Marshall County’s German Brewers

Three German families, related through marriage, settled in Center Township between the years 18441865. The Hohams, Klinghammers, and Weckerles brought with them the skill of brewing lager beer as did many other German immigrants coming to the country during this time. The families established and operated the Plymouth Brewery. In 1857, John Hoham and John Klinghammer purchased three acres a mile southwest of Plymouth and built the county’s first brewery on what would become known as Brewery Road. Hoham took barrels of beer by wagon to Michigan City and returned with loads of brick for construction of the Church of Christ, originally a German congregation in 1869. Hoham sold his interest in the brewery to Klinghammer in 1867.

Klinghammer sold his interest in the brewery to his nephew, Jacob Weckerle in 1871. Weckerle came to Plymouth from Germany in 1860 with his uncle. Weckerle owned a saloon on the west side of Michigan Street in Plymouth during the mid-1860s. In 1882, Weckerle was listed as the proprietor of Plymouth Brewery in a business directory. a map dating to about 1882 shows proposed routes for the Vandalia Railroad. One route passes by the south side of the brewery property. The property is marked brewery with six buildings drawn and the old Hoham-klinghammer House. Weckerle operated the Plymouth Brewery until 1888 after which time he moved to Chicago.

The brewery was then purchased by Wert Beldon during the 1890s. a newspaper article in 1900 reported a fire occurring at the old Hoham & Klinghammer Brewery building. The building was described as a large building that covered a deep cellar underneath that was used for the purpose of storing eggs by Beldon. The building was described as being erected by John Hoham and John Klinghammer before the rebellion and for many years was used for making lager beer, and was the only brewery of that kind in Northern Indiana. The article mentions that several years prior it had been leased to Jacob Weckerle, but due to strong competition, the business discontinued.

There is little other information on breweries that may have operated in Marshall County during this period. Three members of the Ecklesdorfer family were listed as brewers in the Marshall County 1862 Civil War draft enrollment for males. a man by the name of Christopher Rinsalier is listed in the same enrollment with the same occupation. The Ecklesdorfers and Rinsalier lived in Bourbon Township. No other men, besides the Hohams and Klinghammers, were listed in the county’s enrollment with brewer as their occupation. The brewing operations in Bourbon Township were probably small in scale.

another Plymouth brewery and bottling operation was in existence during the 1890s after Plymouth Brewery closed. Henry Stein had a complex of buildings on the south side of the Yellow River, just east of Michigan Street. The operation is shown on a map from 1892. Joseph Stein was listed as an agent and bottler for Pabst Brewing Company in a 1905 directory. Bottles produced during the 1890s were marked Stein – Plymouth. The buildings appear to have been demolished by 1908.

a brewing operation was also located in Bremen during the 1870s. a birds-eye map of Bremen has a small building, one story tall, identified as a brewery. It is located on the south side of the middle fork of the Yellow River on the northeast side of town. The brewery in Bremen is not identified in a 1908 map, however, the 1922 plat identifies the parcel at the north end of Washington Street as a brewery lot. a 1905 directory for the county lists William Foltz of Bremen as a brewer and bottler.