Sussex (Lisbon Township) Brewery History
by Michael R. Reilly, editor, January 27, 2013, copyright
Last updated08/16/2015
The Sussex Brewery at 36 Main Rd Emsworth PO10 8AU, United Kingdom (probably nothing like what our old brewery looked like).
“Very many will remember the first turkey-shoot that came off in this town, and very likely the first in the county. In 1839, David Bonham got the turkeys, and men came from far and near and had a big time. Among other preparations made for the event, Bonham went with Thomas Redford to Milwaukee for a keg of beer. In coming home over the rough roads the beer got so shook up, that it burst out the bung, and it was not drank by turkey-shooters.” source: The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, 1881, Page 770
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BREWERIES
Primary sources for listing – American Breweries II by Dale P. Van Wieren, 1995; and American Breweries by Donald Bullfinch, 1984; and The Register of United States Breweries 1876-1976 by Manfred Friedrich and Donald Bull, 1976. Also: Badger Breweries: Past and Present by Wayne L. Kroll, 1976; Wisconsin’s Frontier Farm Breweries, 1830’s – 1880’s, by Wayne Kroll, 2005; and “Breweries of Wisconsin” by Jerry Apps, 1992. The History of Waukesha County, Wis., 1880” .
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Bernard Hephen 1850s – Note: Couldn’t find any personal information using Ancestry.com Search, nor at the Waukesha County Museum Research Center [Nov 27, 2012]. Source: American Breweries II by Dale P. Van Wieren, 1995.
Bernhard W. Hephen, source: Wisconsin’s Frontier Farm Breweries, 1830’s – 1880’s, by Wayne Kroll, 2005. Note: Diff in spelling by sources.
Note: After searching through the property deed records at the Waukesha County Register of Deeds office on November 28, 2012, I found no evidence of property purchase transactions occurring between Mr. Hephen and any Weaver, Stone, or Boots individual. His name isn’t given at all within this first Vol of Abstract Title 1-19. Further searching into Milwaukee County kept records of the period may provide more information, there is a a time period, 1843 – 1850, where no transactions are provided in Vol of Abstract Title 1-19.
[Richard] Weaver & [Stephen] Stone, 1850s – Note: 1850 Census, Lisbon, Stephen Stone is a farmer as are brothers, Richard and William Weaver. Source:American Breweries II by Dale P. Van Wieren, 1995. [The reason I’ve inserted [Richard] Weaver & [Stephen] Stone is the 1860 Fed Census lists both as a “Brewer”.]William Weaver & James Stone, source: Wisconsin’s Frontier Farm Breweries, 1830’s – 1880’s, by Wayne Kroll, 2005.
Note: It was assumed that Stephen Stone was the family member involved in the brewery, not brother James. William Weaver first listed here by Kroll; it was thought to be he because of Ephraim Boots marrying his daughter…but.
Notes:
1860 Census, Lisbon, Stephen Stone, age 41, is a Brewer; no Boots in area.
1860 Census, Lisbon, Richard Weaver, 32, Brewer, England
1860 Census, Lisbon, William Spink, 58, tavern keeper, England
1860 Census, Lisbon, Ephraim Boots is a carpenter and married to Eleanor Stone. Edward and Henry also carpenters.
Note: The brewery, which stood about one-half mile north of the mill [Sussex Mills], on the road from Sussex, was first built by Stephen Stone just north of Maple and Main {then North St.} (Sts.)] about 1855. In 1861, Mr. Boots became the proprietor. Twelve years after, in 1874, Mr. Boots had the misfortune to lose the old brewery by fire. In 1875, it was rebuilt.
Source: Ephraim Boots, Sussex Brewery in the 1800s Photos from the collection of Sussex Village Historian Fred H. Keller, Sussex Sun, May 15, 2012
Note: On March 9, 1860, Ephraim Boots, a carpenter by trade, entered into an agreement with James Weaver, to operate Mr. Weaver’s saw mill, and acquiring said mill after providing Mr. Weaver two years worth of sawn lumber from the saw mill.
Apparently the deal fell thru, or maybe Mr. Boots sold the mill assets to purchase the brewery in 1861-62?
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Ephraim Boots, aka Ephraim Boots & Co., aka Sussex Brewery; c1870-1880. Source: Wayne Kroll identifies the brewery simply as “Ephraim Boots”. American Breweries II by Dale P. Van Wieren, 1995 ids as Ephraim Boots, aka Ephraim Boots & Co., while Fred H. Keller and “The History of Waukesha County, Wis., 1880” also call it the “Sussex Brewery”.
Note: 1870 Fed Census, Lisbon, lists Ephraim Boots as a “Brewer”. His father Edward and brother Henry are “Carpenters”.
Note: 1880 Lisbon, Ephraim Boots, age 49 is listed as a “Brewer” ; his father Edward, “Works in brewery”.
Notes: from Fred H. Keller article:
Ephraim Boots was born Jan. 7, 1831, in Sussex, England. When he was 19, [1850] he followed his extended family to Sussex-Lisbon. He soon married the slightly older Eleanor Weaver [born Sept 3, 1829, in England]. She was the first daughter and second child of William Weaver Sr. and his wife, Mary Smith.
Boots went to work for brewer Stephen Stone. He took over ownership of the brewery in 1861-62 and ran it until 1882 [Note: 1880 Lisbon, Ephraim Boots, age 49 is listed as a “Brewer” ; his father Edward, “Works in brewery”].when he went to Janesville, Wis. to open the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. branch agency there. Stone had probably made English-type ales, porters and stouts, but Boots appears to have converted to German-style lager, using locally grown barley and hops.
Note: Whether Boots went to work at the brewery for either Richard Weaver or Stephen Stone isn’t clear; what is certain is he entered into an agreement with James Weaver on March 9, 1860, in which he agrees to operate Mr. Weaver’s saw mill, agreeing in an “Articles of Agreement” that he will operate said saw mill, and provide James Weaver with the first 50,000 ft of lumber in the year 1860, then again in 1861. After which time, Mr. Weaver will quit claim the saw mill over to Mr. Boots. {So is Ephraim Boots only managing the saw mill and working part time at the brewery? I would think he would have had to spend some time at the brewery since Richard Weaver and his wife Rhoda sold the brewery to him on October 21, 1861 [see Abstract Title 1-19, vol 27, page 342]. James Weaver and his wife Elizabeth are also selling 2.4 acres to Mr. Boots on this same day [Vol 27, page 343. Meanwhile there are alos transactions going on between the Weavers and Stephen Stone, and not until June 24, 1864 does Stephen Stone transact the property over to Mr. Boots Later in 1869 or thereabouts, there are several property transaction made to correct previous ones.
Question – What was James Weaver going to do with 100,000 ft of lumber?
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August 3, 1864
Ephraim Boots sells brewery and dwelling house (a percent interest?) to Samuel Stocker, ref: Waukesha County Abstract of Title 1-19 32-189.
Samuel Stocker, a native of Switzerland, started off as a farmer turned wagon maker, then carpenter. Boots probably sold him an interest in the brewery and/or the saw mill. Samuel never lived in the Sussex area, nor showed any apparent interest in brewing beer.
Feb 8, 1869, Ephraim sells to Bernard Hasler, ref. Waukesha County Abstract of Title 2-19 30-168; then in 38-617 Boots is selling to Samuel Stocker and P. Bast.
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GOOD BEER – Mr. E. Boots, of the Sussex Brewery, is now furnishing lager beer to several retail dealers in this village (Waukesha), and all pronounce it a first class article.
Note: Waukesha Plaindealer | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Tuesday, November 16, 1869 | Page 3
[Boots was producing enough product to transport and distribute it to retailers, miles away. Up to 1869 Boots, like prior brewers, brewed ales. Was it the property sale to Bernard Hasler (Bernhard W. Hephen?) the person responsible for his conversation to lager brewing?]—
The following are added newspaper entries adding more details about Ephraim Boots and the Sussex Brewery.
Tamarack Land and Timber For Sale. The subscriber has 34 acres of well timbered Tamarack Land, located on the north-east quarter of the southeast quarter of section ten, of Lisbon, which he will sell at a bargain, or will sell the Timber only, E. Boots, Sussex, Nov. 1869. [Note: Mr. Boots was involved in other financial ventures. This parcel may have belonged to his father-in-law, William Weaver, at one time. William had a 40 acre parcel next to it in Sec 11.]
Note: Waukesha Plaindealer | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Tuesday, November 16, 1869 | Page 3
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The brewery is prominently placed on an 1873 property plat map, but has almost disappeared in the 1893 edition, appearing there unlabeled. (The extended Boots family is still there, though.) By the late 1890s, the Boots Brewery was out of business.
Stories have it that Boots had some cellars below his brewery. They had vaulted ceilings lined with thick limestone rock. There was a constant temperature around 54 degrees according to early accounts. The late Jerome Mudlitz said in the 1920s, when he was a kid, that he played in these cellars with his childhood friends. He mentioned two entrances. One in the brewery and another from the outside. He estimated they were 25 feet below the ground and completely lined with Lannon stone. Its rounded ceilings were 10 feet high, and the facility was 150 feet long.
In a side note, Ephraim served as the Master of the Sussex Ashlar Lodge from 1880-81.
Source: Ephraim Boots, Sussex Brewery in the 1800s Photos from the collection of Sussex Village Historian Fred H. Keller, Sussex Sun, May 15, 2012
also
“Sussex Brewery once flourished But quality slowed the hopping firm” by Cynthia Dennis, of The Journal Staff, The Milwaukee Journal,
November 27, 1980, page 31 and 34. Contribution from Fred H. Keller.
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The brewery cooled and stored beer barrels in its basement-cave. Jerome Mudlitz used to roam the area around the brewery in his early youth and remembered the destroyed brewery and the “deep Lannon-stone arched caves” [More than one?].
Most of that brewerys sales went through the Boots-owned tavern that stood where Sussex Auto, N64 W23936 Main St., is today. In August 1857 it was called the Stone Tavern.
In the 1930s, local businessman Alfred Otto built a Lannon-stone house on the site of the former brewery, whose address today is W239 N6638 Maple Ave., or owned in 2012 by:
Adolph & Leona Becker, Irrevocable Family Trust aka A&L Becker Family LLC, 7282 Vine St, Po Box 236, Lannon, WI. 53046.
Legal Description: PT SW1/4 SEC 23 T8N R19E COR N 1450.39 FT THE BGN N89 deg 46’E 334.11 FT N 64.82 FT S89 deg 46’W 125.40 FT N 15.84 FT N62 deg 44W 234.80 FT S 189.17 FT to BGN 0.829 AC DOC # 3690454 & DOC# 3690455
Property Value 2012: Total $172,500.00
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The caves were accessible from both the brewery and an outside entrance, he said, but when Alfred Otto built a home on the site in the 1930s, the caves disappeared. The caves were cool, he said, down in the 50s both summer and winter because they were so deep.
People from those days say the demise of the brewery was hastened by the coming of the railroads, which brought superior beers from the great Milwaukee breweries.
A Wisconsin beer-bottle collector, Henry Hecker, stated in 1981 that he had been trying for years to get a Boots Beer bottle or clay crock jar, but ultimately came to the conclusion that the beer had never been bottled, only sold in barrels, and that none of those had been saved.
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Jos. Dvorak 1880-1884, Note: In 1880 Fed Census there are numerous Jos. Dvoraks [most orig from Bohemia or Czechoslovakia], none living in Waukesha County, nor any Jos Dvorak being in the brewery business. Source: American Breweries II by Dale P. Van Wieren, 1995.
Note: After searching through the property deed records at the Waukesha County Register of Deeds office on November 28, 2012, I found no evidence of property purchase transactions occurring between Mr. Dvorak and any Weaver, Stone, or Boots individual. His name isn’t given at all within this first four Vols of Abstract Title 1, 2, 3, 4-19.
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Waukesha Free Press, February 7, 1891: The old brewery having been sold, they are dismantling it and tearing a part of it down, and selling the material.
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Waukesha Freeman | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Thursday, August 31, 1911 | Page 5
W. J. Brown is adding another story to part of the old brewery by taking off the old roof and putting a hip roof in its stead.
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TAVERNS
Note: A Democratic Assembley District convention…will be held at the Stone Tavern, in the town of Lisbon…
Waukesha County Democrat | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Wednesday, August 19, 1857 | Page 2; also listed same in 1859.
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1850 Census, Lisbon. Sam Butler, 57, Massachusetts ?, Tavern Keeper
1870 Census: C. Williamson, age 54, b. 1816 in England is a “Saloon Keeper”, Wife is Sarah age 60 who keeps house.
Note: Richard Weaver and William Weaver are listed as “Hop Merchant”
Note: August Henschel, age 47, from Germany is a “Potter”; did he make clay bottles?
1848 (Caswell’s Tavern) Note: W. W. Caswell was born about 1806 in Canada and lived in Merton with his wife Caroline and two (?) children. In 1850 he’s listed as living in Merton and being a “Tavern keeper”.
Broke into my inclosure on the last day of October, in the town of Lisbon, a pale red Cow five years old, some white on the briskett and has a bell on. The owner is requested to prove property, pay charges and take her away. Inquire at Caswell’s Tavern. JAMES NICKELS, Lisbon, Nov. 6, 1848
Waukesha Democrat | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Tuesday, November 14, 1848 | Page 3
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FOR SALE
A neat stone cottage, two stories high, with 3 acres of land, 18 miles from Milwaukee on the Lisbon plank road. It is suitable for a private dwelling, and well situated for keeping a public house. Apply on the premises to: W. M. Spink.
Waukesha County Democrat | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Wednesday, August 23, 1854 | Page 3
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Known as “Spink’s Tavern”
Waukesha County Democrat | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Wednesday, April 15, 1857 | Page 2
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There was a Fred G. Boots, probably a relative, who had a mini saloon on Main Street in Sussex where today Strobel’s Sussex Auto is located. In time, this became too small and Fred Boots built a multi-story saloon and home across Main Street where the parking lot sits for Tony Maroni’s Pizza today. The name of the saloon was Boot’s Saloon and also Peace and Plenty Saloon.
Note: Frederick Grant Boots, b. 1864 in Waukesha County, son of Henry Boots.In 1880 Fed Census, Town of Lisbon, his father was a “Saloon keeper”, and Fred was a “bar tender”.
Source: Ephraim Boots, Sussex Brewery in the 1800s Photos from the collection of Sussex Village Historian Fred H. Keller, Sussex Sun, May 15, 2012
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April 1883 – Ephraim Boots is in Waukesha Freeman newspaper’s delinquent tax list. See next entry.
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Article on Schlitz Brewing Co growth; talks about Ephriam Boots opened the Schlitz branch agency there in 1882. He receives “beer in refrigerator cars, which are owned by the company” then supplies the trade in the Janesville area
Janesville Gazette | Janesville, Wisconsin | Saturday, June 20, 1891 | Page 3
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Ephriam Boots, who resides at 155 Linn Street, had narrow escape from death after his Blatz Brewing Company delivery wagon was hit at the North Western railway tracks crossing.
[Mr. Boots left Schlitz, who successfully sued him for breach of contract, and went to work for Val Blatz]Janesville Daily Gazette | Janesville, Wisconsin | Monday, March 11, 1901 | Page 5
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In 1905 he’s an agent for the Miller Brewing Co.
Janesville Daily Gazette | Janesville, Wisconsin | Wednesday, January 04, 1905 | Page 2
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Note: In the 1930s, local businessman Alfred Otto built a Lannon-stone house on the site of the former brewery, whose address today is W239 N6638 Maple Ave.
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Waukesha Freeman | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Tuesday, January 17, 1865 | Page 3
Ad – WAUKESHA BREWERY
The undersigned having again commenced to Brew, os ready to fill all orders for Beer with promptness and despatch, at the market price. Bottle Beer constantly on hand. H. A. Meyer., Waukesha, Dec. 5, 1864.
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Waukesha Plaindealer | Waukesha, Wisconsin | Tuesday, August 21, 1866 | Page 3
Suicide at Sussex – On Tuesday Inst, Mr. Jeremiah Stone, an old resident of Lisbon, committed suicide at the village of Sussex, by taking strichnine. He went to McDonald’s store that morning, and purchased ten cents worth of strichnine. From there, he went to the brewery where it is supposed he took it.
He lived about two hours after swallowing the fatal dose. We learn that upon occasions he has exhibited simptoms of insanity. He leaves a wife and three children to mourn his loss.
In the following recreation of his death – Ephraim Boots, owner of the brewery said, “supposing him to be in a drunken fit, took him up and helped him into the slaughter house, along side of the brewery, and put some clothes under his head for a pillow, and left him there to sleep it out. About 2 o’clock he went in to see him, and he was just struggling his last. J. M.
-‘You must not’ take any of that yourself.” “Oh, no,” li£ said,- “they don’t want me up there,” pointing his hand upward to Heaven’, and went off from there to the brewery, kept by Mr. Boots, where he asked for some beer. Mr. Boots would not give him
any, as he thought he was under the influence of liquor. While Mr. Boots was making a fire out doors, .Jerry came and put ;a piece of paper into the fire and went and set down. After a little he said “Good bye, Boots, I am going to die,’ and commenced to tremble and shake for a. few moments, then appeared tobe sensible for a while, but soon commenced to shake again. After a little he lay down on his face. Boots told him to go in the shade. “So long,” he said,
page 746
The brewery, which stands about one-half mile north of the mill, on the road from Sussex,was first built by Stephen Stone. In 1862, Mr. Boots became sole owner. Twelve years after,in 1874, Mr. Boots had the misfortune to lose the old brewery by fire. In 1875, it was rebuiltas it now is.
Note: So far no newspaper account of the day recalls these events. It may be that the 1880 book editor mistakened the Feb 1874 Fussville brewery fire?
pages 976-77
E. BO0TS, proprietor of the Sussex Brewery ~ P. O. Sussex- is a native of Sussex C0-1 E115;
he was born Jan 7, 1331 ; in 1850, he came to this country and located in the town of Lisbon, Waukesha Co., Wis., where he married Eleanor Weaver, daughter of William Weaver, Sr., an old settler of Lisbon. Mr. Boots and wife are members of the Episcopal Church; Mr. Boots is an enterprising citizen and a good business man ; he became proprietor of the Sussex Brewery in 1861, and has done a successful business since that time.
Source: History of Waukesha County, Wis., 1880