Thieme & Wagner Brewing Company

( Lafayette Brewery )

In 1858, John Wagner (-1904) and Dietrich Herbert opened a new brewery at the corner of Illinois (now Fourth) and Union Streets. In 1862, Frederick August Thieme (1818-) bought out Herbert and the company became the Thieme & Wagner Brewing Co. Initially the brewery produced 7-8 barrels of beer per day, but by 1876 was producing 7,000-8,000 barrels annually. Four years later, the combined annual production of Newman & Bohrer and Thieme & Wagner was 15,700 barrels. By 1881 the two breweries produced a combined output of 486,000 gallons of beer. The company grew throughout the late-19th century.

Thieme & Wagner's Lafayette Brewery (left of center on opposite side of Wabash & Erie Canal), 1868, with Lafayette Gas Co. tanks just to the right Thieme & Wagner's Lafayette Brewery, from A Glimpse of La Fayette, 1890 (note ice houses in the distance)
Enlarged view. Tengen & Thieme Bottling Works, bottlers of Thieme & Wagner beer, from A Glimpse of La Fayette, 1890

A five-story addition was built in 1894. As of 1912, all of the brewery’s buildings had been designed by Louis Lehle, a nationally-known Chicago architect who specialized in brewery design. Lehle also designed buildings for the Blatz ( Milwaukee), Brand ( Chicago), Detroit, Dixie ( New Orleans), Eagle ( Erie, PA), Figter ( Duluth, MN), Minneapolis, and Schlitz ( Milwaukee) brewing companies.

View of Thieme & Wagner's Brewery, c.1900, showing 5-story central building built in 1894 (image courtesy of the Herman Berry Collection) Enlargement showing the original roof line of the tower and ventilators
View looking north on Fourth Street from near Union Street, during the great flood of March 22-26, 1913 Enlargement showing Thieme & Wagner Brewery
Loading kegs onto a Thieme & Wagner delivery truck during the 1913 flood Company logo on the delivery truck

Thieme & Wagner produced several brands including Bohemian (“Extra Brew”), Lockweiler (“Special Brew,” described as “German Type”), Ye Tavern Brew (“The Beer De Luxe”), T. & W. Special (described as “Bohemian Type”). At its height, Thieme & Wagner was producing 3,000,000 gallons of beer per year and was one of the largest breweries in Indiana. The beer was bottled across the street by Tengen & Thieme, a partnership involving Theodore Wagner’s in-laws. Its products were delivered as far as Covington, Kokomo, and Danville, Indiana and as far as Kankakee and Danville, Illinois. When the company incorporated in 1889, the Thieme and Wagner families each held stock with an estimated value of $1,114,000. They also owned much real estate as well as several ice houses in Lafayette and other cities.

Advertisement for Tengen & Thieme Bottling Works, from the 1901 R. L. Polk Lafayette City Directory A 1908 advertisement featuring T&W Special and Lockweiler beers
Enlarged view of bottles from 1908 advertisement. A typical Thieme & Wagner bottle
Detail of a typical Thieme & Wagner Bottle Bottom of bottle with star (Lafayette was known as the "Star City")
Enlargement of 1908 advertisement showing neck label Thieme & Wagner letterhead
Advertisement from the Lafayette Journal, May 16, 1916 Label from Thieme & Wagner Bohemian beer

As of 1899, John Wagner was president of the company, Charles C. Thieme was vice president, J. Henry Thieme was secretary and treasurer, Theodore Wagner was superintendent, and Frederick P. Thieme was a brewer. After the death of John Wagner, senior, in 1904, his son, also named John Wagner, became president of the brewing company. When the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce was established in October, 1913, John Wagner, was elected president.

The National Fruit Juice Company and Prohibition

In 1914, the stockholders of the Thieme & Wagner Brewing Co. formed the Seminole Realty Co., which handled the brewery’s rental investment properties. In 1916, the stockholders joined inventor Gustave L. Goob to form the National Fruit Juice Co. The initial product of the company was Apella, an unfermented apple juice with no artificial preservatives. In the first season, 25 railroad carloads of apples were pressed to make the beverage. Apella’s slogans included “An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away” and “The Bubbling Joy Drink.” Another product of the company was Apple-Ade, a carbonated soda, made during at least 1919-1920.

An Apella advertisement from October 6, 1916 National Fruit Juice Co. letterhead
Two cases of Apple-Ade bottled on March 3-4, 1920, miraculously survived over sixty years in a home basement and more than a decade in warehouse storage Interior of one of the cases

Prohibition went into effect in Indiana at midnight on April 2, 1918, closing both Thieme & Wagner and the George A. Bohrer Brewing Co. Thieme & Wagner was operated for some years by its former subsidiary, the National Fruit Juice Co. It produced a Ye Tavern near-beer (“The Beverage De Luxe”). The company’s non-alcoholic ventures were not successful enough to keep it in business, and it closed about 1922.

As of 1927, the Thieme & Wagner facility was occupied by the Val Blatz Brewing Co., which made Famous Old Heidelberg and other beverages along with “the Original Grape Gum.”

The Lafayette Brewery, Inc.

On April 1, 1933, Prohibition was repealed and the new Lafayette Brewery, Inc., began to remodel the Thieme & Wagner brewery and add a new building adjacent to it. W. G. Hanger, president of Lafayette Ice & Coal Co. located next door to the brewery for decades, was president of the new company. Hanger is said to have been an absentee investor, living in the south and only visiting Lafayette occasionally. The Thieme and Wagner families were not invited to join the reopened company and they later formed a beverage distribution company to compete with the new Lafayette Brewery. The first batch of the new Ye Tavern Brew beer used the same formula as the original Tavern Brew that was produced up until 1918. It contained yeast, water, malt, and hops from Oregon and Czechoslovakia. Louis F. Panther, who had worked for 31 at the George A. Bohrer Brewing Co., became the new company’s brewmaster, with Charles Reitmer as his assistant. Layton Thompson ran the brewery, and John Leuter was vice president of the company. Ye Tavern Brew was advertised as “The Beer De Lux.” The company produced Tippecanoe Beer (in new non-returnable bottles) from the late-1930s until shortly after World War II. Another brand was Kopper Kettle Beer, in cone-top cans. The Lafayette Brewery, Inc., provided a free case of beer to each policeman and fireman in Lafayette every Christmas.

Advertisement for Ye Tavern Brew, "The Beer De Luxe" from the spine of the 1935 R. L. Polk Lafayette City Directory Advertisement for Lafayette Ice & Coal Co. and Ye Tavern Brew, from the 1941 Lafayette Telephone Directory

The company closed in 1953 and the buildings sat empty until they were demolished between September, 1960 and February, 1961, to make way for the on-ramps of the Harrison Bridge.

 

The William Henry Harrison Bridge

Herman Berry, owner of Berry's Camera Shop just a few blocks south on N. Fourth Street, documented the construction of the Harrison Bridge and the demolition of the Thieme & Wagner Brewing Co. buildings in Kodachrome color slides. All images reproduced below are courtesy of the Herman Berry Collection.

September 26, 1958, groundbreaking for the Harrison Bridge. West Lafayette High School Marching Band behind the former Lafayette Brewery buildings September 26, 1958, West Lafayette High School band and Honor Guard behind brewery
September 26, 1958, Governor Handley (center) at groundbreaking September 26, 1958, Governor Handley operates machinery at the groundbreaking
September 26, 1958, Lafayette Journal and Courier October 16, 1958, view of brewery and excavation for bridge from west side of the Wabash River
February 1, 1959, brewery buildings seen from across frozen Wabash River May 24, 1959, rear of brewery buildings
July 11, 1959, view of Harrison Bridge construction with brewery in background August 13, 1959 view across partially flooded Levee
View of the eastern end of Union Street, c.1959 August, 1959, view of truck entrance to brewery (photo by Sheldon Pershing, image courtesy of the Herman Berry Collection)
January 24, 1960, view from West Lafayette March 27, 1960, view of Harrison Bridge girders and brewery building, taken with 135mm lens
October 4, 1960, view of Harrison Bridge from roof of brewery October 9, 1960, demolition of the Thieme & Wagner Brewing Co. buildings
October 4, 1960, cupola on roof of five-story building (built 1894) October 9, 1960, view of five-story building (built 1894) during demolition
October 9, 1960, view of realigned Union Street with Sunshine Farms Dairy Building in foreground and brewery in background October 9, 1960, detail of fifth floor
October 9, 1960, detail of fifth floor, note faint outline of "THIEME & WAGNER BG CO" just below "1894" date plaque on tower. October 9, 1960, detail of entrance, note iron staircase and loading dock to right of stairs
October 9, 1960, note large tanks inside building being demolished October 9, 1960, upper facade of Lafayette Ice & Coal Co. building, with "APELLA" plaque at upper right
December 15, 1960, front page of the Journal and Courier December 15, 1960, dedication of the Harrison Bridge
January 13, 1961 demolition of the brewery, note large tanks still in place January 27, 1961, 10° above zero, demolition of the brewery buildings showing interior wood used for insulation
August 17, 1961, the new William Henry Harrison Bridge August 17, 1961, celebration of the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Tippecanoe at the formal opening of the bridge
 
Site of the Thieme & Wagner brewery in 2001, with N. Fourth Street to right of center. Brick house at right was the residence of John Wagner, 715 N. Fourth Street, built sometime before 1863.