June 2 Marks the 100th Anniversary of Brewery Fire

May 28, 2009

Next Tuesday June 2nd 1909 at around 9:30pm the last brewery in Monroe burnt down to the ground. Below I have the article from the June 3, 1909 Record-Commercial (word for word) plus my original post on Roeder Brewery.

Record Commercial, Thursday June 3, 1909

Heavy Loss Roeder’s Brewery Burns

Wednesday evening, shortly after nine o clock, Jacob Roeder’s brewery was totally destroyed by fire, only the stone walls of the main building remained standing Thursday morning. The heavens were illuminated and many in the city were of the opinion that some farmer’s farm near Monroe had been struck by lightning since quite a storm was raging at the same time and it appeared as if the heart of the storm was south of the cite. The fire was discovered at about half past nine at the west end of the main building near the engine room and in a few minutes had made great headway in the main building, and for a few minutes it seemed as if the brewery, storage cellars and Mr. Roeder’s home were doomed to be consumed .

A fire alarm was sent to the city and the fire department called out and told that the fire was outside the city and in the absence of the chief, George Renner, foreman of the Germania Hose Company was called up and he called out his boys and the run was made to the scene. It was known that the hydrants were few and scattering at this point and the engine was taken out and in a few minutes three streams were playing on the fire. It was apparent that the main building was doomed and the men put their efforts to saving the home and other buildings, which was successful and the fire confined to the main building. The wind was blowing from the north and this assisted materially in saving the other buildings. The cause of the fire is a mystery as one of the Roeder family was in the main building a very minutes before the fire was noticed and MR. Roeder is of the opinion that it was struck by lightning.

The plant consisted of a stone building facing north with wooden buildings covered with sheet iron on each side and in one of these was the artificial ice plant installed a few years ago at the cost of about five thousand dollars, this is in ruins and a total loss.

The storage cellars where the manufactured beer is kept were saved with their contents, also the office with the valuable papers and revenue stamps were not touched. The firemen and neighbors did heroic work to save the other buildings and Mr. Roeder is very grateful for all services rendered him at the time.

The loss will be between thirty and thirty-five thousand dollars with but a few thousand insurance. Mr Roeder expects to rebuild the plant. 

Monroe’s Last Brewery?

December 23, 2007 edit

On a stormy Wednesday evening, June 2 of 1909, the last brewery left in the city of Monroe was completely destroyed by fire. The Jacob Roeder Brewery had stood on the corner of Navarre and what was then called La Plaisance Bay Turnpike since 1874 (near where the VFW sits today and - sadly - equidistant from Rob’s and my house). Next to Wahl Brewing Co., it was Monroe’s longest running and most successful brewery. There is even a road named Roeder in Monroe fairly close to the brewery’s location. I could find no information on whether the road was named after the brewer but I like to think it was.

The Jacob Roeder Brewery story starts in 1853 when Jacob Roeder immigrated to the U.S. and landed in New York. He had apprenticed as a cooper and brewer back in Germany. He moved to Monroe and settled in the 1st district around 4th and Union Streets. Back then this was considered the German part of town. He first worked as a cooper, possibly making barrels for the other breweries in town. In 1874 Jacob Roeder opened his own brewery. Its original name  was J. Roeder and Bro. Brewery. In 1877 the named was changed from that to Jacob Roeder Brewery.

The brewery was a stone building facing north. It had two wooden structures on both sides of the plant, one being a artificial ice-house that was installed in 1904 at the cost of $5000. Before that was built the brewery would get its ice directly out of Plum Creek. It may have been a small brewery but it was still able to produce around 1,500 bbls a year – all for local consumption. Not bad considering that the county only had 32 thousand citizens and Wahl was selling 10 thousand bbls already.

When Wahl Brewery burnt down in 1905 it left a beer void in the city. Unfortunately Roeder’s was too small of a brewery to supply the demand so in came the competition. Out of town breweries such as Stroh’s, Buckeye, Springbrook, Goebel and Koppitz-Melzers all started advertising and distributing in Monroe. The success of Wahl had blocked these breweries from getting a strong foot-hold. But with Wahl gone the breweries knew that the beer market in Monroe could be theirs. Roeder started to advertise its beer as being “made in Monroe for Monroe People.” They were able to maintain their sales but never grew over 1,500 bbls in a year.

The biggest problem facing Roeder was the ASL(anti-saloon league). The ASL was out to close saloons with the eventual goal of prohibition. The idea came from Howard Hyde Pierce. He thought it would be better for prohibitionists to push for wet/dry votes in individual towns and precincts.  He was then hired by the newly formed Ohio Anti-Saloon League. The OASL’s tactics of going through the churches and a concentrated attack on one goal was a huge success in Ohio. The rest of the country took notice and the national Anti-Saloon League was formed. The number of both saloons and breweries was diminishing rapidly as 1910 neared. By 1910 half of the counties in Michigan were dry and Monroe actually had a wet/dry vote prior to the fire that destroyed Roeder’s. The good news  is that we voted wet. The bad news  is that our own hometown brewery wouldn’t be around much longer.

The fire started at the west end of the building. It was a stormy night and it is believed that lightening struck the building shortly after 9 o’ clock. the fire spread quickly through the brewery. By the time the Germania Hose Company (the fire department at the time) got to the scene, the main building of the brewery was too far gone to save so they concentrated on the other buildings. The brewery and the artificial ice-house were gone but they were able to save the cellars (along with the stock at the time) and the office. Damage was figured to be between $30 thousand to $35 thousand.

Jacob and his son Herman who also worked at the brewery decided not to rebuild and both went to work as agents for Strohs in Monroe. It was probably a good decision to not rebuild since Michigan went dry on May 1st 1918. The years following the fire saw the battle for the right to drink being won by the prohibitionist. Big business interested in having a sober work force helped financially back the prohibition movement. The ASL used propaganda and scare tactics to help sway people over. Crooked owners who ran saloons that were connected to prostitution and con games made it easy for the ASL to create a case against them. Breweries didn’t help the cause either. Since the initial battle ground was basically for cities and counties, the bigger breweries didn’t realize the battle they were in until it was too late. It took 25 years but the ASL had slowly gained enough dry states to push for national prohibition. Anti-German sentiment because of WWI helped put the final nail in the breweries’ coffins. On September 6th 1918  Woodrow Wilson announced that in order to preserve the supply of grain and fuel for the war effort, breweries would close at midnight on December 1st. The war ended on November 11th of that year but still the breweries shut down. On January 16, 1919 Nebraska voted dry giving the required 36 states to pass prohibition as an amendment. The Volstead Act was passed on October 28th 1919 and the 18th amendment went into affect on January 16th 1920. The country would remain dry for the next 13 years.

Posted in Beer History, beer