Peering at the Past Booming Brewing, Organized Opposition

Second of a series

It was long a familiar landmark for automobile traffic between Hokah and La Crescent on Highway 16 before it was torn down in 1954. The building originally housed one of the most successful breweries in Minnesota. The Root River Brewery was founded in Hokah Township by Joseph Pfeffer, Jr. in 1858, the same year he and his son immigrated from Germany. 

Pfeffer’s successful brewery soon became a very large operation, especially considering its isolated location. The brewery and livery stable were on a busy stagecoach route, which provided a reliable flow of customers. In 1866, only four breweries outside the Twin Cities sold more beer than Pfeffer.

Pfeffer built a new building the following year at a cost of $10,000 – a three-story structure with living quarters on the top floor. Built into the side of a hill, there was an outdoor entrance to that third story by use of a plank. A beer cellar was bored into the solid-rook hillside where the beer was aged while being cooled by a spring that dribbled through. Beer was delivered by horse and wagon to Caledonia and La Crescent. 

Two years later, his son died and Pfeffer sold the brewery, which would pass through several owners. Stagecoach travel became obsolete with the coming of the railroad, which bypassed Hokah while connecting La Crosse, Wis. and Caledonia. It became a liability to be so close to La Crosse, where major brewers began marketing in southeast Minnesota. Production went from 236 barrels in 1878 down to 140 barrels in 1879. About that time, owner John Striegal (Schtregel) also operated a saloon and dance hall there. 

The History of Houston County stated the brewery was the subject of litigation in 1882, and the brewing operation likely ceased during that decade. After taking ownership, the Minnesota Highway Department razed the abandoned edifice in 1954, fearing injury to children playing on its weakened floors. 

The expansion of railroad traffic in 1867 and influx of additional residents have been credited with the establishment of two breweries in Rushford. Larger producers no longer had to deliver with horse-drawn wagons, but some breweries in smaller towns, like LeRoy, were not large enough to take immediate advantage of the railroad.

Immigrants from Germany were prominent in early brewing in southeast Minnesota, but not surprisingly in Spring Grove, it was a Norwegian immigrant who built a brewery. Johan/John Pedersen Myhre, born in Eiker, Norway, arrived in Spring Grove at age 20 in 1859. 

He built a brewery and beer cellar on land likely purchased from his father-in-law Ole Stensrud. The cellar remains today in Trollskogen Park in Spring Grove. In the Census of 1870, Myhre is listed as a brewer. His brewery was able to produce 15,000 gallons a year. That census listed Paul Elertson, born about 1943 in Norway, as a brewery worker in Spring Grove.

Change was coming. State law concerning liquor licenses lumped together all ”spiritous, vinous, fermented or malt liquors.” Local control was allowed, so alcohol-selling businesses could be licensed or prohibited by municipalities, including a public vote. In March of 1871, the Houston County Journal mentioned an election in Spring Grove where there was “a little discussion over the liquor question” with no election result included. A week later, the newspaper reported La Crescent voters prohibiting liquor sales. The following month, a Rochester newspaper reported, “A case of manslaughter is reported at a saloon in in Spring Grove, Houston County. It occurred last week. The party committing the act has been arrested, making two more sad victims of intemperance.” The accused was acquitted soon after.

The connection between the saloon violence and the Spring Grove election in 1871 is unclear with both occurring about the same time. This also coincided with the Norwegian Lutheran Church calling as pastor, in 1871, Rev. Styrk S. Reque, who would become known for his active leadership against alcohol.

But a year later, it appears alcohol sales had ceased, presumably by citizen votes, when the Journal included a late February 1872 item about Spring Grove, “It is awful quiet here in consequence of the discontinuance of liquor selling – quiet in a peculiar and enjoyable way.”

There were two Spring Grove saloon keepers and a saloon worker identified in the Census of 1870. There were none in the Census of 1880.

In 1873, likely due to social pressure along with the loss of buyers, Myhre sold his land and brewery to Teman Gilbertson with the understanding that the new owner would not continue brewing. Myhre, whose first wife had died, would move with his second wife to farm in North Dakota in 1879.

About two decades earlier, in 1852 (six years before statehood), a well-organized temperance campaign urged the territorial legislature to ban the sale of intoxicating beverages territory-wide. Voters agreed, passing a referendum, which was overturned by the territorial supreme court. The temperance movement would then concentrate on voters and referendums in local jurisdictions. It was successful in early Spring Grove. 

In 1915, five years before the 18th Amendment established Prohibition nation-wide, voters made Houston County “dry” by 85 votes: 1,570 to 1,485. Spring Grove village voted dry, 162 to 8, Spring Grove Township, 165 to 6.

The temperance movement and finally Prohibition in 1920 forced family-operated breweries to either switch to non-alcoholic beer or soda pop or shut down completely unless resorting to illegal bootlegging. Three of four breweries in Winona closed. The brewery in Preston, which had been established in 1858, converted to soda pop at the start of Prohibition, but lasted only a couple of years, closing in 1922.

Most breweries closed and never reopened. Those attempting a comeback after repeal of Prohibition in 1933 would soon be unable to compete with larger brewers who could produce more at a lower price. Instead of local flavors, which varied from region to region, national brewers offered a more standardized taste.

Now, in the 21st century, microbreweries are flourishing, creating a specialized local product, much like the local breweries before Prohibition.  

Sources: History of Houston County, 1882; La Crosse Tribune, 6-1-1954; “Winona’s king of beer,” Winona Dailey News, 1988; Writing of Georgia Rosendahl, Spring Grove Herald; Land of Amber Waters: the History of Brewing in Minnesota, by Doug Hoverson; research of Thomas Carlson.