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Historic Beer Birthday: Herman Zibold

April 4, 2025 By Jay Brooks

kansas

Today is the birthday of Herman Zibold (April 4, 1836-July 20, 1891). He was born in Riegel, Baden, in what today is Germany. When he was 23, in 1859, he emigrated to the U.S., and fought in the Civil War for four years. Afterward, he worked for breweries in St. Louis and St. Joseph, both in Missouri. He Eventually settled in Atchison, Kansas and with a business partner who was also originally from Baden, Joseph Haegelin, bought what was originally a brewery started by Hugo Knecht and Albert Weinman in 1860. Zibold bought it from the third owners in 1871, and renamed it the Zibold & Haegelin Brewery. Zibold operated the brewery for the next twenty years, and after he died, Haegelin continued the business but also died two years later, in 1893. Their two widows kept it going, but it closed for good in 1902.

The brewery around 1884.

This biography is from Tavern Trove, the breweriana website.

Corporal Herman Ziebold was born in Granion, Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.  After his primary education in Germany he apprenticed as a brewer.  He emigrated to the United States in 1854 and after working at breweries in the Indiana town of Lawrenceburg, Chicago he settled finally St. Louis.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War Ziebold was 24, and he enlisted to fight for the Union.  He served almost the entirety of the war.  After Lee’s surrender at Appomattox he lived again in St. Louis, where met Miss Rosa Franz.  They were married in August of 1867.  The Ziebolds then moved to St. Joseph, Missouri where Herman got a job in the Nunning Brewery.  There he met his Josef Hagelin, a man who not only would soon be his brother-in-law, but also his business partner.  In 1871 both families moved to the Great Plains where they purchased the brewery owned by hotelier John Stamm in Atchison, Kansas.

For 20 years Herman Ziebold and Josef Haegelin were partners in the brewery in Atchison.  Ziebold & Hagelin’s Southwest Lager & Beer Brewery became nationally famous as the brewery that stubbornly refused to go out of business despite the best efforts of God and the Government.  The firm became defendants in an important Prohibition-related lawsuit that made its way all the way to the Supreme Court.  The firm ultimately won their case as the court affirmed that municipalities had the right to enact laws that forbid the sale of alcohol, under the guise of public health, but could not forbid its manufacture for sale elsewhere.  The Southwest’s extensive distribution network on the other side of the Missouri state line sustained it, for the time being.

Herman Ziebold died on the 20th of July, 1891 at the age of 56 years.  Hagelin died on the 25th of January, 1893.  The brewery, thereafter run by the widows of the original partners, continued into the next century, and finally closed, after three decades of defiance, in 1902.

Employees in front of the brewery in 1901.

And this account is from the Free Library:

The Zibold-Haegelin Brewery, which was located on Price Boulevard in this northeast Kansas town, was allowed to flourish while others across the state were shuttered after Kansas outlawed liquor in 1880.

In fact the brewery became famous throughout the state and the nation for its persistence in fighting against abstinence laws well before Prohibition became part of the U.S. Constitution in 1920.

“The biggest thing about (the Zibold-Haegelin brewery) is during Kansas Prohibition they just kind of ignored it,” said Chris Taylor, executive director of the Atchison County Historical Society.

According to the book “The History of the Haegelin-Zibold Family” by the Rev. William Haegelin, the brewery began after his great-grandfather, Joseph Haegelin, and Herman Zibold brought the A. Stem Brewery here in 1871.

Both men were German immigrants trained in the brewery trade in their native Baden, Germany.

The men, who would eventually become close friends as well as brothers-in-law when Mr. Haegelin married Mr. Zibold’s sister Emma, promptly tore down the old brewery and erected a more modem one on the same grounds.

The business proved very successful, despite the various laws that were beginning to be passed against the sale of liquor in Kansas during the mid- to late 1800s.

But in 1880, after the Kansas Legislature submitted a vote to the people, Kansas became a “dry” state. It became against the law to manufacture or sell intoxicating beverages in the state.

Despite the law, the Zibold-Haegelin Brewery still continued to operate. In fact, in 1887 it was reported that the brewery was producing more than 3,000 barrels of beer a year.

That the brewery was allowed to flourish while the rest of the state went dry was due in part to the fact that then-Kansas Gov. John Alexander Martin lived in Atchison at the time and had become close friends with the brewers.

Governor Martin found innovative ways to help his friends stay in business, One argument he made was that since the brewery was on the northeast corner of Kansas, it was actually a Missouri border town and therefore legal. But other times when he actually did order the sheriff to “arrest” his friends for breaking the law.

“What I heard about it was that the sheriff showed up ever so often to make the arrests of one of the owners and take him to jail where they basically played cards for the afternoon while the other one ran the business,” Taylor said. “They did this just to make sure the Prohibition part of the community was satisfied that they were doing something.”

After Herman Zibold died in 1891 and Joseph Haegelin in 1893, their widows continued to run the business and later their sons took over. It continued to operate until 1902 when it was finally forced to close down.

Emma Haegelin purchased the Zibold interest and along with her son August turned the brewery into “The Crystal Ice Co.”

The Haegelins two other sans, Karl and Joseph Jr., remained in the brewery profession. Karl went to work for the Goetz Brewery in St. Joseph, while Joseph Jr. went to work for Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis.

August Haegelin eventually bought his mother’s interest in the business and continued to operate the ice company until he sold the old brewery buildings to the Kansas Power and Light Co. in 1927.

zibold-haegelin-brewery

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: Germany, Kansas

Beer In Grocery Stores: Oh, The Horror!

March 6, 2014 By Jay Brooks

grocery-cart
Here in sunny California, we can stroll down to the local grocery store, or convenience store, and buy a six-pack of beer. It’s not a big deal. It’s been that way since I moved here in 1985, and probably was that way long before I arrived. I pretty much take it for granted, but there are still states where adults still can’t buy a beer without going to a special store, sometimes run by the state itself, to protect its tax revenue, but more importantly to tightly control the distribution of demon alcohol. My home state of Pennsylvania was (and is) one such state. All of the states’ alcohol laws were written in the wake of prohibition’s end, and were designed with that failed legacy in mind. Most of these laws today are antiquated and out-of-date in the face of modern life.

But changing alcohol laws are harder than many other laws, because there’s a special layer of angst that lawmakers must face. Alcohol is still treated as a toxic substance, one that poses a danger, despite it having been around since the dawn of civilization and having been legal for adults for literally the entirety of human history, with the notable exception of thirteen years in the mid-20th century. But prohibitionist strategy since essentially the moment the 21st Amendment was ratified has remained unchanged: to make it as difficult as possible for adults to obtain legal alcohol. And so for the past 80+ years they’ve been tireless in their efforts to make us work for our beer. So now the state of Kansas is seeking to modernize the state and allow beer, wine and spirits to be sold in grocery and convenience stores. The modest bill takes into account liquor stores’ current monopolies and gives “them 10 years to adapt to increased competition in the marketplace. Beer sales would not be legal until 2017, wine in 2020, and spirits in 2024.” But that would mean there would be more places where adults could legally buy something that they’re legally entitled to purchase, and we certainly don’t want to encourage that. Or rather the prohibitionists don’t want people to be able to. Alcohol Justice tweeted out their displeasure with Kansas, chastising lawmakers there with a simple admonishment: “Bad move.”

I’m sure they have an excellent reason why it’s a “bad move” for adults to have more freedom and convenience in purchasing their alcohol, something they’re already allowed to do, but so far A.J. is mum on the whys are wherefores. Although you can be sure it has something to do with protecting children or how much more the state will be harmed if people can increasingly be able to engage in the legally permissible act of enjoying a beer. They’ve never been too strong on logic or rational thought, so maybe it’s best they stick to the sublimely absurd. Because as far as I can tell, Alcohol Justice telling the legislature of the state of Kansas “bad move” is the schoolyard bully equivalent of “because we said so” or “because we don’t like it.”

beer-in-grocery

Filed Under: Editorial, Politics & Law Tagged With: Business, Kansas, Law, Prohibitionists

Kansas Beer

January 29, 2011 By Jay Brooks

kansas
Today in 1861, Kansas became the 34th state.

Kansas
State_Kansas

Kansas Breweries

  • 23rd Street Brewery
  • Blind Tiger Brewery
  • Crazy Eye Brewing
  • Flying Monkey Beer
  • Free State Brewing
  • Gella’s Diner & Lb. Brewing
  • Granite City Food & Brewing
  • Hank is Wiser Brewery
  • High Noon Saloon & Brewing
  • Little Apple Brewing
  • Mo’s Place Grill & BrewPub
  • River City Brewing
  • Safari Grill & Brewery
  • Tallgrass Brewing

Kansas Brewery Guides

  • Beer Advocate
  • Beer Me
  • Rate Beer

Guild: Kansas Craft Brewers Guild [no website]

State Agency: Kansas Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control

maps-ks

  • Capital: Topeka
  • Largest Cities: Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Topeka, Olathe
  • Population: 2,688,418; 32nd
  • Area: 82,282 sq.mi., 15th
  • Nickname: Sunflower State
  • Statehood: 34th, January 29, 1861

m-kansas

  • Alcohol Legalized: Unknown
  • Number of Breweries: 15
  • Rank: 34th
  • Beer Production: 1,967,234
  • Production Rank: 33rd
  • Beer Per Capita: 21.8 Gallons

kansas

Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 32.3%
  • Cans: 57.9%
  • Kegs: 9.6%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.18
  • Per Case: $0.41
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $5.58
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $5.58

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $67,218,011
  • Direct Impact: $556,080,045
  • Supplier Impact: $390,326,463
  • Induced Economic Impact: $317,903,610
  • Total Impact: $1,264,310,118

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: On Premises: 9 a.m. – 2 a.m. (in counties which allow on-premises sales)
    Off Premises: 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. (Mon–Sat) (in counties which allow off-premises sales)
    noon – 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. (Sun) (in communities which allow Sunday off-premises sales)
  • Grocery Store Sales: 3.2 only
  • Notes: Kansas’s alcohol laws are among the strictest in the United States. Kansas prohibited all alcohol from 1881 to 1948, and continued to prohibit on-premises sales of alcohol from 1949 to 1987. Sunday sales only have been allowed since 2005. Today, 29 counties still do not permit the on-premises sale of alcohol. 59 counties require a business to receive at least 30% of revenue from food sales to allow on-premises sale of alcohol. Only 17 counties allow general on-premises sales. Not all communities which allow off-premises sales allow sales on Sunday. Sales are prohibited on Christmas and Easter. The only alcoholic beverage which grocery stores and gas stations may only sell is beer with no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight. Other liquor sales only are allowed at state-licensed retail liquor stores. Kansas has comprehensive open container laws for public places and vehicles, public intoxication laws, and requirements for prospective on-premises or off-premises licensees.

kansas-map

Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.

For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.

Filed Under: Beers, Breweries Tagged With: Kansas

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