On December 30, 1903, a major explosion devastated the Dick Brothers brewhouse. The explosion took place shortly after 4 am on the third level of the new brewhouse and destroyed 1/3 of the building. The explosion came from an improper valve of a 300-barrel rice cooker. The explosion destroyed the fifth floor which contained a 300 barrel tank of water for storage purposes and a 600 bushel malt hopper. The fourth floor had a 500 barrel and a 200 barrel hot water tanks. The second floor had a 300 barrel copper brewkettle. All the expensive machinery on the third floor, the 12-inch concrete floor, iron girders, and bricks fell on the copper brew kettle, totally destroying it.
Sacks of rice were thrown 200 to 300 feet in the air, landing in nearby resident's yards and rice was plastered on buildings over 200 feet away.
Frank Dick Sr., superintendent and August Dorkenwaldt, President and General Manager, were amazed that the explosion had not happened during the daytime. The damage cost the brewery $50,000 and was not covered by insurance. Fortunately no one was killed in the explosion.
Two men, watchman Henry Reinhold and brewery worker Leo J. Goerres, made an almost miraculous escape from the damaged brewhouse. Reinhold was not hut but Goerres, who was on the third floor, made his escape by the stairway at the northwest corner of the building receiving a few cuts on the head.
Luckily the brewery had a large supply of beer in the stockhouse and repairs started almost immediately. The story of the brewhouse explosion was on the front page of the local morning newspaper. By evening, it had been crowded off by a terrible disaster at the Iroquois theater in Chicago. The theater was built with no fire curtain and nearly 600 guests perished in a fire, including three Quincy residents. By the next day the entire newspaper was covering the Chicago disaster, and the Quincy explosion was all but forgotten.
Ice Business in Quincy
In 1919 there were 15 ice packing companies in Quincy. During a peak season the companies employed 1,200 men to cut ice from the Quincy Bay along the Mississippi River. As early as the 1870s, the ice business was considered among one of the most important branches of industry in the city. Most of the ice was cut during January. In 1875 the harvest started on January 4th when the ice was seven to eight inches thick and was completed on January 27 with about 100,000 tons cut. Some firms, which sold in large quantities waited for more ice to form because it wasn't profitable to sell for wholesale if the ice was less then ten inches thick. The Dick brothers had its own ice house on the bay which held 3,000 tons; three ice houses on Spring Street and ice storage at the brewery which held 10,000 tons.
Enter the Volstead Act of 1918
At the time when Dick & Brothers Quincy Brewery was producing over 135,000 barrels per year, The Volstead Act of November 21, 1918, was introduced to make it unlawful to manufacture, sell or transport intoxicating liquors in the United States after June 30, 1919. It put enforcement teeth into wartime restrictions and the 18th (Prohibition) Amendment to the Constitution which went into effect in January, 1920.
The Dick Brothers Quincy Brewing Company produced "Nearo" and other near beer, but it did not sell as well as Dick's real beer. For the next 13 years distilleries, breweries, wineries and saloons were out of business. It finally took a Depression - after 13 years of a dry era marked by gangsterizm, rumrunning, bathroom gin and homebrew - to bring back beer and its more potent companions in the alcoholic beverage line.
Repeal
The repeal of the Prohibition Amendment was proposed in February 1933, and finally ratified by 36 States by December that year. By common consent, Repeal came early for the "Foamy" April 7 marked the end of near beer and the real stuff had returned.
The Dick Brothers Quincy Brewery did not start up immediately. The first truckload of beer came into Quincy that morning from the Goetz Brewery at St, Joseph, Missouri. The second truckload from the Falstaff Brewery of St. Louis with many trucks hijacked en route. The Dick brewery officers placed a newspaper bulletin assuring the Quincy residents that it would be at least 50 days before they would produce their product. August "Manny" Dick, President of the brewery said its equipment was in excellent condition but the company wanted to make sure that the beer was as good as it had been before Prohibition.
Brewmaster John Breitstadt returned to the Dick brewery and assumed superintendent. Breitstadt was one of the nation's finest brewmasters. His father had been the brewmaster for the original three Dick brothers, bringing the art from Germany. For months John Breitstadt had been in charge of preparations for the reopeneing of the brewery.
The Government Cellar
Across the street from the brew house was the bottling department which also contained the government warehouse. Before the installation of the government meter, the keys were controlled by a government agent. When the holding tank was full of finished beer, the government agent had to shut off the valve from the outside and seal the keyhole. When he left the building he also locked the door and sealed the door lock.
The government agent measured the number of gallons of beer in the locked tanks and collected the taxes from the main office for government IRTP tax stamps. After the tax stamps were sent to the brewery (sometimes up to three weeks later), the beer was permitted to be used in the bottling department.
For several months "Manny" Dick tried desperately to convince the government to assign a full-time deputy revenue collector in Quincy instead of waiting for the government agent to return from Springfield, Illinois to issue the brewery its tax stamps. Even though the Dick Brothers Quincy brewery paid a revenue of $50,000 to $75,000 a year, it took nearly two years to get a government meter approved for the brewery.
August Dick was known only as "Manny" which in many German families means the first born and usually also denotes "a little man." "Manny" was never fond of the nickname but accepted it anyway. "Manny" Dick was far from little, but retained his name until his death in 1943. He was also known for his early automobiles. He had a second car, an electric, the first having been purchased in Quincy. It was "Manny" Dick's famous "Yellow Peril," as he called his Locomobile, that was used to bring William J. Beryan up from the train depot in 1908 for his speech at the Empire Theater, It has been said that it was first driven on the streets of Quincy on the afternoon of the funeral of President William B. McKinley on September 19, 1901.
Return of Dicks Pilsner beer
Dicks' first beer after Prohibition was delivered to local patrons on Friday, September 15, 1933. Dick's brewery was back in operation with many of its old employees working. One and two-horse wagons were used for many years. The barn at Tenth and York was replaced with a large motor garage for the many delivery trucks. There was scarcely a town or city where Dick's Quincy Beer signs did not greet the eye. It was probably the greatest advertising the city received from one source.
The Dick Brothers Quincy Brewery advertised quite heavily and the brewery's output exceeded to 150,000 barrels a year. The brewery enjoyed its growth for the next five year until competition from Falstaff and Anheuser-Busch of St, Louis was entering the city of Quincy. "Manny" Dick retired around 1938 and was replaced by Charles L. Weems. "Manny" Dick stayed on as Chairman of the Board until his death on August 14, 1943.
The stiff competition cause many problems for the Dick brewery. Sometime after 1940, management ordered brewmaster John Breitstadt to change his ingredients to save costs. Breitstadt refused and left the brewery.
Financial Problems
The Dick Brothers Quincy brewery needed cash to keep the brewery operating in the black. In November 1939, the Dick Brewery presented a re-organization plan which would put the brewery on a paying basis. The plan proposed that all unsecured creditors general creditors having claims under $100 was to be paid in cash. Unsecured creditors having claims allowed of more than $100 shall be given first mortgage bonds in $100 amounts with the odd amount of the claim to be paid in cash. These bonds were to be issued by the company dated December 1938 and due December 1943 to bear interest of four percent payable semiannually. Unfortunately, the reorganization plan worked but only a few years.
After World War II, the brewery did extensive advertising to fight off competition. When President Harry S. Truman reduced American brewer's grain allocations to 70% of 1945's volume, the Dick brewery was losing money fast. Although Dick Brothers was using 30% less material than in 1945, this resulted in a proportionally lower production. The demand for Dicks beer was about 25% greater than in 1945, so the real shortage was closer to 50%. When the local community did not get their beer, they switched brands and the brewery was losing more customers.
By 1951, the Dick Brothers Quincy brewery was heavily in debt. Charles L. Weems had left the brewery and Frank J. Dick was placed as the brewery's final President.
The Mississippi Valley Brewing Corporation
A company was designed to bail the financially broke Dick brewery by acquiring both the Quincy and Warsaw breweries. Another re-organization of the Dick Brothers Brewing Company was submitted on January 22, 1951. The plan called for the transfer of the assets of the Dick Brothers company to the newly Mississippi Valley Brewing corporation in exchange for 50 percent of the stock of the new corporation, $140,000 in cash and $50,000 in debenture of the new corporation. The plan first contemplates the acquisition by the Mississippi Valley Brewing Corporation of all of the assets of the Warsaw Brewing Company and of Dick Brothers Brewing Company and the securing of finances through a loan secured by the Mississippi Valley Brewing Corporation.
The corporate purposes of the Mississippi Valley Brewing Corporation called for the acquisition of both brewing properties, manufacture and sale of brewery and beverage products and generally to engage in the brewery business. The aggregate number of shares which the new corporation was authorized to issue was 100,000 of one class stock, of $5 per value each. Incorporators of the new corporation. JJ. Weiss of the Warsaw brewery would have been elected President and General Manager and Frank J. Dick as Secretary.
A loan of $400,000 was needed to complete the Mississippi Valley Corporation. From the $400,000, Dick Brothers company will receive $142,210 in cash to pay the Illinois National and South Side banks, $51,500 to retire mortgage indebtedness and 1949 back taxes and $15,000 to James Neilson on judgment obtained on a note secured by the pledge of all stock of the Ruff Brewing Company which the Dick Brothers brewery purchased in 1945 and closed in 1948. Unfortunately, no bank in the vicinity would loan them the funds.
Dick Brothers Brewery is Bankrupt
The Mississippi Valley Brewing Corporation failed to obtain a $265,000 loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and Dick Brothers Brewing Company was thrown into bankruptcy. Richard M. Winters was placed as temporary receiver. The Dicks Brothers brewery was valued at more than $1 million and would be placed on the auction block to satisfy claims of creditors.
For two months, Frank J. Dick unsuccessfully tried to reorganized the brewery. Under a presidential directive, RFC loans were to be used only in the aid of National Defense. Most of the loans were sent to European countries to rebuild ruins from World War II. To this date, only one country, Sweden, ever repaid a RFC loan.
On October 18, 1951, the Dick Brothers Brewing Company went under the auctioneer's hammer at a public sale to dispose of the buildings and equipment. The decision to sell the brewery property at a public auction was made at a meeting of Basil Coutrakon and Richard Winters, the trustee of the property and several attorneys representing stockholders of the bankrupt Dick brewery. Mr. Winters reported that although several inquiries had been received from other breweries regarding the Dick plant, but there had been no bona fide offers. The Gipps Brewing Company of Peoria and the Warsaw Brewing Company had shown an interest in the Dick Brothers property but neither submitted a bid.
Frank J. Dick had hoped to sell the brewery property at a private sale, especially because of the loyal employees of the Dick Brothers Company who had been employed there for many years. However, larger brewing companies throughout the country have shown little interest in purchasing the Dick brewery.
Dick Brewery Sold at Piecemeal Auction
More than 200 interested persons jammed the office of the Dick Brothers Brewing company in December 1951. The brewery which had been in operation for almost 85 years was sold piecemeal as block bids for the entire plant and equipment failed to exceed the amount realized from the sale of individual items.
The brewery and equipment was valued at over $1 million but received just over $111,000. Auctioneer Gordon opened the sale standing on an office chair by offering the entire brewery plant with all equipment for sale. It was explained that all sales were subject to court approval. The opening bid for the entire plant was $50,000 submitted by Joseph Weiss of the Warsaw Brewing Company but the offer quickly mounted to the $100,000 mark and then slowed until W. Emery Lancaster's bid of $111,000 was offered. This offer was the best and the bid accepted.
Also included in the sale were the 800 shares of stock in the old Ruff Brewing Company purchased by the Dick Brothers firm in 1945. The stock was held by Mark Penick as collateral for a loan of approximately $20,000 made to the Dick Brothers Company. Mr. Penick made a bid of $50 and the offer was accepted.
Optimistic rumors surfaced stating the Dick Brothers brewery would reopen, but this was during the 1950s, the day of the small regional brewery was past. Scores of other small breweries throughout the country were closing due to great competition from the larger breweries.
Frank J. Dick's was the last survivor of the Dick family that started the Dick Brothers Brewing Company. After the brewery property was sold, Frank successfully ventured into politics and served as state senator from 1942 to 1948. He was city attorney under several mayors until his death on July 30, 1980.
The Dick Brothers prosperous brewing enterprise was part of an American brewing history. The advertising and memorabilia are now but memories, part of Quincy's German heritage.