Frederick Pabst
Encyclopedia
Pabst Brewing Company
Pabst Brewing Company is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and by 1889 named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently the holding company contracting for the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and malt liquor from defunct companies...
.
Early life
Johann Gottlieb Friedrich Pabst was born on March 28, 1836, in the village of NikolausriethMönchpfiffel-Nikolausrieth
Mönchpfiffel-Nikolausrieth is a municipality in the district Kyffhäuserkreis, in Thuringia, Germany....
, then in the Province of Saxony
Province of Saxony
The Province of Saxony was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945. Its capital was Magdeburg.-History:The province was created in 1816 out of the following territories:...
, in the Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
. Friedrich was the second child of Gottlieb Pabst, a local farmer, and his wife, Johanna Friederike.
In 1848, he emigrated with his parents to the United States, settling first in Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, and then Chicago. The following year his mother died in a cholera epidemic. In Chicago, Frederick and his father had to eke out a living. For a while they worked as waiters and busboys. Frederick soon gave this up, however. Because he had enjoyed his voyage to America, he decided to become a cabin-boy on a Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
steamer. By the time he was 21, Pabst had earned his pilot's license, and was captain of one of these vessels. In this capacity, he met a German
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
, Phillip Best, the owner of a small but prosperous brewery founded in 1844 in Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
. Pabst married Best's daughter, Maria, on March 25, 1862.
For the next year and a half, Pabst continued to ply the waters of Lake Michigan as a ship's captain, until an accident in December, 1863 led to a change in career. While trying to bring his craft into Milwaukee harbor, Pabst's ship ran aground. A short while later, Pabst purchased half of Best's brewing company.
Brewing
In 1864, when Pabst was taken into partnership in his father-in-law's breweryBrewery
A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....
, he began to study the details of the business. After obtaining a thorough mastery of the art of brewing, Pabst turned his attention to extending the market for the beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
and before long had raised the output of the Best brewery to 100,000 barrels a year. The brewery was eventually converted into a public company and its capital repeatedly increased in order to cope with the continually increasing trade. He became president of the corporation in 1873. Later, the brewing company's name was changed to the Pabst Brewing Company.
In 1889, Pabst spent $30,000 to take advantage of prime shoreline along Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin
Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin
Whitefish Bay is a village in Milwaukee County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 13,508 as of the 2005 census.-Geography:Whitefish Bay is located at ....
's unique location, just north of the city of Milwaukee, by developing a popular lakeshore resort, which he called the Pabst Whitefish Bay Resort
Pabst Whitefish Bay Resort
The Pabst Whitefish Bay Resort, which was developed in one of Milwaukee's first residential suburbs, was once a thriving Sunday getaway. Opened in 1889, Capt. Fredrick Pabst opened the resort that would attract as many as 15,000 people...
.
As many as 10,000 visitors would come to the resort on a summer day by horse and buggy, railroad, trolley or excursion steamer. They came to enjoy the scenic view, to ride the Ferris wheel
Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
, attend daily concerts (double concerts on Sunday), rent row boats, watch outdoor movies, drink Pabst's beer and dine on fine fare, including five types of whitefish
Whitefish (fisheries term)
Whitefish or white fish is a fisheries term referring to several species of demersal fish with fins, particularly cod , whiting , and haddock , but also hake , pollock , or others...
netted daily in the adjoining bay. The resort's popularity faded in 1914 at the start of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the park was closed. In 1915 the land was subdivided into residential lots.
The brewing company's renowned "Blue Ribbon
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Pabst Blue Ribbon is a brand of beer sold by Pabst Brewing Company, originally established in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but now based in Los Angeles. Pabst Blue Ribbon is contract-brewed in six different breweries around the U.S...
" label was introduced in the 1890s. The beer's name resulted from the blue ribbon that was awarded to it at the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
.
Pabst built a thirteen-story Pabst Building in downtown Milwaukee, rebuilt various theaters and also helped organized the Wisconsin National Bank, in 1893. Pabst purchased the old Nunnemacher Grand Opera House, located opposite the Milwaukee City Hall
Milwaukee City Hall
City Hall is the scene of the largest Socialist victory ever registered in an American city, when in 1910 Emil Seidel and a majority Socialist Common Council swept into office. Although the Socialist majority on the Common Council was short-lived, the city was led by Socialist mayors from 1916 to...
, in 1890, and turned it into the Das Neue Deutsche Stadt-Theater (The New German City Theater), but it was destroyed in a fire. Pabst ordered it rebuilt at once and the newly-named Pabst Theater
Pabst Theater
The Pabst Theater is an indoor concert venue and landmark of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. Colloquially known as "the Pabst", the theater hosts about 100 events per year...
opened in 1895. It still is in use today.
The Pabst Mansion
Pabst Mansion
The Pabst Mansion is located at 2000 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It was once the home to Captain Frederick Pabst , founder of the Pabst Brewing Company.- History :...
along Wisconsin Avenue is a well-known Milwaukee tourist attraction and was the Pabst family home from 1892 to 1908.
Pabst is buried at Forest Home Cemetery
Forest Home Cemetery
Forest Home Cemetery located in the Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is the final resting place of many of the city's famed beer barons, politicians and social elite...
in Milwaukee.