Harrison Brewery came to end with the 19th century

German immigrant families were eager to engage in the outdoor social recreation important to their heritage. They were drawn to Quincy’s south end farm venue. The families went there for picnics on Sundays and listened to German brass band music while consuming German style lager in the natural environment. Several beer gardens were built as early as the 1850s in the south end for their German clientele.  

In 1865 Michael Becker started his beer garden and, like the other area breweries, he took advantage of the natural ambiance and pure spring water of Watson’s springs to help him make, cool and sell the beer. Becker’s ownership of the Harrison Street Brewery lasted until 1879.   

In June 1879 the Quincy Daily Herald reported the sale of Becker’s brewery buildings but there was no mention of the purchaser’s name. The first announcement of new owners appeared in the 1882 City Directory. It listed John Schanz and Charles Prante as the proprietors and Gottlieb Schanz as the foreman of the Harrison Brewery.  

Prante and his large family were brick masons who came to Quincy from Lippe Depmolt, Germany. Charles, or Carl as he was also known, arrived in 1854 and his brothers soon followed. Once in Quincy his brothers used bricks produced in Carl’s Jefferson Street factory to build homes for other immigrants. His family built many of the houses on the south end of town.  

The houses were built at the time of Quincy’s greatest growth. The city grew 98 percent in the 1850s. Another ten years saw an increase of an additional 75 percent in the population. By the 1870 census Quincy had 24,052 residents and was the 55th largest city in the United States. This boom in population became a prolonged opportunity for Prante to fill the need for immigrant homes in the south end.   

In his first sixteen years in Quincy Prante prospered. According to the 1870 census he had accumulated $10,000 in land and $1,500 in personal property. This was a considerable sum for the time. By the time he purchased a share of the Harrison Brewery his wealth had increased substantially. He almost certainly contributed the financial investment when the brewery became available and was purchased by the firm of Schanz and Prante in 1880.  

Gottlieb Schanz had come to America from Wurttemberg, Germany in 1865. His brother John followed him to Quincy in 1880. In Germany Gottlieb apprenticed as a brewer. In America he honed his craft in several breweries before coming to St. Louis in 1870. In St. Louis he gained further experience working for breweries and in 1874 he became foreman for the Wainwright Brewery. 

In 1875 Mathew Dick brought Schanz to Quincy to be his brew master. Three years later Gottlieb left to become head brewer at the Washington Brewery. He was there for two years when the Harrison Brewery came up for sale. When his brother John and Prante purchased the Harrison Brewery, Gottlieb became their head brewer.   

Gottlieb continued to run the Harrison Brewery with the same summer events associated with the German immigrants’ outdoor heritage. The first newspaper advertisement for the reorganized brewery was in May 1880. It was for a picnic held by the Furniture Workers’ Union that included a concert by Kuehn’s German Brass Band. The advertisement stated that it was now the Harrison Garden, formerly known as Mike Becker’s Garden. Within the year it was known as Schanz’s Garden or Harrison’s Garden and the new ownership transition was complete.    

In February 1882 the brewery had a fire and partially burned. Schanz quickly rebuilt the affected part of the facility and business resumed. In October 1883 a new ice house was built for the brewery and by December it was cold enough to have ice cut from the river slough south of Quincy to fill the new building.  

The 1884 City Directory lists Gottlieb as the sole proprietor. Brother John is listed as proprietor of a saloon at 4th and State. Charles Prante is listed as proprietor of the brick yard but he retained ownership of the brewery buildings. In early 1885 the larger Eber Brothers Brewery closed due to inability to pay its creditors and became available for sale. By May 1886 Schanz left the Harrison Brewery and obtained the Eber property located on Chestnut Street. Henry Eber replaced Gottlieb Schanz as head brewer at Harrison’s.    

The Schanz departure left an ownership vacuum in the Harrison Brewery which was filled by a coalition of saloon owners who formed a co-operative organization that included a number of city businessmen. The group’s efforts began early in 1885 and by December 1886 application for a license to incorporate as the Gem City Brewing Company was sent to the Secretary of State.  

The corporation had seventeen stockholders, fifteen of whom were saloon keepers. Fred Tellbuscher was president. He had a saloon at 721 South Front Street. Frederick Wemhoener was secretary and treasurer of the new company. Other Quincy saloon keepers in the corporation were Gus Roth, Joseph Freiburg, Champ Dicks, Joseph VandenBoom, Henry Gnuse and from La Grange, Henry Lehr.    

In December, 1895 the Herald announced that Gem City Brewery would go out of business. Tellbuscher stated that the directors preferred to retire while they could still get their money out of the investment. He also said that it was the tendency for metropolitan breweries to drive the smaller concerns out of business with their superior advantages of scale. The time of the small beer garden breweries that made beer as fresh as spring water and served it in the garden air was coming to an end.           

Harrison Brewery Part II. Sources List

“Aged Citizen Answers Summons.” Quincy Herald-Whig, May 22, 1912, p. 4.  

“The Best Brewer, the Best Brewer and the Best Beer Quincy Daily Journal, May 27, 1893, p. 5.  

Brinkman, Michael K. Quincy, Illinois Immigrants from Lippe, Germany. Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage 

 Books, 2017. p. 184, 245-46.  

Bornmann, Heinrich J. Bornmann’s Sketches of Early Germans of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois.  

 Reprinted: Quincy, Illinois, 2013. Published by The Great River Genealogical Society.  

“City News.” Quincy Daily Journal, October 30, 1883, p. 4.   

“City news.” Quincy Daily Journal, December 29, 1883, p. 4.  

Cray, Marcia Kuhlman. Undated, Breweries of Quincy, Illinois: 1834-1950. Self-published Quincy, Illinois.

“Death Calls Carl Prante.” Quincy Daily Journal, May 22, 1912, p. 7.  

Family Search: “United States Census, 1870,” data base with images, Family Search, Illinois, Adams, 

Quincy, Ward 4, image 38 of 114; NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington, D. C.; 

National Archives and Records Administration.)  

 “Furniture Workers’ Picnic.” Quincy Daily Herald, May 25, 1880, p. 3. 

“Gem City Brewery.” Quincy Daily Herald, December 17, 1895, p. 4.  

 “Gottlieb Schanz Quincy Resident Sixty Years, Dies.” Quincy Herald-Whig, January 22, 1935. 

Gould’s Saint Louis City Directory, Saint Louis, 1874. p. 505, 778 & 914. 

Gould’s Quincy City Directory, Quincy, 1884-85. P. 172, 293, 319. 

Gould’s Quincy City Directory, Quincy, 1886-87. p. 175, 302, 329, 426. 

“Grand Concert.” Quincy Daily Herald, May 15, 1881, p. 3.  

History of the Park System of Quincy, Illinois, 1888 to 1917. Published by Quincy Boulevard and Park 

 Association. Quincy, IL. (No date given.) p. 36-42.

“Items in Brief.” Quincy Daily Herald, April 11, 1882, p. 4.

 “Items in Brief.” Quincy Daily Herald, June 28, 1879, p. 3.  

“Local Miscellany.” Quincy Daily Whig, October 22, 1887, p. 8.  

“A New Brewing company.” Quincy Daily Journal, December 8, 1886, p. 3.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Quincy, Adams County, Illinois. Sanborn Map Company, 1888. Map. 

 Retrieved from the Library of Congress, .

Simmons, Cary & Co.’s, Quincy City Directory, 1882-83, p. 204, 220.  

Stone’s Quincy City Directory, Quincy, 1887-88. P. 178, 387, 436, 469, 501. 

Table 9 Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1860.” www.Census.gov/population/www/docummentation/twps0027/tab09.txt.

“Table 10 Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1870.”

 www.Census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab10.txt

“Will not be a Candidate for City Clerk.” Quincy Daily Journal, February 11, 1891, p. 4.