Deutsch-Bier im Stillwater

You Can’t Outrun the Telegraph

I find that repetition and continuity are great tools to help get a particular point across. And if there’s one recurring theme that keeps popping up in these ‘Old News’ sections, it is this: Life a hundred years ago is a lot more modern than we typically imagine.

Keeping this idea in mind, read the following article which details the demise of a burglar at the hands of a shrinking world and improved technology.

“A Clever Catch” – Stillwater Messenger – July 15, 1905

Chief of Police Roland F. Barnes made a clever haul of a young sneak thief last Wednesday. Tuesday evening he received a telegram from Pine City stating that a house had been burglarized there during the afternoon, while the Morris & Rowe circus was there, and that a watch and chain, some rings and a small amount of money had been taken. The owner had reason to believe that the culprit had followed the circus to Stillwater and when the train arrived here Wednesday morning a young man alighted and immediately started for a jewelry store where he offered to sell a watch. A description of the fellow was given to Mr. Barnes and in a few minutes the fellow was arrested. The watch and chain were found on his person and the man admitted that he was the burglar. He gave his name as John Anderson. And says he lives at Osawotamie, Kan. He is about 20 years of age. The fellow was locked up and will be taken to Pine City for a hearing.

Deutsch-Bier in Stillwater

by Brent Peterson

In the Schulenberg Addition to the north end of Stillwater, commonly known as “Dutchtown,” there was a man named Gerhard Knips who began a brewery in late 1858 or early 1859. This part of Stillwater had the largest German settlement in the city and it would only make sense that they would bring their brand of beverage to the area.

Knips, who was born in Germany around 1830, with his wife Matilda and young son Robert, constructed a three-story building at a cost of $1,000. They came from St. Louis, and it was here that he began the “St. Croix Brewing Company.”

In the Stillwater Messenger of January 2, 1866, there was described a fire at Knips’ Brewery. The fire started in the early evening. The two upper stories were “constructed of wood and occupied as a residence.” This portion of the building was completely engulfed in flames, “but through the exertions of our citizens the most valuable portion of the building, cellars, and most of the stock were saved. Loss $1,500.” For the citizens of Dutchtown, their beer was saved!

In an article in the Stillwater Gazette on December 13, 1870, the paper commented on Knips’ recent improvements to the brewery. “He has made large excavations under the bluff in the rear of his brewery, about 40 feet in length,” said the report. The reporter also commented on the expense of these improvements, saying “he has expended this season about $1,000 in the way of repairs and improvements.”

However, in the end these rennovations proved to be temporary solutions. Seven years later, the Gazette reported that Knips was getting out of the brewing business. “We understand” the reporter said, “that the Knips brewery has been leased to Messrs. Fred Maisch, D. Millbrook and Jos. Honar – the latter a practical brewer of good repute. The new firm will take possession of the works to-morrow, Feb. 1. We wish the success.”

The new enterprise did not work out, and just a few years later, the brewery buildings were sold to Seymour, Sabin & Company. At the peek of production, the Knips brewery produced 450 barrels of beer annually, compared to Joseph Wolf’s peek of 25,000 barrels per year.

The Knips family moved away from Stillwater in the late 1870s to Nobles County, Minnesota. On March 18, 1879, the organizational meeting for Leota Township in Nobles County was held at the Gerhard Knips home. Their daughter, Clara, was one of the first graduates from Stillwater High School in 1876. She later became a schoolteacher at the Lincoln School in Stillwater. Also staying in Stillwater was their son Emil, who worked for the Stillwater Mills.

Peter Newhouse later purchased the brewery building. Newhouse made some general repairs and added a 60 X 40 woodshed in the spring of 1913. He later made the building into a boarding house in which as many as 16 families lived there during the First World War when the Twin City Forge and Foundry Company brought in a lot of people to work in the munitions plant. When the state decided to widen Highway 95 in 1935, the building was torn down that November. The back wall was used as a retaining wall for the bluffs, and it was on that wall that a plaque dedicated to the Tamarack House was placed.

Today the roadside rest is all that is left of the once busy brewery that helped a thirsty German emigrant get through a tough day at the sawmill. The plaque that adorns the wall of the brewery honors the Tamarack House, but there should be a similar plaque to honor the emigrants that came and helped make Stillwater the lumber capitol of the world.