Today is the birthday of Anton Zahm (December 12, 1841-January 9 or February 8, 1901). He was born in Knebelburg, in the Rhenish Palatinate, in what today is Germany. When he was 25, in 1866, and initially settled in Toledo, Ohio, where he had a brewery with a partner, Finlay & Zahm. I’m not sure what happened to it, but in 1881, he relocated to Syracuse, New York, to take a job as president of the Haberle Brewing Co., where he remained for the remainder of his life. A little over a decade later, Haberle merged with another local brewery, Crystal Springs Brewery, and they changed the name to the Haberle-Crystal Spring Brewing Co. (and also did business as Haberle Brewery) until 1920, when it was closed by prohibition. It reopened in 1933 as the Haberle Congress Brewing Co., and it remained in business until 1961, when it closed for good. After the merger, Zahm became vice-president and also was a director of the company. I’m not sure what his ownership interest was, but he must have had a substantial portion of the brewery. I couldn’t find any photos of Zahm.
This is Zahm’s obituary from the American Brewers’ Review:
And this account is about the brewery, from 100 Years of Brewing:
Cool article, glad to find. I am currently reading a small book (Die Kübelberger Gerberfamilie Zahm) about the Zahm family (published in German by a Geneaologist named Andreas Stephan).
Anton Zahm was born in Kübelberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, not Knebelburg, Rhenish-Palatinate. The Pfalz is usually called the Palatinate in English.