Today is the birthday of John A. Weyand (December 8, 1859-1907). He was the son of Christian Weyand, who founded what would become the Christian Weyand Brewing Co., which remained in business until closed by prohibition in 1920.
This biography of Weyland os from “Our County and its people: A descriptive work on Erie County, edited byTruman C. White, from 1898:
Weyand, John A., vice president and general manager of the Christian Weyand Brewing Company, and one of Buffalo’s most respected citizens, was born in that city, December 8, 1859. He early evinced a desire to acquire an education and after passing through the public schools and Canisius College he entered the Bryant & Stratton Business College, from which he was graduated before attaining his majority. He immediately entered his father’s brewery, remaining in that business until 1890, when it was made a stock company and he was made vice president and general manager. Aside from his extensive business affairs, Mr. Weyand takes an active interest in church affairs, being a member of St. Louis Catholic church, is a trustee of St. John’s Protectory, member of the Buffalo Orpheus, Sangerbund and Liedertafel. He has always taken an active interest in all public enterprises and was a park commissioner under Mayor Bishop.
This short history of the brewery, including mentions of John and his father, is from the “1897 Brewers Convention Buffalo NY,” published by the Buffalo Brewers Association:
Christian Weyand Brewing Company.
In 1866, Christian Weyand established the business now conducted by The Christian Weyand Brewing Company. Mr. Weyand is a native of France, having been born in the province of Lorraine a little more than seventy years ago. There he spent his youth and received his education; but in his twenty-first year he left Lorraine for the wider opportunities of the New World, landing in New York just fifty years ago. He soon found his way to Buffalo, but it was nearly twenty years before he began the business with which his name is now so intimately connected in the minds of all Buffalonians. During these years he worked as a shoemaker — at first as an employee, and later in a shop of his own.
Mr. Weyand, with a partner, began the brewing business in a small way, with little capital and a poorly equipped plant; but the purest and best of barley malt was used from the start, and improved machinery was introduced as fast as the necessary capital could be secured. In 1873. Mr. Weyand assumed entire charge of the business, and applied himself vigorously to the task of building up a model brewery. His efforts met with entire success, and in a few years his establishment became one of the first in its line in Buffalo — a city that boasts of many fine breweries. In 1890, he organized the business into a stock company, called The Christian Weyand Brewing Company, of which he is president, his son, John A. Weyand, vice-president and manager, and another son, Charles M. Weyand, secretary and treasurer. Since then the business has materially increased, and in 1896-97 it became necessary to make extensive additions to the plant. The new buildings on the corner of Main and Goodell streets, built of buff terra cotta elaborately ornamented in Renaissance style, are exceedingly handsome; and it is now one of the best-equipped breweries in the country.
This is purported to be a photograph of the house at the “Southeast Corner Main and Goodell Streets” from the 1912 “Picture Book Of Earlier Buffalo.” But as Michael F. Rizzo and Ethan Cox, authors of “Buffalo Beer” point out, “the structures in the background and to the left of the subject must have been the Christian Weyand brewery. Indeed, the least occluded building to the left was, I think, their office address on Goodell.”
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