cooking up whiskey, vinegar and maybe beer before that, perhaps in a smaller facility closer to his tavern some three blocks north.  In general brewing and distilling are not ideal neighbors to an eating and drinking establishment. There tends to be a degree of odor and considerable fire risk.  Oh, and there was at least one brewery in Eau Claire in the late 1850's, clearly predating Hantzsch.

I've not been inside the Hollywood Theater.  It may have been hanging on when I moved to the area in 1985 but not for long after.  And as to its more recent religious incarnation my church going preferences are more along sedate Lutheran lines.  Besides, were I sitting there on a Sunday morning it would be impossible for me not to look towards the pulpit up front and visualize a network of whiskey pipes, secret basements and fantastic pottery beer bottles directly underneath! 

Back to School - or - The Annual Confusing of the Bureaucrats!

Every fall since I retired I have been "back to school" in one sense or another.  I've taken classes at the local tech school.  Last fall I went back to college to brush up my German.  It's fun....if you take it seriously enough but not too seriously.  And in Wisconsin - as I have mentioned - it is basically free.  Just a little thank you from The Great Badger for decades of paying taxes.

Not nearly enough retirees take advantage of this option.  In part because it is not widely acknowledged.  You almost have to know which office door to knock on and whisper the secret pass word.  Especially since many of these offices at the tech school are staffed by current students or perhaps recent grads.  

I had kicked around the idea of being a substitute teacher in our district.  (Eventually opting against it.....I think I'd be good at it but in an age of easy offense and on line vilification I'd have to be a hermit regards anything I post anywhere).  Eventually I decided it was time to go back to Tech and take an electronics course I fancied.

So, up to the admissions office.  Pick a time when it should not be busy.  Select a likely looking clerk and announce that I had a challenge for her.

"I'm over 60, want to audit a course, need to register manually instead of on line, and today being one week before term starts is the first day I'm allowed to do so."  I might as well have been speaking Portuguese but she hung in there.  Screens were brought up on her computer.  Attempts to enter data were made.  An older employee, and then another were consulted.

"How many people does it usually take to make this happen?", I was asked.

"Oh, usually three will suffice".

In the end it was possible to register me but that part about tuition being free was just a bit much for the Business Office to figure out.  I'd planned on coming back in a week to get a parking pass and so forth so I left expressing confidence that clerk number Four would have it all sorted by then.

Class starts in two days so let us hope my confidence is not misplaced!

Me versus the neighborhood punks

We've had a lot of "Nature" going on in the back yard this summer.  Maybe we've let the garden go a little wild, maybe the neighbors are keeping their cats indoors more.  Mostly its been a plus, the Raccoon Depredations on our pond notwithstanding.

But in the last couple of weeks there have been some actions by our fuzzy pals that cannot be ignored.  Every tomato gets stolen, partly eaten and discarded.  Bean vines get nipped off at the base, evidently just to see what they taste like.  Eventually my wife ordered me into action.

The culprits appeared to be chipmunks and bunnies.  With a mandate to remove but not kill them a live trap was needed.  I had one on hand but the mesh was too wide for chipmunks.  Having a Secret Robotics Workshop comes in handy....I just added a casing of clear polycarbonate.  Tough, bullet resistant, more than enough for these characters.

Ready for deployment.  Right under the bean arbor and next to the tomatoes. 

A captured perp trying to look innocent.  Notice that I am using for bait the very tomatoes they fancy so much.

More cute, equally guilty.  A baby bunny.

When I tell my better half that I am taking them "For a little ride over the river" I mean it literally.  I'm not mean.  I want them to have decent little rodent lives somewhere else.  Or maybe not, foxes gotta eat too.  Good luck ya little striped rat.

---------
Current tally is seven chipmunks, one bunny and a bat.  Although the latter was captured in the house with a net - and safely released - it counts in the seasonal campaign against Critterdom.

E. R. Hantzsch - A closer Look

I've mentioned E. Robert Hantzsch in my article on "The Cave of the Mad Poetess".  But in addition to excavating the cave that the colorful Maude Phillips took up residence in many years later, Hantzsch was an interesting character in his own right.

Today Hantzsch is a forgotten figure, known only to collectors of breweriana.  Here is almost certainly the oldest beer bottle from this part of Wisconsin.

Like most brewers Hantzsch was originally from Germany.  He had some training in the Prussian army and before coming to Eau Claire Wisconsin in 1859 fought in Nicaragua  as a mercenary in William Walker's ill starred take over of that Central American nation in 1856/57.

He makes his first appearance in the public eye in association with a brief, ridiculous Indian scare that gripped Eau Claire in 1862.  With the Lakota tribe rising up on the Minnesota frontier there were fears that the local Ojibway might do likewise.  There were confusing eye witness accounts....one fellow who reported lurking warriors in the nearby river bottoms was known to be a chronic liar and rascal.  The search party that went out took him along.....and also brought a rope to hang him if he was proven to have lied!  (Some peaceable accommodation was reached, probably of the "Get out of Dodge" variety).

But a local defense force was still needed.  And one of the leaders was by acclamation, E.R. Hantzsch.  An account twenty five years after the fact says:

'....all the able bodied men in Eau Claire were ordered to University Hill to be drilled.  Capt. Hantzsch was detailed as drill sergeant.  He had once been in the Nicaragua war and was the only man in the county that owned a sword.  He gave the order to fall in, some were armed with grub pins, some with pike poles, others had brooms and fishing poles and here and there at long intervals a rusty musket....

Captain Hantzsch was in his element.  He had no difficulty with the bone and sinew, but experienced any amount of trouble with the lawyers, doctors and merchants who would persistently bulge out of line.  At length becoming furious he smote them with the flat of his sword in the abdomen and in a loud voice exclaimed "keep in line you d______d big bugs".'

Another 1875 account of the farcical "Scare" has the drilling take place in Union Square, and suggests that viewing the caliber of his troops Hantzsch decided that the best thing to do was provision them with plenty of tobacco and intoxicants.  Despite the lack of an opponent there were said to be many casualties the next morning.

For our subject, Hantzsch, was a saloon keeper and wholesale liquor dealer.  His establishment was at "The Sign of the Two Barrels" on the corner of Eau Claire and Farwell Streets.  As was usually the case with pioneer businessmen he was very diversified.  Ads in the 1860's indicate he sold everything from "whiskeys, brandies, gin, rums.." to "cigars, cheeses, sardines, herring, candles, almonds, raisins, etc."

At an early date he started dabbling with production as well as his wholesale and retail trade.  In 1862 he is claiming to be a "..rectifier of a superior article of whiskey.." and by 1866 he was also a "..manufacturer of a superior article of vinegar...".  One wonders if a few batches of the former went bad and produced the latter!

His distillery/vinegar plant was probably at 413 S. River street.  I'll have more to say on that matter in a future post.

Hantzsch's venture into brewing is a little hard to follow.  In 1867 he was advertising the sale of some distilling apparatus, indicating it had been used "..a few months only.." .  And circa 1870 Hantzsch appears to have been in partnership with a man named L. Parrish.  "L. Parrish and Co." manufactured XXX Cream Ale and Stock and was located "...on the site of the distillery formerly owned by ER Hantzsch..."  Even at that early date the product was available in bottles and various sizes of keg.

Through the early 1870's the enterprise seems to have gone well, even though Parrish had to split his time between brewing and his other job as village constable.  Presumably he arrested men intoxicated on the products of his "day job".  

By the mid 70's a few disquieting notes appeared.  The paper of course still carried his usual boilerplate ads, but also occasional personal notes.  Asking that people owing him money pay up.  Announcing a grand Re-Opening.  Asking that his returnable bottles and kegs be, well, returned.  I really like this last one, it gives a rare glimpse into the nuts and bolts of running a small brewing enterprise in 1873:

' All persons in possession of empty beer kegs branded with my name or branded "Parish" or both names branded thereon, also those persons who find themselves in possession of stone bottles, quarts and pints, with my name pressed in, are friendly requested to deliver the same at my store or leave word at my offices.  

E. Robert Hantzsch.

This makes it sound as if there was some transition in ownership of the business from Parish to Hantzsch.  It also flat out says that somewhere there are quart bottles that should be the big brothers to the pint specimen shown above.  I believe none has ever turned up but I'm happy just knowing they do exist somewhere.

The later years of Hantzsch's enterprises seem to show gradual decline.  His 19 year old son drowned in 1879.  By 1880 - the last year I can find a trace - his brewery was still going with a modest output of 300 barrels per year, but it was being run by his wife Emily.  E.R. Hantzsch moved to Minneapolis at about this time and died there in 1882, at the young age of 46.

Least Surprising Sign Ever

A Family Video outlet that somehow lingered on until 2019 recently closed.  I guess the surprising thing in an era of infinite video streaming is that it took so long.

It's down the street from assorted 19th century relics.  A big barn formerly used by brewery wagon horses.  Store fronts that once held small groceries.  A brick building - now condo'd up - that was once a biscuit factory.

Progress marches on.  Sometimes towards the better, sometimes not, but always marching.

Brew from Scratch Project - Early Update

Well, right around August 1st the barley crop, such as is was, suddenly matured.  You can tell this is so when the stalks get brown and start to tip drunkenly.

I had some concerns....these grains seemed smaller than the seeds I had planted, and I was wondering if I would in fact get less than I had put in.  Some sort of lesson on the economics of agriculture lurk beneath the surface...

Seed version on the left, harvested crop on the right.  Sigh.

But the hops are coming along nicely.  That new fence that played hob with last year's crop is also looking good.

The short growing season of the barley has encouraged me to plant a second crop.  If I get a decent stretch of weather I'll have more grain to malt later.  If not, I'll turn it under and have a better garden plot next spring.