Published September 6, 2024
By Dave Dulaney
The Western Brewery was started by a Welshman named Richard Francis. It is not known exactly when Francis founded the brewery but it was likely sometime in the 1840’s. He was born in Montgomery, Wales on the eastern border with England. Richard came to America with his wife and two daughters. The building was located on the southeast corner of 7th and York streets. Francis would have brewed only ales and probably had a small yearly output. In the early 1850’s he sold out to Dr. Michael Doway and John Guggenbuhler. By then, Francis was in his sixty’s and spent his remaining years living with his daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Joseph Norwood, a prominent produce dealer. He died in 1864 and is buried in Woodland Cemetery.
Dr. Doway was from Luzerne, Switzerland and with his wife Nannette immigrated to America in 1835 settling in Highland, Illinois. Highland was a Swiss Colony founded by Dr. Casper Kopfli and John Suppiger both relatives of Doway’s wife. From Highland he and his family came to Quincy in 1836. John Guggenbuhler either came with them from Highland or joined them shortly afterwards.
Doway and Guggenbuhler, like Francis, brewed only ales as Casper Ruff would not introduce lager in Quincy until 1855, the same year that the two sold the brewery to Ferdinand Kampmann. After the sale of the brewery, Dr. Doway purchased land on Hampshire from Governor Carlin where he built and operated a drug store that he ran for many decades while practicing as a physician. After the sale of the brewery John Guggenbuhler returned to the Swiss settlement in Highland.
Ferdinand Kampmann came to Quincy from Stromberg Westphalia around 1845. His wife and child joined him three years later in 1848. He initially ran a bakery and restaurant when he first came to Quincy. Ten years after his arrival he purchased the brewery and in his first year he added a saloon or sample room as it was also called.
The year Kampmann acquired the brewery was the same year Casper Ruff introduced lager beer in Quincy. Within a few years, lager became so popular that most all the other brewers produced it over ale. Ale was fermented with the yeast beginning from the top down and took only a few weeks to complete. Lager was fermented starting from the bottom up requiring four or six months in cold storage before it was ready to consume. This process was longer and more difficult but it gave the beer a smoother more flavorful taste.
Kampmann responding to the popularity of lager in Quincy brought eleven brewers to work in his Western Brewery to develop the flavor of his beer. Some of these brewers would later work for Dick Brothers and some would work for Ruffs. Others came from St. Louis breweries while others left and went to work for breweries in St. Louis.
It was Kampmann that trained Frank X. Schill as a brewer. Schill afterwards worked for Dick Brothers for seven years. In 1875 he left to run a brewery in Sedalia, Missouri. In 1876 Frank returned to buy the Bluff Brewery from Henry Rupp. He operated the brewery located on North Bottom Road until his death in 1908. Schill won prizes for his beer, including a medal at the Chicago World’s Fair.
Frederick Fuhrman was a foreman for Kampmann in 1857. By 1859 Fuhrmann was working for Dick Brothers as their brewer. He remained at that brewery for several years until 1866 when he began to work for the Ruff Brothers. He was their head brewer until his death in 1880 which occurred when he was repairing a boiler. He was scalded when a steam pipe broke loose. He lingered for a week before dying from his wounds.
Of the journeymen who would work for Kampmann the best known were Henry Griesedieck and his uncle Frank. They were listed as brewers in the 1863 city directory. This directory was likely compiled the year before in 1862 because a newspaper advertisement announced the dissolution of partnership of Frank and Kampmann in late1862. Henry married Anne Urback, a daughter of Friedrich and Louisa Urbach of Quincy. After working for Kampmann Henry went to work as a brewer for the Washington Brewery located at 6th and State.
Henry and his uncle would eventually go to Saint Louis and with other family members build breweries that would make Saint Louis famous for beer. The family started National Brewery and later Henry was the oldest brother at Griesedieck Brothers Brewery. Falstaff and Stag were labels used by additional family owned breweries.
Henry kept close ties to his Quincy in-laws, even after his widowed mother remarried. While in Quincy Henry and his wife had a son named Paul and his uncle Frank and wife had a daughter named Bertha.
In 1859 Kampmann brought Peter Oehman from Saint Louis to manage and lease the brewery. Peter advertised lager beer superior to any in Saint Louis. Oehman lasted a few years then Kampmann took back the management in his brewery until 1866 when he sold it to Anton Wichmann, Frederick Bernbrock and Max Heckle. Bernbrock left the firm after a year.
On December 16, 1867 the brewery sustained a fire that resulted in a loss of $22,000. The fire caused the partial collapse of the front or west wall. Most of the building and equipment had survived the fire and insurance of $11,000 covered half the loss. In early 1868 the brewery building and equipment were offered for sale as a concern that could again be a working brewery.
The Western Brewery started as a small brewery with a low output. It was first operated by a Welsh immigrant who produced ale to preserve recently harvested grain. The brewery under Kampmann’s ownership, evolved into a full-scale business that developed products conforming to the changing taste of its immigrant customer. The eleven brewers that Kampmann trained for his brewery would continue the profession long past the life of the Western Brewery. They became Kampmann’s legacy producing lager and training other brewers long after their association with Kampmann and the Western Brewery had ended.
Western Brewery Sources
1850 Census Adams County, Illinois, Volume III, Quincy, I: Great River Genealogical Society, 1984. p. 53.
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. p. 26-27, 90, 214.
“Brewing Industry Has Flourished in Quincy Since 1839 But Has Been Made A Thing of the Past by War.”
Quincy Daily Whig, December 15, 1918, p. 14.
Brinkman, Michael K. Quincy, Illinois Immigrants from Munsterland Westphalia, Germany: Vol. II.
Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Publishers. 2010.
Cray, Marcia Kuhlman. Undated, Breweries of Quincy, Illinois: 1834-1950. Self-published Quincy, Illinois.
“Dissolution of Copartnership.” Quincy Daily Herald, October 27, 1862, p. 3.
“Dissolution of Partnership.” Quincy Daily Herald, September 28, 1866, p. 1.
“Eighty-two Years of Brewing in Quincy.” Quincy Daily Herald, July 14, 1919, p. 6.
Family Search: “United States Census, 1850,” data base with images, Family Search, Illinois, Adams,
Quincy, southward, image 22 of 86; NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D. C.;
National Archives and Records Administration.)
Family Search: “Wales, Montgomeryshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1912,” database. Family Search Richard
Francis, September 26, 1790, Baptism; from “Parish Records Collection 1538-2005,” find my
past. Llandysul, Montgromeryshire. Wales, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; FHL microfilm.
Find A Grave: Richard Francis, Memorial ID 17701823 Woodland Cemetery.
“Fire-Western Brewery.” Quincy Daily Herald, December 18, 1867, p. 4.
“Frank Schill Passes Away.” Quincy Daily Herald, October 12, 1908, p. 7.
“Obituary.” Quincy Daily Whig, July 3, 1880, p. 8
One Hundred Years of Brewing, Supplement to the Western Brewer, 1903. Chicago and New York: H. S.
Rich and Company, Publishers. 1903. (Reprint by Arno Press, New York. 1974) p. 210-212.
“One of the Brewers of This City.” Quincy Daily Herald, May 03, 1859, p. 3.
Quincy City Directory, 1848, p. 46. (Richard Francis)
Quincy City Directory, 1857, p. 83. (Frederick Fuhrmann); p. 181. (Adam Vogel); p. 175. (Barnard
Strotman)
Quincy City Directory, 1859-60, p. 92. (William Lintz); p. 128. (William Struthman); p. 88. (Charles Kraft)
Quincy City Directory, 1861, p. 93. (August Muhler); p. 141 (Western Brewery: Peter Oehman,
propitiator)
Quincy City Directory, 1863, p. 83. (Frank Griesedieck, Henry Griesedieck)
Quincy City Directory, 1864-65, p. 53. (John Gross)
“Western Brewery.” Quincy Daily Herald, November 19, 1859, p. 3.
“Western Brewery.” Quincy Daily Herald, February 26, 1868, p. 1.
“The Western Brewery Quincy Daily Herald, November 02, 1859, p. 3.
Woodland Cemetery, Volume IV, Quincy, Il: Great River Genealogical Society, 1992. p. 120, 168.
