AUGUSTA BREWING COMPANY 1888Augusta, Georgia How it began.how it ended

by John Douglas Herman Sr., Great-Grandson of Edward W. Herman (Oct. 1, 2015)

{This historical documentary supersedes others I wrote in that new research of the Pank and Herman relationship in Louisville Ky gave rise to the original initiative to build the brewery.}

The War Ends: 1865 Herman and Pank, Maltsters of Louisville, Ky. and Chicago, Ill.

The beginnings of Augusta Brewing Company of 1888 (Augusta, Ga.) trace its roots to two friends and business partners, John Henry Pank Jr. (b.1853) and Edward William Herman (b. 1840). Panks parents came to America from Hanover, Germany and settled in Louisvlle, Ky. when he was an infant. Herman had served The Union in The War Between the States and mustered out in Louisville in the year 1865 at age 25.

In fact many troops mustered out in Louisville in 1865 and that gave rise to Schad & Yaeger Brewery which flourished at that time. This brewery created a great demand for main ingredients in beer making malt, barley, and hops.

Earlier in 1861, John Englen was the first maltster of Louisville, Ky. and by 1865 his malting company John Engeln & Co. was at full capacity and at that time Herman became identified with the company. In 1869 Herman was admitted to partnership.

The E.W. Herman & Co. came into existence when John Englen retired in 1874 and took over the malting business. The E.W. Herman Company evolved into The Kentucky Malting Company when in 1876 Herman consolidated his company with the Stein & Doern Malt House of Louisville. John Panks father was manager of the S&D house. In 1873, Pank Srs son John had also joined the S&D house and soon became its manager. Edward Herman was President of Kentucky Malting Company.

Edward married Mary Louise Bindewald of the highly respected Bindewald family of Louisville.

About the year of 1873, 20 year old John Pank Jr. married Ophelia Doern, the daughter of Kentucky Colonel Philip Doern who was a very wealthy capitalist in Louisville. Years earlier Doern had also emigrated from Germany.

Thus Edward Herman and John Pank became combined forces and became business partners. It is valid conjecture that the Doern as well as the Pank wealth was used to expand the Kentucky Malting Co. that began with a capacity of one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of malt, then constructed a new building with a new capacity of half a million bushels.

After The War Thirsty Veterans

Breweries as well as distilleries sprung up all over Kentucky greatly increasing demand for rye, corn malt, as well as barley malt. All items were added to Kentucky Malting Companys product line.

John Panks father Ky. Col J. Henry Pank Sr. was a politically strong player on the governors staff of Luke P. Blackburn who was governor from 1879 to 1883. Pank Sr. continued in the malt business and in 1884 went to Chicago and purchased the Northwestern Malting Companys works from C.W. Boynton while still maintaining his position of secretary and treasurer of Kentucky Malting Company at Louisville.In the late 1800s, a new malt company organized, composed largely of the many brewers of Louisville under the name Kentucky Malt and Grain Company. Herman and Pank obviously had sold their malt venture to the conglomerate and moved on to The Augusta Brewing Co. and Pank & Co. Maltster in Chicago.

Maltsers to Brewers:

It was a natural thing that business partners Edward Herman and John Pank would seek the opportunity to become involved in the rapidly expanding brewing business in the new South. Kentucky being already saturated with breweries the two sought other sites and settled on Augusta, Georgia.

In the mid-1880s Edward Herman had visited Augusta and affable Mayor Patrick Walsh welcomed him with open arms. There was a persistent rumor of prohibition coming to Georgia so Herman met with Georgia Governor John Gordon who assured Herman that prohibition would never come to Georgia.

Relying on that assurance, Herman and Pank decided to proceed with constructing a brewery in Augusta Ga. and it opened in 1888.

Both Herman and Pank were at that time still heavily involved in the malting operations in both Louisville and Chicago and neither were able to move to Augusta to operate the brewery. The two decided to hire 36 year old August J. Schweers (b. 1852) who was a shoe salesman for Manus Shoe Company of Cincinnati. A.J. Schweers had married E.W. Hermans sister-in-law Petronella Bindewald. Schweers moved to Augusta and ran the start-up brewing operation as its first president. The articles of incorporation of Augusta Brewing Company were signed in Oct. 1888 (Richmond County Book 1888 folio 11) and petitioners listed are John Pank; Edward Herman; and August Schweers. It was capitalized at $50,000 issuing 500 shares at $100 per share. Again Pank was from a wealthy family and had married into the Doern wealth so he was obviously the financial strength behind the venture while Herman with greater business experience was the main driver of the enterprise.

Presidents of Augusta Brewing Co. 1888:

1. August J. Schweers {term 1888-1894} (Reported in Augusta Chronicle he died 1894 of nervous prostration. It was reported that the brewery was already struggling financially under his leadership and that stress no doubt contributed to his demise. His stock in the company was left to his wife Petronella Bindewald whose brother Florian Bindewald came to Augusta to work at the brewery and was appointed corporate secretary. Florian drowned at Augustas Murray Hill Lake in 1897 shortly after coming to Augusta.)

2. Edward W. Herman {term 1894-1898} (Upon AJ Schweers death he moved to Augusta to operate the brewery.)

3. J. Bernard (Ben) Schweers{term 1898-1901}

(Ben Schweers was AJs brother and had married Edward Hermans daughter Rosa Cecelia who died shortly after the marriage. Herman needed to return to Louisville to settle matters with his malting company and brought in his son-in-law Ben to operate the brewery. Hermans son William Andrew Herman Sr also joined the brewery at this time. After the death of his first wife, Ben married Mary OConnor and left the brewery to operate OConnor & Schweers Paint Company. While at the paint company, Ben continued to be involved in the brewerys subsidiary Dixie Carbonating Co that attempted to market non-alcohol beverages. Brewery leaders also created a subsidiary within the brewery, Augusta Ice & Beverage Company, to market non-alcohol products. Edward Herman returned again to Augusta to operate the brewery and brought his brother in law Andrew Bindewald in as corporate secretary.

4. Edward W. Herman{term 1901-1908}

(Herman departed again for Louisville and appointed his son William A. Herman to the presidency and his son Joseph Leo Herman to be secretary. August Schweers son Ambrose came to Augusta to be treasurer. E. Herman had managed to acquire additional funding that was used to fit the plant with non-alcohol producing machinery. This funding gave it a temporary new life.)

5. William A. Herman Sr {term 1908-1912}

Prohibition in fact came to Georgia in 1908 but was only moderately enforced in the early days so the brewery continued to operate with some success until 1916 when the state of Georgia began stronger enforcement. A 1912 article in The Augusta Chronicle spoke of Edward Herman as still being the guiding spirit at age 72 and there was indeed some company resurgence with monies being invested in the facility for improvements most probably to add non-alcohol product producing equipment.

Also in 1916 the state of Georgia forced the brewery to change its name and the leaders selected its internal subsidiary name Augusta Ice & Beverage Company. The term Brewery was taboo! Members of the Herman family and Ambrose Schweers continued to be involved in various segments of the struggling enterprise until the year 1921 when the company finally declared bankruptcy and those involved scattered to various independent jobs and ventures. Edwards son W.A. Herman, Sr. opened a home beer-making supply business and grocery store on Broad Street in Augusta. In addition he acquired bottled Belle of Georgia beer through his company named Beverage Distributors, Inc.Amazingly Edward Herman lived to the age of 89. It is interesting that both August Schweers and Florian Bindewald each had died at the early age of 42 years. DEMISE: Ultimately the weight of US Government prohibition, not mismanagement on anyones watch, caused the demise of the brewery and its subsidiaries. Because of prohibition, the once great Augusta Brewing Company was relegated to history.

Source: One Hundred Years of Brewing A Complete History of Progress Made in Brewing (HS Rich 1903)Source: History of Chicago vol. 3 p. 576 by Alfred Theodore AndreasSource: The Augusta Chronicle archivesSource: Augusta On Glass (by Bill Baab 2007)Source: 100 Years of Brewing (Arno Press 1974)1