Across the country, as midnight neared on Friday, Jan. 16, 1920, Americans either gathered to give thanks in prayer for Prohibition, which went into effect Jan. 17, 1920, or headed out for one last legal sip.
Lima, in the grip of snowy, nasty weather, didn’t do much of either to mark the end of legal liquor.
“Members of the various temperance unions were unable to attend parties which had been planned for last night because of inclement weather,” Lima’s Republican-Gazette wrote Jan. 17, 1920.
The city’s lodges and clubs, “who had been enjoying their private ‘nips,’” quietly prepared for the day by “removing their private stocks to their homes yesterday,” the newspaper added, noting the law “warns against keeping private stocks in clubs, hotels or similar places unless the individual fortunate enough to own it makes his home at the same place.”
At Lima’s library, employees in the days before Jan. 17 were keeping an eye on a book of recipes. The book, the Republican-Gazette explained, “contains a recipe for making grain alcohol, and it has gone the rounds so often during the past few months that there is danger of someone becoming permanently attached to it, they say.”
One Lima industry with more than a passing interest in Prohibition had been making plans for a year.
“What disposal will be made of the plant of the Lima Brewing Company when the prohibition law becomes effective was discussed at the annual meeting of the directors of the concern. No definite decision was reached,” the Republican-Gazette wrote Jan. 29, 1919, about a year before the law went into effect. “Suggestion that the plant be turned over to the manufacture of ice met with considerable approval, as the factory is already equipped with two large ice-making machines. The manufacture of soft drinks or the making of ice cream were also proposed.”
The brewery was born out of the dream of Austrian immigrant Michael Wolf, who came to Lima in 1852 and established a brewery on the banks of the Ottawa River on the south side of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad. Wolf’s son, Joseph, and a man named John Reeder were also involved in the operation. In 1865, Joseph Wolf married Mary Zimmerman and, for a time, operated a brewery in Kenton, while his father continued to operate the Lima brewery.
Joseph Wolf eventually went into business with his brothers-in-law, Adam Zimmerman Jr., a brewer, Michael Zimmerman, Lewis Zimmerman and Harry Zimmerman. In 1878, Joseph Wolf returned to Lima with his partners, took over his father’s old brewery and established the Lima Brewery, which was also known as the Lima Bottling Works.
Lewis Zimmerman eventually became the driving force in the business, and after his 1890 death, the brewery was sold in 1891 to Dietrich Brewing Co., with Harry Zimmerman staying on as vice president. Later that same year, Frank Dietrich sold out to John Kunzleman, although he, too, remained with the brewery.
“At the next meeting (of stockholders),” the Lima Daily Times reported in September 1891, “the name of the corporation will be changed, probably to the ‘Lima Brewing Company.’ A large gang of carpenters is now engaged inside the brewery, remodeling and largely improving it.”
Improved or not, the brewery was again in receivership in 1894. A March 1894 legal ad in the Lima Times-Democrat announced it would be disposed of at sheriff’s sale.
“For the next 30 days I offer for sale, by order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allen County, Ohio, free from all incumbrance, all the plant of the Lima Brewing company, appraised at $27,255.66. Appraisement includes some 1,300 barrels of prime beer in stock,” according to the ad.
The brewery soon was under the management of Henry Frueh and Charley Wilhelmy, who had arrived six months earlier with 26 years of brewing experience in Vienna and Munich. By 1897, Frueh was working with Gustave Spannagel, another German brewer, and the firm was now known as the Quilna Brewery.
“This industry was conducted for many years by Henry Frueh and Gus Spannagel and a few months ago Mr. Frank Sieber became a partner in the concern,” The Lima News wrote in February 1899. “Recently very extensive improvements have been made, so much so that it may be regarded almost an entirely new plant. Spacious and substantial buildings have been erected in which are placed new boilers, brew kettles, mash tubs and other machinery and apparatus of the most modern make known to human art.”
On Jan. 1, 1902, the brewery also got a new/old name when it was incorporated as the Lima Brewing Company. The brewery made four brands, Prosit, Gold Schild Brau, Malt Extract and Special Export.
All of them, a September 1906 ad in the Times-Democrat suggested, were good for you. “Lima Beer, taken with your food will aid digestion. Those who use it on the table regularly are therefore rarely troubled with dyspepsia,” the ad promised. The beer also “is a mild, temperate drink. The prejudice against stronger stimulants can in no way apply to it.”
Regardless, with the relentless lobbying of the temperance movement, the writing was on the wall for the nation’s alcohol industry. On Jan. 16, 1919, the writing was on every front page of every newspaper in the country. “UNITED STATES WILL BE BONE DRY ONE YEAR FROM TODAY,” The Lima News proclaimed that day. “Nebraska, home state of William J. Bryan, Thursday ratified the federal prohibition amendment, being the 36th and final state under the federal constitution to act in making prohibition part of the constitution,” the newspaper reported.
Two weeks later, the directors of the Lima Brewing Company were planning for that bone-dry future. The plan was Limo, “the drink with the smile,” according to newspaper ads in 1919. Limo was described as “a refreshing, non-intoxicating cereal beverage.” The Lima Beverage Co., as the brewery was now known, also planned to make ice.
In 1925, it was sold to Jersey Products Co.
“It made a stab at the near-beer business, then eventually emptied its vats for the last time,” The Lima News wrote.
The business emerged from Prohibition in 1933 with a new set of owners and new plans to return to brewing beer. By 1938, it was in foreclosure and again up for sale at sheriff’s auction. The eventual buyer never paid.
Neon Products, a Lima company established in 1930 which had set up shop next door to the brewery, purchased the last of the brewery buildings in 1944.
In May 1955, to make room for expansion, Neon Products razed most of the old brewery. Workmen, The Lima News wrote May 8, 1955, “didn’t need their eyes to tell them where they were. … Discernable to their noses, they insisted was a thin ghost of an odor – an odor of mingled hops and malt, and what results when they are combined properly.”
Ten years later, in June 1965, the last trace of the brewery disappeared when the old boiler building and its 48-foot smokestack were demolished.
Neon Products ceased operations in 1977, and the site was eventually purchased by the Otis Wright company, which used it for storage and recycling. A massive, three-day fire in October 2014 destroyed it.
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