Courtesy of the Anheuser-Busch Archives
1870s ad for the Bavarian Brewery, E. Anheuser & Co.
Lore has it that George Schneider owned the precursor to the Anheuser-Busch empire. But on May 7, 1857, Dr. Adam Hammer, using the name Bavarian Brewery, contracted with George Schneider to operate the plant described as being between Eighth and Ninth streets bounded on the south by “proposed Crittenden Street” (meaning the street was platted but never actually built), in the exact location of what is now the famous brew house in the middle of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery grounds. Schneider was not to spend or sell good worth more than $500 without first consulting Dr. Hammer, and was to brew lagerbier, the famous German style beer that had been popular in St. Louis since it was introduced by Adam Lemp in the 1840s. Schneider was to be paid $500 a year in monthly installments and was to live on the brewery grounds. The contract was officially recorded on May 22, 1857. The silly accounts of the Bavarian Brewery being a hole in the ground with a shack over it should not be taken seriously. There is no evidence of it ever being such a crude establishment.
An 1857 Bavarian Brewery ad, with George Schneider selling unfinished beer
Strangely, a June 21, 1857, article in the Daily Missouri Republican about city breweries lists both Hammer- and Schneider-operated breweries at the same time. A series of newspaper advertisements in the Westliche Post offers an important clue about why the partnership possibly ended after one year, and why past historians mistakenly believed George Schneider owned the Bavarian Brewery. On October 1, 1857, and on and off for an additional 18 days, an advertisement appeared with the following words in non-standardized German, “Baierische Bierbrauerei von Georg Schneider, an der 8. und der Crittenden Straβe, 2 Squares westlich von Linnenfelser’s Arsenelpark. Ausgezeichnetes Jungbier vorräthig zum Berlauf. All Bestellungen werden pünktlich ausgeführt.”
Translated, it reads:
“Bavarian Beer Brewery of George Schneider, at 8th and Crittenden Street, two blocks west of Linnenfelser’s Arsenal Park. Excellent newly fermented beer available to satisfaction. All orders filled on time.”
Reviewing the contract between Hammer and Schneider, one realizes that it says nothing about allowing Schneider to advertise the business as the “Bavarian Brewery of George Schneider.” An English language newspaper lists Hammer as the public face of the brewery in 1857. The contract also stated that Schneider was supposed to produce fully brewed lager beer, not unfinished beer. One begins to wonder if Schneider’s employment was terminated at the end of the year because he’d become a bit too “big for his britches.” No contract appears in 1858 between the two men.
In 1859, the city directory lists Schneider at “brewery and beersaloon, es Carondelet av. b. Anna & Harper.” This tells us he was on the move again and indeed had not lasted long working for Dr. Hammer at the Bavarian Brewery. (The doctor was having his own problems by 1859, as we shall see next week.)
The story at this point comes full circle, to that famous passage from Ernst Kargau’s St. Louis in früheren Jahren: Ein Gedenkbuch für das Deutschthum, often cited as part of the origins of the Schneider-Anheuser saga. Here it is:
“Between Lynch and Dorcas Street lay, on the east side of Carondelet Avenue, a not very high hill, on which the little brewery of George Schneider, who in the early 1850s had run the Washington Brewery on Third and Elm Street, was located. Related with said brewery was an Ausschank (Simple Bar, Draft Beer), and for the security of the visitors of the aforementioned on their way home, there was the small staircase leading up from the street fitted with a handrail to which those who swayed a little bit could hold on to if the necessity arose. In the hill itself was a cellar, which was honored with the name ‘Felsenkeller’ (Cellar in the Rock), although there was no trace of rock to be found. On the same side of the avenue, close to the Arsenal, was a Biergarten, which went by the name of Arsenal Park and where people went to dance on Sunday evenings.”
What Kargau does not say is as interesting as what he does say. He correctly states that Schneider operated the Washington Brewery at Third and Elm in the early 1850s; we have ample corroborating evidence to establish that. However, the first sentence about the “little brewery of George Schneider” on the east side of Carondelet Avenue (modern Broadway) in between Dorcas and Lynch gives no date. In fact, I now have evidence that Schneider’s operation of a small brewery at this location was not in the early 1850s and was not the Bavarian Brewery precursor of Anheuser-Busch, but rather came in and after 1860.
The first piece of evidence is the city directory of 1860, which states, “Schneider, George, brewer, Dorcas, ne. c. Carondelet av., r. same." The following year, a second piece of evidence appears: a mechanic’s lien that shows George Schneider operating a brewery at the Dorcas address much later than previously thought. John and Edward Hogan had installed a composition roof on what’s described as a two-story wood frame building, and Schneider had not paid their bill. The legal description, Lot 1 of Block 1 of the Rock Point Addition, places the property right where it should be, according to maps held by the Comptroller’s Office at City Hall. It seems that Schneider had attempted to restart his brewing career, but was again falling into financial difficulty.
Chromagraph print by Ulffers and Witteman; courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
Detail of an 1879 E. Anheusers & Co. ad showing the original brew house
When the Civil War broke out, the Union Army recorded a list of men in the city not eligible for enlistment due to various reasons. Schneider was listed as exempt due to his age. In 1862, with the death of an obscure man named Carl Braun, trouble arrived again for Schneider, and along with it, further proof that the brewery at Broadway and Dorcas was never the Bavarian Brewery. The details are sketchy, but from what I could ascertain from Braun’s estate filings, Schneider was renting the Broadway and Dorcas brewery building from the deceased beginning in 1858, shortly after ending his employment with Adam Hammer’s actual Bavarian Brewery. There are multiple rent payments in Braun’s probate file, attesting to an ongoing lease. Even more intriguing, the probate file includes a description of the brewery complex: a two-story house with one room downstairs and two upstairs, an unfinished one-story brewery building with cellars below ground, and a shed. Perhaps that’s where the infamous “shed over a hole in the ground” story originates. One thing is certain: Carl Braun’s operation was never the Bavarian Brewery.
Next, the probate record turns ominous: The administrator of Braun’s estate, Henry Kuntz, sold the brewery and, as suspected, left Schneider without a job. But we soon find his new place of business, because Kuntz subpoenas Schneider at his new place of work, Charles Stifel’s City Brewery. According to the lawsuit that a certain Bernard Rowie filed in the Court of Common Pleas, Schneider was engaged in possible criminal activity with the recently deceased Braun in order to conceal his income from his creditors. Rowie was also suing Kuntz, and it is all very confusing, the handwriting difficult to read. The lawsuit dragged on for years, until at least 1866. Finally, the judge made a ruling: Schneider, Braun, and Kuntz had indeed conspired to hide money by concealing their business relationship. If Schneider was fighting that hard to avoid his creditors, it’s hard to imagine that he had the personal or monetary capital to found his own brewery.
After 1866, George Schneider faded into obscurity—or at least succeeded in staying away from the courthouse. A family plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery bears his name; the remains buried there came originally from a burial ground in South City near the Lemp Brewery. Circumstantially, it seems like this could very well be our George Schneider.
He is certainly an interesting figure, but he is not the founder of the Bavarian Brewery.
Next week, we’ll use primary sources—not the lore that’s sprung up over the decades—to trace Dr. Adam Hammer’s ownership of the Bavarian Brewery, and we’ll see just how it came into the hands of Eberhard Anheuser.
