“This is the first time we have done this event,” said Karla Hollencamp, marketing and community relations director of The Calvary Cemetery Association.
“As we are doing research about the cemetery to commemorate its 140th anniversary, we are discovering a lot about Dayton’s history as well,” Hollencamp said. “The German Catholics who came here in the 1830s had a major impact on the culture and the commerce of early Dayton.
“In celebrating the lives of these brewers, we are remembering what Dayton was like in those times and gaining new respect for how Dayton was built,” she said.
Rick Ordeman, president of the Miami Valley chapter of the Brewery Collectibles Club of America, will be present at the tour.
The BCCA will provide free appraisals of attendees’ beer and brewery-related items, he said.
The BCCA also will sell old Dayton beer items, including old bottles from the 1930s, at the event, Ordeman said.
“If you have any interest in Dayton history, beer, brewing or just want to go to a fun event on a nice day, you should come to the Dayton Brewing Heritage Tour,” he said.
Based on Curt Dalton’s book titled “Breweries of Dayton: A Toast to Brewers from the Gem City: 1810-1961,” Calvary Cemetery identified families who were important to the city’s brewing industry.
Descendants of the brewers’ families — including the Schwind, Sachs and Hollencamp families — will be at the event to show their collections of photographs.
They also will have some bottles, cans and other items from the breweries.
Dalton will sign copies of his book from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the event.
“I love Dayton history,” Dalton said. “I think the reason people should go is because Calvary Cemetery has got a fantastic history.
“I think the tour is a good learning experience for people to see who helped create Dayton and make it a better place.”
Jim Sachs, a resident of Washington Twp., is the great-grandson of Edward Sachs of Sachs-Pruden Ale Company, who is buried at Calvary Cemetery.
Edward Sachs was born in Dayton in 1851.He was a pharmacist who owned a drug store downtown. His partner in the drug store was fellow chemist David Pruden.
They began creating flavoring extracts, carbonated water and their own brand of ginger ale and other soft drinks, which they served at the counter in their store.
In 1883, Edward Sachs and Pruden built their own bottling plant. They soon were brewing ale and formed the Sachs-Pruden Ale Company. They sold the brewery in 1892 and went back to making just ginger ale. Brewing at the site ceased after they merged with Dayton Breweries Company in 1906.
This historical information was provided by Hollencamp, with references from Dalton’s book “Breweries of Dayton,” as well as “Brewing Beer in the Gem City” by Robert A. Musson, M.D.
Jim Sachs will be present at the tour, along with two of his cousins, and other family members.
Jim Sachs said he plans to bring a photograph of Edward Sachs standing behind the counter at his business to the event, along with a ginger ale glass he bought at an antique shop, and some other antique items.
“It brings some pride to know that there was such an entrepreneur in our family who brought a tradition to America,” Jim Sachs said of Edward Sachs.
Area brewing history
Beer brewing once was an important business in Dayton, and helped to fuel the city’s development into an industrial center.
Approximately 2,500 people lived in Dayton in 1830. By 1840, more than 6,000 individuals lived in Dayton.
Immigrants began moving into the valley from their first stops in Cincinnati and Toledo.
Beer brewing and drinking have been a part of the lives of Germans for many centuries. Germans naturally re-created this tradition and lifestyle in their new hometowns.
As they worked to build a new life, some built brewing businesses, a few lasting for a short time, and others for several generations.
“Breweries were important in Dayton because they provided quite a lot of jobs, not just to the people who were making the beer, but the people who made the barrels, the people who provided the glass bottles, the people who built the brewery, the bartenders and the bars themselves,” Dalton said.
Colonel George Newcom, one of the original settlers of Dayton, opened a brewery around 1810 next to his tavern. Several breweries, making mainly common beer, ale, porter and stout, opened and closed in Dayton after that time.
In 1852, John and Michael Schiml introduced Dayton to lager beer, and the brewing business took off from there. Lager, which was lighter in taste, reminded the German community in Dayton of their homeland.
By 1908, more than 200,000 barrels were made annually in the city of Dayton, with $300,000 being paid each year in wages in the city.
These historical facts were provided by Hollencamp of Calvary Cemetery Association, with references from Dalton’s book “Breweries of Dayton,” as well as “Brewing Beer in the Gem City” by Musson.
Beer brewing today
While the BCCA has been collecting in Dayton since the early 1970s, beer fell out of favor for a while in the area, according to Ordeman.
However, it is making a comeback with the craft breweries that are opening in the area, including The Dayton Beer Company in Kettering, Toxic Brew Co. in Dayton’s Oregon Historic District and Vitruvian Brewing Co. in Yellow Springs, he said.
“I have recently heard the beer is the new wine, and that is evident in Dayton,” Ordeman said.
“ ... These micro-breweries along with regional organizations like the Dayton Regional Amateur Fermentation Technologists are bringing the art of craft brewing back to American beer.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2122 or Jacqueline.Boyle@coxinc.com.
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