by Jeremy Banas
Without the passing of her husband, it is likely that Emma Koehler would not have been as critical as she was to the San Antonio Brewing Association’s survival and growth. Without Emma Koehler, the San Antonio Brewing Association’s demise would have been a distinct possibility. During the hard times of the Great Depression and Prohibition, it was the return of Otto Andrew Koehler, the son of Otto Koehler’s brother Karl, that signaled the possibility of a recovery and rebirth for the brewery. Otto Andrew returned home from serving in the war overseas to see his family’s company, which he had grown up with, stripped down to next to nothing. He did not jump in right away. He even opened several businesses in San Antonio but stood ready to help his aunt whenever she may need him.
PROHIBITION ARRIVES
Although the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified in January 1919, Prohibition began as a federal program on January 16, 1920. Many thought this was only achievable if there were distinct laws against the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Many saw the distilling, beer and wine industries as motivated by profit and happy to encourage people to drink more. As with many things, though, the more you tell someone they can’t do something, the more they do it. Many found ways to make bathtub beer, gin and other alcoholic beverages during Prohibition. If alcohol were not legally available, then that would solve the troubling issues of crime, violence and inappropriate sexual behavior, right?
Early in the 1840s, wets sought to prevent those who were against alcohol from ruining a good thing. As far back as 1843, the Republic of Texas passed what may have been one of the first prohibitionist laws in the United States. In 1845, saloons were often busted on liquor violations, although state officials never enforced it. The law was repealed in 1856; however, that only served to fuel the fire. The Texas organization the United Friends of Temperance began in 1870 to fight for a more sober Texas in the United States.
A few years later, in 1883, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a national organization, branched out in Texas with known temperance advocate Frances Willard. In 1887, the dry camp tried to get a referendum for prohibition passed, but it lost by more than ninety thousand votes. Not ones to give up, the feisty three counties in Texas were dry, and another seventy-nine counties were a mix of dry and wet under the 1876 constitutional local option law. In the early 1900s, the prohibition movement gained support from voters in North Texas, converting the majority of Texas voters. Not surprisingly, the wets continued to oppose with a very wealthy and public opposition that included the primary leaders. United Friends merged with the Anti-Saloon League, which was a national organization that appeared in Texas in 1907, and the dry camp gained control of seats in Congress.
The Texas state legislature ratified the amendment in 1918, with Texas residents approving the measure in 1919. Despite its traditionally conservative leanings, many in Texas just could not get on board with the idea of banning alcohol. Even the Anti-Saloon League’s Texas representative was not able to get a strict enforcement of Prohibition. Smack dab in the middle of Prohibition, the year 1925 saw the Texas state legislature firmly in control by the wet camp. As one can imagine, it opposed enforcing statewide prohibition, although the dry camp was still able to get many to support educational training for state officials regarding abstaining from alcohol. Only a few short years later, in 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Twenty-First Amendment that effectively crumpled Prohibition up and tossed it away in a trashcan. It wasn’t until 1935, though, that residents of Texas voted to repeal the state’s dry laws. At that point, prohibition went back to the local level, giving temperance advocates the local option statutes to rely on.
In 1933, the federal repeal of Prohibition did not go into effect right away. During the months before, the federal government granted those existing breweries permits to begin brewing beer in anticipation of the Twenty-First Amendment taking effect. Thus, within minutes of taking effect, around one hundred trucks and twenty-five railroad cars loaded with XXX Pearl Beer rolled out of the brewery and headed into the hands of thirsty Texans.
At this point, Otto Andrew Koehler returned to the San Antonio Brewing Association and to Aunt Emma. Otto Andrew headed the company’s Orange Crush division and returned the name of Otto Koehler to the brewery’s management.
Emma was officially named the president of the organization in 1933, finally making official what she had been doing since 1918, with Otto Andrew voted in as vice-president. Aunt Emma stayed on as an adviser to her nephew until her death in 1943. At that time, Otto Andrew was elected by the board as president of the San Antonio Brewing Association, ushering in the San Antonio Brewing Association’s fourth period, one that saw unprecedented growth for the brewery. He stayed in this position until his death in 1969.
SAN ANTONIO BREWING ASSOCIATION GROWS DESPITE PROHIBITION
The growth of the new San Antonio Brewing Association started with one man hired during Prohibition. Aunt Emma and Otto Andrew would not have been nearly as successful without the expert guidance they received from Benjamin Brooks McGimsey, perhaps one of the best hires the San Antonio Brewing Association ever made. McGimsey was born in Louisiana in 1888 to Robert Hunter McGimsey and Alice Edna (Mathews) McGimsey and was one of six children.
McGimsey’s impact would not be felt immediately, as the outside firm of Gregg and Company was brought on in January 1921 at the behest of Emma Koehler to help with solidifying the company’s rapidly dropping profits. Gregg and Company was composed of Tresham Gregg and his brother, Kenneth, both originally employed by Adolphus Busch’s Lone Star to help with its own Prohibition survival attempts in converting to a cotton mill. It was the recommendation of Lone Star president Henning Bruin and the strength of the Gregg brothers’ ability to convert Lone Star that led Emma Koehler to hire the firm.
When he arrived at Alamo Industries during Prohibition, McGimsey had no experience in the brewing industry. In 1920, at age thirty-two, McGimsey came to the San Antonio Brewing Association, then operating as Alamo Industries, to work as a temporary employee for the Gregg and Company business firm brought in by Bergstrom. Soon after Gregg and Company left in December 1921, McGimsey stayed and was hired as general manager of the association.
When Wahrmund returned in 1922, after Corwin Priest left, it was McGimsey whom he worked with. During his first year, McGimsey made quite a splash. After tightening the ship, profits increased about 50 percent. Not having to do this all alone was a relief for Emma Koehler, who had been using a great portion of her own money to keep the brewery going—in fact, close to $1 million by 1921.
McGimsey’s presence was immediately felt, although what he inherited from Gregg and Company was a mess. It had made a mockery of everything Otto Koehler stood for regarding his employees and how they should be treated. One of McGimsey’s first orders of business was the shift in business focus to that of food only, changing the name to the Alamo Foods Company.
In addition to further distancing the company from its own employees, in 1921 Gregg and Company effectively ousted the International Union of United Brewery, Flour, Cereal and Soft Drink Workers, whose members went on strike in 1921. Around this time, a devastating flood hit the San Antonio Brewing Association hard—it would take months to recover. McGimsey looked to restore good relations with members of Local 112. During the three years it would take to repair things, there was a general boycott of anything Alamo Foods Company produced. This included ice cream, soft drinks and all other businesses. Not that Alamo Foods Company needed any help from the union for its dairy business to go under.
At one point during Prohibition, even the City of San Antonio recalled all Alamo Foods Company products from Koehler Pavilion area at Brackenridge Park, land that had been donated to the City of San Antonio in 1915 by Emma Koehler in honor of her late husband. The one stipulation Emma Koehler had regarding the land donation was that it remain legal to consume alcoholic beverages at the park, and so it remains to this day the only area within Brackenridge Park where alcohol
can be legally consumed.
McGimsey was so gung-ho about his approach to turning the association around that in 1924 he even predicted that the company would return to profitability before the end of that era: “If all our plans can be realized, we should begin to make money this year. So far our future amounts to plans, but I firmly believe that they can be realized by careful operation and the cooperation of all persons concerned. We cannot hope to get out of the woods the first year, for it took five years to get in the condition we are in. I believe that in the course of three or four years, this concern should be a very successful one with most, if not all, of its obligations taken care of.”
Emma Koehler (alongside B.B. McGimsey) holding the first bottle of XXX Pearl Beer off the line after Prohibition was repealed. UTSA Libraries Special Collections, with permission of the San Antonio Express-News.
Perhaps the flood was a bit of a mixed blessing. Upgrades had been deemed necessary recently, so in addition to restoring the damage to the property itself, new refrigeration units were installed and a whole lot of paint was applied. In fact, it took about the same amount of time to get San Antonio Brewing Association into tiptop shape as it did for B.B. McGimsey to restore relations with the union and work.
Although the return to profitability wasn’t as immediate as promised, the Pearl also did not lose money during McGimsey’s early years. Many breweries around Texas that attempted to survive Prohibition suffered greatly. One at a time, they all closed down. The only one left in 1933 was the San Antonio favorite that used to produce a gem of a fine beer, although true relief would not come until it could brew beer again.
View of Southerleigh Fine Food and Brewing from its courtyard. Nan Palmero.
Another way that Silver Ventures honors the past.
Pearl Lager Beer logo. Jeremy Banas.
Country of 1100 Springs logo, created by Hiram “Pat” O’Brien. Nan Palmero.
The Koehler House as it sits today. Jeremy Banas.
Rolls and rolls of sheet metal that would later become cans of XXX Pearl Beer. Pearl LLC Archives.
XXX Pearl rolling down the canning line. Pearl LLC Archives.
Southerleigh signage. Jeremy Banas.
Pearl clocks. Jeremy Banas.
Neon Pearl signs lighting the way. Jeremy Banas.
This repurposed fermenter from Pearl’s bygone days greets visitors to the New Pearl complex. Jeremy Banas.
Southerleigh smokestack. Jeremy Banas.
Pearl smokestack dating back to the brewhouse construction in 1894. Jeremy Banas.
Repurposed Pearl propane tank adorning the exterior of the Culinary Institute of America. Jeremy Banas.
Flight of Southerleigh beers. Jeremy Banas.
Pearl signage on The Cellars luxury apartments. Jeremy Banas.
A bottle of XXX Pearl Beer with a war bond label and a San Antonio Brewing Association bottle. Jeremy Banas.
A bottle of Otto A. Koehler’s personalized whiskey from Old Fitzgerald. Otto A. had purchased his own barrels at the Kentucky distillery. Jeremy Banas.
Putin’s Revenge Russian Imperial Stout from Southerleigh. Jeremy Banas.
Texas Transportation Company railcar no. 2. Jeremy Banas.
A tin sign advertising La Perla. Jeremy Banas.
A six-pack of XXX Pearl Beer. Jeremy Banas.
Pearl sponsorship of the MLB Houston Colt .45s of the National League. The Colts would later become the Houston Astros. Jeremy Banas.
A painting of the trial of a horse thief by Judge Roy Bean. The judge was famous for only serving XXX Pearl Beer. Jeremy Banas.
A post–World War II Pearl ad featuring that jolly old elf himself. Jeremy Banas.
The stage shirt of Bash Hoffner, brother of Pearl Wranglers band leader Adolph Hoffner. Jeremy Banas.
The back of the Hotel Emma. Jeremy Banas.
A view of the Pearl Brewhouse and the Hotel Emma from the Riverwalk extension. Jeremy Banas.
Before he starred in Mad magazine, Alfred E. Newman was Pearl’s ad man. Jeremy Banas.
The JC bar mount can opener. Designed by San Marcos, Texas resident James H. Crews, the patent was applied for in 1949. At the time, Pearl, Falstaff and Southern Select were using the JC. Jeremy Banas.
Framed ads of the San Antonio Brewing Association, later 1890s. Jeremy Banas.
It’s all coming together! The New Pearl Complex takes shape, 2008. Jeff Trei.
Pearl Parade magazine, 1952. Jeremy Banas.
PERIOD IV
OTTO A. KOEHLER AND PEARL’S GOLDEN AGE, 1933–1969
PROHIBITION ENDS AND EMMA KOEHLER RISES FURTHER
In February 1933, many months before those first trucks rolled out of the brewhouse with beer at the end of Prohibition, Alamo Foods Company changed its name back to the San Antonio Brewing Association, with B.B. McGimsey as the general manager. Emma Koehler thrived in her tenured role as president, and along with McGimsey, they steered the San Antonio Brewing Association toward not only recovery but also prosperity.
Her tough and astute business sense was not earned overnight, though. Emma Koehler was born Emma Bentzen on February 25, 1858, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Ulrich and Helen Bentzen, who immigrated to the United States from Hanover, Germany, in 1837. The youngest of about seven children, young Emma Bentzen was not born with a silver spoon. Her father was listed as a horticulturist in the St. Louis census of 1870, although it is not known specifically what he did.
Little is known of how Emma Bentzen met Otto Koehler, although Martha Hix suggested that it may have been through Otto’s brother August, who was employed by Julius Thamer, a local brewer, and whose wife, Dorothy, may have been a sister to Emma’s mother, Helen. Regardless, Emma’s story begins with her marriage to Otto on August 12, 1882, in St. Louis. Two short weeks later, Emma’s father, Ulrich, passed away, and in 1883, the Koehlers moved to San Antonio so that Otto could start his job with the Lone Star Brewing Association.
Little is written of Emma’s life while married to Otto Koehler, although she was thrust into the spotlight in 1914 when she was made a widow at the age of fifty-six. As the sole heir to the Koehler fortune, Emma set out to prove that a woman was more than capable of moving on, despite what was expected of widows of the time. Instead of wallowing in the embarrassment of what Otto had done, she preserved his name—even dedicating a park in his honor.
Although she had family and servants to help her the last several years, she continued to rely on help to get her through widowhood. Once such family member was Hedwig Koethe, the daughter of Emma’s older sister, Anna. Hedwig’s son, Lutz Issleib, would later factor prominently into the brewery.
After Otto’s death, Emma seemingly regained her health. One might argue that without the specter of a cheating husband, she was invigorated. Emma was now determined to exert her influence on what she had inherited and helped build with her husband. She forced Oscar Bergstrom’s hand in hiring Gregg and Company, and later, using her influence as two-thirds owner of the San Antonio Brewing Association, she was named its president officially in 1921.
Improvements were made at the brewery over the next ten years. In 1934, the famous Pearl smokestack next to the brewhouse was illuminated with neon lights. In 1935, McGimsey organized the Texas Brewers Association, of which he would remain president until 1951. The San Antonio Brewing Association’s soda division was taken over by the Texas Dry Corporation. In 1935, it operated on the Pearl grounds until it went out of business, at which time the San Antonio Brewing Association bought the bottling equipment back.
Besides McGimsey, the San Antonio Brewing Association had two other hires who would see the brewery through Prohibition and beyond: Hiram B. “Pat” O’Brien and Aubrey N. Kline. The first of these larger-than-life men, O’Brien was hired in 1930 when the brewery was still known as Alamo Foods Company.
O’Brien’s territory as a sales representative extended all the way to El Paso, as far east as Corpus Christi and as far south as the Rio Grande Valley. In 1933, jus
t prior to the end of Prohibition, the brewery’s output was only about 150,000 barrels. This was something that O’Brien sought to correct, and his ambition would help see him through. By 1937, he was promoted to general sales manager. By the time he retired in 1972, he would be senior vice-president and marketing consultant, and the brewery’s output would be about 2,200,000 barrels.
