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SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012 PAGE 11A
COURTESY OF THE LUZERNE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
This photograph from the Luzerne County Historical Society shows a lithograph of the Charles Stegmaier & Son Brewery in Wilkes-Barre.
CLARK VAN ORDEN/THE TIMES LEADER
Gibbons, Stegmaier and Bartels beer bottles and cans are part of a local brewery memorabilia collection at The Luzerne County Historical Society Museum.
HISTORY Continued from Page 1A
STEVE MOCARSKY/THE TIMES LEADER
This kiosk on the Wyoming Valley Levee in the Barney Farms section of Wilkes-Barre describes some of Luzerne County’s rich history in breweries. Noted are a commercial brewery that opened in Pittston in 1789, Wilkes-Barre’s first brewery that opened on Water Street in 1833, the Bartels Brewing Co. that opened in Edwardsville around 1907, the Lion Brewing Co. established in WilkesBarre in the early 1900s, and perhaps the county’s most famous – the Stegmaier & Son Brewery in Wilkes-Barre.
ness two or three times, Nobile said, “but he just kept plugging away. I don’t think he was successful ‘til he was 70-some years old.” “And then it was a home run,” said Ed Maier, who sold the Stegmaier brand to the Lion Brewery (formerly the Luzerne County Brewing Co.) in 1994. Lion continues to brew Stegmaier but most of its business entails brewing beers and malt beverages for various other brands. Back in the 19th century, there wasn’t much competition among brewers. The Maiers and Nobile wonder if Charles Stegmaier decided to stamp out what was there or just expand operations. In 1897, he purchased the George W. Flock Brewing Co. in Nanticoke. A year later, the company was renamed the Susquehanna Brewing Co. – the namesake of the new multi-million dollar brewery outside Pittston. The Stegmaier’s heyday and the largest supplier of beer to Susquehanna Brewing Co. presi- Nanticoke brewery never reopened after closing during ProIn its heyday, it was the 14th- New York City that was not made dent and Fred Maier’s father. Stegmaier went out of busi- hibition. largest brewery in the country in New York City, said Ed Maier, “The Germans were using lager yeast and the English were using ale yeast,” which made a dark ale, Fred Maier explained. “It took German immigration on fast ships to get that cold lager yeast over to America. The first lager beer was made in Philly in 1832, 1834. So (Stegmaier) came up to Northeastern Pennsylvania to brew it for Reichard in 1850. … Then he left John Reichard to brew his own beer,” Maier said. Brewing beer was largely considered a local business at that point in time, said Susquehanna Brewing Co. co-owner Mark Nobile. “It was a small community business, and Stegmaier Brewing Co. was more of a regional brewery. It supplied more than just COURTESY OF THE LUZERNE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Wilkes-Barre, it supplied the northeast section of the country Charles Stegmaier made his mark on the local beer culture when and more,” Nobile said. he established a brewery in Wilkes-Barre in the mid 19th century.
RAIL Continued from Page 3A
be a good activity at the Riverlands for the community, he said. “We developed a partnership with them in order to put together an activity that would bring people to the park,” he said. Seeing the little rail cars lined up is an impressive sight, Scopelleti said. Now colorful and fun, the speeders once worked very hard serving rail inspectors and railroad workers in their jobs. They seat up to four people and travel at about 25 mph. Powered by modified gasoline engines, they travel all over North America once they receive the proper authorization from the railroad companies, Scopelleti said. Saturday’s group started in Northumberland as part of an 86-mile trip, said Carl Schneider of NARCOA. After arriving at the Riverlands, they turned around to make their way to Sunbury and Shamokin before returning to Northumberland. “They had to lift them to turn
DON CAREY/THE TIMES LEADER
About 35 rail ‘speeders’ arrived at the PPL Susquehanna Riverlands in Salem Township on Saturday just before noon.
them around,” Scopelleti said. While at the park, the railcar operators answered questions, demonstrated some of their fancy accessories and treated some children to an up-close look, Scopelleti said. They stayed about one hour before heading off.
One operator said traveling on the rails is much different than riding on the highways. Every culvert, bridge, road crossing, tunnel and building is viewed from an “uncommon” vantage, he said. The NARCOA requires all members to be properly licens-
ed and trained before allowing them to take to the rails, Schneider said. He said the hobbyists have earned an “excellent reputation” for safety as well as appreciation from folks who came to see the line of cars go through their towns.
Other local brewers But Stegmaier was far from controlling the beer market in Luzerne County. According to materials at the Luzerne County Historical Society, John Ingham opened a brewery in Wilkes-Barre in1823; it was later bought by Christian Reichard. Breweries in Pittston changed hands and names several times. Others opened in Edwardsville and Exeter Township. And while the historical society doesn’t have much information on breweries in southern Luzerne County, beer enthusiasts there insist there were some. Reminiscing about some of the old lager standards offered in their hometown at the Battered Mug in Hazleton, Budweiser loyalists Tom Schneider, 63, and Tom Mensinger, 61, recalled the breweries that once existed there. Arnold’s, they agreed, was in the area of Mine and Mill streets,
while Hazleton Pilsner was brewed at the corner of Diamond Avenue and Cedar streets. Indeed, according to “The Brewing Industry in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties” by Rich Wagner and Rich Dochter, Henry Bach and Severin Teufel built a brewery at Mine and Mill streets in Hazleton in 1849. It became the John Arnold Department of the Pennsylvania Central Brewing Co. The locally brewed beers – and those brewed regionally, such as Yuengling, based in Pottsville, about 30 miles southwest of Hazleton – were the standards ordered in bars in the early 20th century. Everybody seemed to love them, said Battered Mug owner Timothy Dolan. Most of them anyway. “Yuengling was considered a lousy beer back then,” Dolan said. “Now, people can’t get enough of it.”
POLICE BLOTTER
plaints of alleged drug dealing from the apartment. Preliminary hearings are scheduled on Aug. 2 in WilkesBarre Central Court.
WILKES-BARRE – Two men were arrested on drug trafficking charges after a raid at an HAZLE TWP. – State police apartment on Park Avenue Saturday reported a vehicle Friday morning. crashed into a mailbox on Club Exodus Defreitas, 33, and 40 Road and fled the scene Daryl Card-Nixon, 22, were around 3 a.m. The vehicle, charged with two counts of possession with intent to deliv- identified as a blue Kia from er a controlled substance and a evidence at the scene, was single count of unlawful posses- negotiating a left curve, went off the roadway onto the right sion of body armor. shoulder and struck the mailDefreitas and Card-Nixon box, state police said. Anyone were arraigned by District with information about the Judge Joseph Halesey in Hacrash is asked to contact state nover Township. They were police in Hazleton at 570 459jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of 3890. $10,000 bail each. DAMASCUS TWP. – State According to a city police police are investigating a burnews release: glary at the Damascus HistorAgents with the state Office ical Society building on state of Attorney General’s Luzerne Route 371 in Wayne County. County Drug Task Force and Reported stolen were a Dacity police executed a search warrant at a second floor apart- mascus High School class of ment at 371 Park Ave. at 6 a.m. 1955 gold ring, two silver spoons and a men’s straight Seized were a large amount razor. The break-in occurred of cocaine, a digital scale, cell phones, marijuana and a bullet between 2 p.m. July 7 and 3:30 resistant vest, according to the p.m. on July 10. Anyone with information about the burglary news release. is asked to contact state police The search warrant was obin Honesdale at 570 253-7126. tained based on citizen com-