History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 74

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 74

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Through life Mr. Clark has been a pronounced and active Christian man. He has long been a ruling elder in the Pine Street (now Grand Avenue) Presby- terian Churchi, and is chairman of the building com- mittee charged with the erection of the handsome church edifice on the corner of Grand and Wash- ington Avenues, and is identified with other depart- ments of church work.

Mr. Clark has been twice happily married,-first to Miss Julia Miller, of Baltimore, Md., who bore him six children. His second wife is Miss Mary Bell Parks, daughter of Joseph Parks, of St. Charles, Mo., by whom he has had four children, all of whom are still living.

No citizen of St. Louis stands higher as a man of sterling integrity and high-toned Christian character than does William G. Clark.

Wood- and Willow-Ware .- Included under this trade nomenclature is a vast range of articles and utensils, such as buckets, casks, tubs, ladles, bread- bowls, and other household appliances or furnishings in wood, while willow-ware includes baskets, chairs, and the like constructed of this light material. But with the sale of these have become associated in the trade cordage, rope, brooms, wrapping-paper, paper bags, stove polish, axle greasc, and, in the case of one of the largest firms, playing cards also. Indeed, the trade now comprises probably a greater number of articles in daily use than any other business. Pre- cisely when dealing in wooden-ware became separated from the hardware trade proper, of which it may be said to be the counterpart, cannot now be ascertained. From the reminiscences of old inhabitants of the city, however, it appears that the wooden-ware trade existed as early as 1835, but it was in connection with the hard-

ware trade. As a separate industry, the branch is of comparatively modern origin here as elsewhere. In St. Louis, however, the wood- and willow-ware trade has obtained the ascendency over that of any other city in America or Europe. St. Louis, in fact, is the ruling market, and prices for every other city on the continent are fixed here. In the manufacture of these wares, of themselves apparently insignificant, a capital ap- proaching, in the aggregate, three million dollars is utilized, and upwards of a thousand hands are em- ployed in the conduct of a vast system of machinery. Dealers in wood- and willow-ware transact a business often exceeding in value two million dollars a year ; and as to the general volume of the trade, it is officially established that one St. Louis firm sells more annually than the combined trade of any other four houses in the same line in the world, and more than the aggre- gate sales of all the houses in this line of business west of the Alleghenies. Thus St. Louis is absolutely beyond competition in this line, having also the largest manufactory of this character in the world. Not only are these goods, chiefly derived from home manufactories, shipped to every considerable city and town in America, but there is considerable export to Cuba, South and Central America, and to Australia. The great excess of shipments over imports is thus explaincd, as well as in the utilization of the supply of raw material found convenient to the market.

In the manufacture of wooden-ware proper, pine and oak are chiefly used. One of the larger estab- lishments supplies the West with water buckets and the like, and there are three oakware manufactories whose product is larger than that of any other estab- lishment in existence. Axe handles, hoe handles, shovel, pick, and other varieties of hard-wood han- dles are supplied by a manufacturing company having the largest establishment of the kind in the world. An element entering largely into this peculiar trade is axle grease, all of which is manufactured in St. Louis, the product of four lubricating companies aggregating nearly half a million dollars annually.

The paper bags entering into the wood- and willow- warc trade are also manufactured in St. Louis, one factory, sixty by one hundred and seventy-five feet and five stories high, thus utilizing ten tons of paper daily, and giving employment to over a hundred hands, as appears from the labor commissioner's statistics.

A still more wonderful feature of the trade, how- ever, is the manufacture of brooms by machinery. The only establishment of the kind in the world was put in operation in St. Louis about the year 1876, and it consumes or utilizes more broom-corn than all

. 1328

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

other broom-factories (hand) in the West. It turns out six hundred dozen complete brooms daily, uses seven thousand two hundred handles, and works up six tons of the raw material. The product thus aggregates about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, or over twelve hundred dollars each working day. This extensive trade is constantly in- creasing.

Furniture .- In a review of the manufactures of St. Louis at that time, a local journal of Sept. 7, 1854, said, with reference to the furniture industry, " There are many residents of St. Louis, probably the majority of the inhabitants, who are not aware of the progress and already advanced state of St. Louis manu- factories. The time was when we looked to Cincin- nati and the Eastern cities for almost everything we wanted in the line of manufactures, either because the article we wished was not to be had here, or if it was the Eastern manufacture could be had at a cheaper rate. As in any other growing, struggling city, our mechanics were not able to compete with Eastern work, and it always requires a vast deal of enterprise, determination, and hard labor to break up a trade that has once been established, no matter in what line of business. Many really enterprising mechanics have failed in producing this result and have become bankrupt, almost martyrs to the cause of home manufactures." 1

Prior to that date, Paris H. Mason, in 1847, asso- ciated himself with Russell Scarrett, at 214 Wash- ington Avenue ; Conrades & Logeman establislicd their business in 1853; Joseph Peters was making, in 1854, a specialty of bureaus and cabinet-work ; John H. Crane commenced the furniture business in 1855 ; William Mitchell opened his shop in the same year, and in 1871 the establishment was incorporated as the " Mitchell Furniture Company," and in 1860, Martin Lammert began business. From this year the business rapidly increased, until now it is one of the most important industries in St. Louis. In 1881 there were seventy-two houses engaged in the furni- ture-trade, whose sales aggregated three million dollars per annum.

Joseph Peters, who, as we have seen, was one of the early furniture manufacturers of St. Louis, was born in Prussia, May 9, 1832. He learned the trade of a cabinet-maker, and at the age of twenty-two, de- siring to better his condition, cmigrated to America, settling in St. Louis in 1854. For nine years he

worked at his trade, and in 1863 established a manu- factory. Having little or no capital, he employed at first a few land-workers, but with hard labor and economy the business prospered, and in the lapse of time horse-power was introduced, and finally steam. Mr. Peters managed the business personally and under his own name until 1880, when the " Joseph Peters' Furniture Company" was organized, he be- coming its president. It is one of the largest concerns of the kind in St. Louis, but is distinguished not so much, perhaps, for the extent of its operations as for the fine quality of its manufactures. Hitherto St. Louis has been obliged to look elsewhere for its fine furniture, but there is a prospect, under the enter- prising lead of such men as Joseph Peters, that the demand for elegant and expensive goods will be met by the home manufacturer.

Distilleries .- In former years St. Louis had more distilleries operating in her midst, but the product of the two remaining-the St. Louis and thc Teuscher Com- panies-is greater, according to the testimony of the Internal Revenue Department, than that of their more numerous predecessors. In 1854 the produc- tion was seventeen thousand five hundred barrels, and during the five years from 1877 to 1881 the produc- tion, estimated on the basis of the stamp-tax paid (at ninety cents a gallon), was, in value, as follows :

1877.

$1,883,462

1880. $1,755,525

1878

2,101,556

.1881.

2,168,433

1879. 1,877,510

The product of 1881 aggregated upwards of twenty- four thousand gallons, a trifling quantity as compared with the large imports. St. Louis, however, las ownership in several Kentucky distilleries, the prod- uct of which is handled in the St. Louis market, and there are also a large number of distilleries, agents, and rectifiers doing business in St. Louis, so that the entire movement of the whiskey interest represents perhaps two million five hundred thousand dollars a year.

The following table shows the condition of the distillery business :

RECEIPTS OF HIGH-WINES.

SHIPMENTS OF WHISKEY.

Bbls.

1882

9,152

1882

104,790

1881

7,847

1881.

95,884

1880

14,580

1880. .

110,582

1879

9,835

1879.

89,086

1878

10,497

1878 ..

$6,358

1877

11,083

1877.

96,048

1876

29,592

1876 ..

101,841

The following is a statement of the amount of grain used, product of spirits, and tax paid, etc., of the two distilleries which have operated during the years 1880, 1881, and 1882 in this district :

1 In June, 1815, J. D. Russell carried on a chair-factory " be- tween Kerr's store and the post-office," and in April, 1818, Isaac Allyn conducted a similar establishment on Second Street, three doors north of Shope.

Bbls.

Joseph Sehero

LIBRARY Ot THE HANIVERSITY OF ILL NOIS.

1329

TRADE, COMMERCE, AND MANUFACTURES.

1880.

1881.

1882.

Bushels of grain mashed and distilled

592,430

688,850

555,667

1880.

1881.

1882.

Galls.

Spirits produced :

Bourbon ..

69,654

50,710

16,452

Alcohol ..

297,816

305,895

344,937

Gin

6,538

4,455

810

High-wines.

213,830

201,856

26,520

Pure neutral or Cologne spirits

1,376,820

1,747,551

1,700,866

Whiskey

77,393

138,562

103,739

Total

2,042,051

2,449,029

2,193,314

1880.

1881.

1882

Galls.

Average yield of spirits per

bushel.

3.45

3.58

3 98

1880.

1881.

1882.

Amount of tax paid, at ? ninety cents per gallon. S

$1,755,132.30

Tax.

$2,168,138.70 $2,015,806 50

Galls 60,253

Galls.

Galls,

20,795

...

Alcohol exported free of tax .. Alcohol transferred to manu- facturing warehouse to be ex ported. .....

11,170

.....

Alcohol withdrawn for scien-

532

523

Whiskey allowed by reason of leakage ..

1,493

2,088

2,889

Remaining on hand in distillery warehouse

Dec. 31, 1880. Dec. 31, 1881. Dec. 31, 1882.

Galls,

Galls.

Bourbon

33,934

38,576

13,436

Alcohol

5,072

17,969

1,490

Gin

135

High-wines.

1,320

........

Pure neutral or Cologne spirits.

16,173

14,949

6,187

Whiskey

4,086

6,196

1,206

Total

60,720

77,735

22,319

Spirits rectified or compounded in the year 1880.

1881.

3,548,938.52

1882

3,249,969.57

1880.

1881.

1882.

Galls.

Total number of gallons

gauged in three years by

United States gangers ...... 11,603,205.87

12,539,512.07 11,380,467.26

Total number of wholesale liquor dealers' stamps is- sued on change of package ..

29,513

31,180

29,921

Wines .- Fifteen or twenty years ago it was thought that Missouri would become a great wine- growing State and St. Louis a wine market of conse- quence. Thesc expectations have not been fully realized, owing, in part, to the rapidly-developed vineyard interests of California, and in part to the preference given in St. Louis to the beer market. But the wine-making trade is still productive, and promises to become a very substantial manufacture when the vine-plantings are more extensive and the plant for fermenting and ripening the grape-juice is larger.

Great intelligence and thought have recently been given to grape-culture and wine-making in Missouri, with the result of eliminating much error and many absurdly false expectations of yield and profit, at the same time getting the industry closer down to a busi- ness-like basis. Missouri wines have an admitted excellence in flavor and keeping qualities, and the soil

and climate of the State are suitable to the produc- tion of grapes yielding a " must" full of body and having saccharine enough in it to prevent the acetic fermentation. On this point Rev. Mr. Peabody, an admitted expert, says, ---

" The two important natural conditions demanded by the grape are climate and soil. Given these two, all the rest will eventually follow from the application of the skilled industry of the vine-dresscr. In this portion of the valley of the Mississippi we find these two elementary conditions, climate and soil, existing together. That the soil and climate of Missouri and the adjacent parts of other States, especially those on its eastern and western boundaries (Illinois and Kan- sas), are eminently adapted to the growth of the grape is a point too well established to need discus- sion licre. The fact is well known and universally acknowledged throughout the entire district, and perhaps, I may venture to add, throughout the United States. Compared with other sections of the United States (at least all those east of the Rocky Mountains), so far as their capabilities have been tested, our advantages for the production of wine are certainly superior." 1

All the experiments at Hermann have been satisfac- tory and remuncrative, and there are said to be fifteen million acres of land in Missouri suitable for vine- yards.

In 1853 the native wine received in St. Louis was contained in nine casks, seven barrels, and eight boxes,-less than the product of Kaskaskia and Caho- kia a hundred years before that. The census of 1870 returned four wine-makers and an annual product ex- ceeding $800,000. The census of 1880 gives three cstablishments, $380,000 capital, thirty-one hands, $18,830 wages, $52,000 material, and $131,000 product. These figures are not encouraging, and yet the grape-growing interest is not disheartened. On the contrary, it rests confident that Missouri must be the centre of winc-making in this country, because it has six varieties of grapes native to the soil, and which, unlike the California grapes, are claimed to be phylloxera-proof.

The native wine interest has largely exceeded the whiskey manufacture and trade in volume of late years

1 In 1848, Alexander Kayser, of St. Louis, offered three pre- miums of one hundred dollars each for the best specimens of Missouri wine, the vintage of three consecutive years. The first premium was awarded in 1849 for the vintage of 1848, the second in 1850 for the vintage of 1849. For the latter prize there were twenty-seven samples of wine produced for competition, but the premium was awarded to Jacob Romel, of Hermann, for "a wine of pure Catawba grapes."

Galls.

2,409,043

2,239,785

tific purposes, free of tax ...

Galls.

3,493,916.32

1330

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

in St. Louis, although a much more recently-estab- lished branch of trade. One St. Louis brand of champagne alone exceeds in volume and value of trade the purely spirit interest, and the growth of the trade in Missouri, California, and other native wines has exceeded the anticipations of those engaged in it. The bottled wine export last year reached nearly twenty thousand cases. The value of foreign wines and liquors which passed through the St. Louis custom-house in 1881 was $60,639, on which a duty of $26,990.39 was paid. Of the forty firms engaged in the wholesale whiskey trade in 1881, many deal in wines and other liquors, and the sales aggregate prob- ably over $2,000,000 per annum.

Breweries .- The period when lager-beer brewing, which has become an industry of immense propor- tions, was established in St. Louis is more readily ascertainable than the precise time when brewing gen- erally was inaugurated. The early files of the Missouri Gazette, however, fix the date of the beginning of beer- brewing in St. Louis in the month of May, 1810, when that paper " congratulated" its readers

"on the acquisition of a new establishment for making porter and strong beer. Mr. St. Vrain, of Bellefontaine," it added, "has erected a manufactory and taken into partnership an ex- perienced European brewer, and has commenced business in a handsome style. The lovers of malt will now have an oppor- tunity to foster an undertaking so much wanted in this Terri- tory."

Subsequently the same paper published the follow- ing advertisement :

" Table beer and porter, manufactured by St. Vrain & Habb, at Bellefontaine, near St. Louis. Those who wish to be supplied will please direct their orders to the brewery, or to Edward Hempstead, Esq., St. Louis, who will always have a quantity in his cellar ready for sale. Customers who may want a large supply will please to give timely notice."

The following from the same source fixes the price at which beer was sold to the early inhabitants of St. Louis :

· "Strong and table beer, manufactured by St. Vrain & Habb, at Bellefontaine, near St. Louis. The price of strong beer will be ten dollars in cash or twelve in produce, five dollars in cash for table beer or six in produce, delivered at the brewery at the following prices :

Wheat at 62} cents.

Barley .

at 50

Rye .....

at 622

Corn.

at 25

Green hops. at 10 66

" Cattle and pork at the market price will also be taken, and three months' credit shall be given to purchasers, provided they give an indorsed note to the satisfaction of the brewers. Those who wish to be supplied will please direct their orders to the brewery, or to Edward Hempstead, Esq., St. Louis."

In May, 1810, the St. Louis brewery of Jacob Philipson went into operation, and he was "ready to sell beer at the price of eleven

dollars for the barrel and six dollars for the half-barrel, one dollar of each to be returned to the purchaser on his redeliver- ing within a reasonable time the empty barrel in good condition, and bearing the stamp of the brewery." Mr. Philipson also agreed that the above price should " be reduced whenever grain can be obtained in this country in quantities sufficient to give the brewery a continued employment, and whenever our farmers, by attending to the cultivation of hops, will do away with the necessity of procuring this article from a great distance and at considerable expense. The brewery will keep no books, and will deliver beer only for immediate payment. This invariable rule is imposed on the proprietor by the necessity of his paying cash (frequently in advance) for every ingredient and every part of labor. Beer will be retailed at the rate of twelve and a half cents per quart at the stores of Messrs. Sylvestre Labadie and Michel Tesson, and at various other convenient situations in this place, and at Ste. Genevieve a constant supply will be kept up at the store of Jacob Philipson."

In 1826 the " new brewery" of Lynch & Co. was advertised, and in 1827, John Mullanphy had "St. Louis ale at his brewery in whole or half-barrels."

Descendants of the old French residents prior to 1800 speak of a fermented liquor made in St. Louis at that early period, and of the existence of at least one primitive place of brewing. The venerable Ezra English manufactured a malt liquor better known as ale than beer half a century or more ago, and upon an extensive scale, judged by the storage capacity of the " English Cave," not far from the present site of Benton Park, and which was then used, as subse- quently, for the storing of beer. The cave itself has a romantic history, and while it is believed to lead to the river, has never been thoroughly explored in its inmost recesses, nor further than sufficient to afford capacity for storing three thousand five hundred bar- rels. English & McHose were the firm subsequently engaged in the manufacture of beer in this connection. The St. Louis Ale Brewery is the only one of that character yet existing.

Probably the first lager-beer brewery established in St. Louis district was put in operation in 1841 by the father of William J. Lemp, who succeeded to the busi- ness, after being engaged in malting for a while, upon the death of the elder Lemp. This brewery was in rear of the site of the present Lemp sample-rooms, on Walnut Street near Second. With the immigration of German citizens familiar with brewing, the erection of breweries and malt-houses increased in number, until there are now twenty-three of the former and thirteen of the latter, six independent of the brewer- ies, and in all producing yearly about one million bushels. Many of the brewing establishments are very extensive, and represent an aggregate value of over nine million dollars. St. Louis has become, with the growth of the American taste for lager, the third city in its production in this country, and in excellence of the product rivals Bohemia, hitherto

1331

TRADE, COMMERCE, AND MANUFACTURES.

conceded to be the headquarters of the best beer in the world.

The growth of the industry, in respect to its con- tribution of revenue to the general government, at the rate of ninety-two and a half cents per barrel, makes the official exhibit for five years :

1877 $438,889.60

1878

482,557.70

1879

567,642.01

1880

674,282.95

1881

816,226.51

The following exhibit, although differing somewhat from that collected by the State Bureau of Labor Statistics, is of later date, and believed to be more comprehensive :

Amount expended for barley, malt, and hops .. $2,984,807

" ice

476,117

wages.

785,033

in expenses and repairs.

1,030,162

for fuel

99,855

" oats and hay 47,949

Taxes, United States and city

on realty employed ..

Revenue stamps and licenses

966,140

Total

$6,330,063

Capital Permanently Employed.

Capital.

Hands.

In breweries.

$6,000,000

3000

bottle factories ..

300,000

650

cooperage

750,000

500

copper, iron, and machinery working

450,000

300

Total ..

$7,500,000

4450

The political influence exerted by German immi- gration has not been more potential than that exer- cised by the same element in modifying popular habits. The Republican of June 21, 1857, com- menting upon the influence of lager beer upon the habits and customs of the people of St. Louis, remarks that about 1840, ---

" When our city was in its infancy, and the German infusion had not poured in, no one spoke seriously of a German vote, and the papers never entertained such a subject as a German ele- ment; no aspirant for congressional honors ever then modeled his opinion by the German standard or courted German favor. There was no German paper, because there were none to read it; no beer gardens, because there were none to frequent them. We do not remember having seen in those days such a thing as

a sausage-shop, a gasthaus, or a handlung. There was one apotheke and a deutscher arzt, and, if we mistake not, the sign of a hebamme swung at that period over the door somewhere in the region known then as Frenchtown. There was nothing that indicated that there was a German population requiring more than one doctor, a drug-store, and midwife.

" The only garden which had any pretensions as a place of resort was known at that time to the very limited number of young ladies and gentlemen who took summer-evening strolls as the 'Broadway Garden,' and was, as well as we can recol- lect, dimly lighted by variegated oil-lamps, and solely devoted to ice-cream and ' mead.' The Broadway Garden went out just about the time that beer gardens came in. And when they did come in it was tumultuously ; a sudden and almost unexpected

wave of emigration swept over us, and we found the town inun- dated with breweries, beer-houses, sausage-shops, Apollo gar- dens, Sunday concerts, Swiss cheese, and Holland herrings. We found it almost necessary to learn the German language before we could ride in an omnibus or buy a pair of breeches, and absolutely necessary to drink beer at a Sunday concert.

"In nothing, perhaps, has the German influence been more sensibly and, we will add, more beneficially felt than in the in- troduction of beer as a common beverage. It is not only used by the Germans, but it has been wellnigh universally adopted by the English-speaking population, and the spacious beer halls and extensive gardens nightly show that the Americans are as fond of the Gambrinian liquid as are those who have intro- duced it. . . . "

In 1854 the Republican of September 20th said,-

"St. Louis has about twenty-four breweries, and every one of them has stored nearly twice the quantity of 'ale' for this summer that has been made in any preceding one. As we are informed by one of the largest dealers of this article, the quan- tity may be safely reckoned at 40,000 barrels of lager beer, and perhaps 20,000 barrels of common beer. By an average count, one barrel of thirty gallons gives about 300 glasses. Thus we have about 12,000,000 glasses of lager beer, and about 6,000,000 of common beer; in all, 18,000,000 glasses of beer drank in St. Louis from the 1st of March last up to the 17th of September, the time the lager beer gave out. Common beer is sold at five dollars per barrel, and lager beer at seven dollars, that is at wholesale. This will make the amount received by the brewers for lager beer $290,000, and for common $100,000 ; together, say $380,000. The retailers, at five cents a glass, took in $600,000 for lager beer and $300,000 for the common article. Just think of it, nearly a million of dollars ($900,000) spent in St. Louis during one summer for beer, and that chiefly among the Ger- mans themselves !"

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 74

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358