This hurts more than usual, because Milwaukee and Miller are intertwined.
When Frederick Miller arrived in Milwaukee for the first time in 1854, legend has it he observed that a town “with a magnificent harbor like that has a great future in store.”
By the end of the year, the German native owned a brewery west of downtown Milwaukee, in a valley ideally situated near a good water source and surrounding farms.
Through the years, and then decades, his prediction came true — not just for the town, but for his signature business.
Granted, for much of the late 19th century, Milwaukee’s Pabst was the largest brewery in the country. And in the mid-20th century, Schlitz wasn’t just the beer that made Milwaukee famous, it was the country’s best-seller.
But today, both the Pabst and Schlitz campuses in Milwaukee have become home to trendy apartments, offices, shops and nightlife.
It’s Miller’s brewery that endures. The name has changed, first to MillerCoors and now Molson Coors. The corporation is no longer based here; its headquarters are in Denver. CEO Gavin Hattersley is a graduate of the University of South Africa.
But think of Milwaukee and you think of beer; think of Milwaukee beer and you think of Miller. The city and the brewery have leaned on each other for more than a century and a half, and that’s what makes this week’s tragedy so painful, so personal.
A Molson Coors employee killed five co-workers Wednesday not far from the well-known signs welcoming visitors from around the world to the Miller Valley. In a country where it’s convenient to be in denial, to say that mass shootings can’t happen in our backyard, many Milwaukeeans likely not only couldn’t imagine it happening, we certainly couldn’t imagine it happening at Miller.
Milwaukee wears its blue-collar, three-shifts a day roots like a pack of smokes rolled up in its shirt sleeve. We set up beer gardens in our public parks and pack into beer tents at our church festivals. We play on softball teams sponsored by taverns and watch professional baseball in a stadium named — for one more year — Miller Park.
Each December, the brewery decks out its buildings with 750,000 holiday lights synchronized to music, and shows off a Christmas tree made from a couple hundred beer kegs, a tradition that dates back to the 1950s. Carloads of families slowly drive by, kids with smiling faces pressed against windows.
We may be a city of more than half a million people, and a metro area of hundreds of thousands more, but in a way we’re still what Fred Miller first saw: a town. It’s no wonder we joke about “Small-waukee.”
A somber Mayor Tom Barrett gave voice hours after the shootings to the thoughts of so many in Milwaukee.
“This site, this Miller brewing site, has been part of the Miller family and part of the city of Milwaukee for 165 years,” Barrett said, his breath visible in the nighttime chill. “And this is the saddest day we have had.”
And so for now, the brewery tours where we take visitors from out of town are shut down. The Molson Coors assembly line is still.
The first funeral is on Sunday. More will come.
The mayor on Thursday called on Milwaukee to come together “and put our arms around these grieving families.”
There were already signs that was happening.
The marquee of the Riverside Theater on Wisconsin Avenue on Thursday proclaimed “Miller Strong, Milwaukee Strong.” Well-wishers left flowers outside the Molson Coors offices. Taverns announced fundraisers to donate sales of the company’s beer to families of the victims.
Out in Arizona, Milwaukee Brewers players pinned black ribbons to their jerseys before playing the Kansas City Royals and observing a moment of silence. They posed before a banner sporting the city’s skyline and the brewery’s logos.
Milwaukee apparel company Brew City Brand printed T-shirts featuring the Miller logo in a heart and the words “Miller Strong” to give to Molson Coors employees and families.
At The Ridge Community Church in Greenfield, the normal Thursday night service was changed to a prayer vigil for victims of the Molson Coors shootings and their families. Lead Pastor Mark Weigt said that in considering what happens next after such a tragedy, people should focus on three things: breathe, mourn and pray.
“I just really believe that prayer changes things,” he said. “We begin to see things through God’s eyes.”
In an 1879 letter, part of which is included in a history compiled by Miller Brewing back in 1991, the founder of the company wrote about his ability to bounce back from life’s misfortunes.
More than a century later, his words resonate anew:
“Whenever I think about it,” Frederick Miller wrote, “I realize we must submit ourselves without murmur or complaint to the unexplainable wisdom of God, and that such wisdom transcends human understanding.”