Jac. Agnitsch

27 Aug 2021, last revised 12 Jul 2024

The bottle book, Old Copper Country Bottles, listed a single bottle embossed, JAC. AGNITSCH. / RED JACKET / MICH in its Unknown Brewers and Bottlers section. Having only one, extremely rare bottle suggests Jac. Agnitsch was a short-lived bottler, whom may have placed only one, small order of bottles. In the past, it was unknown if this beer-type bottle actually contained beer, especially when "Brewery" was not embossed on the bottle. The bottle has an applied Baltimore loop seal top, which dates it to the late 1880s or the early 1890s. It is for this time period that we focused our search.

First of all, it appears "Agnitsch" was a misspelling of "Agnitch". The U.S. Federal Census listed many members of the "Agnitch" family, but none for "Agnitsch" during this time period. In the late 1890s, advertisements in The Copper Country Evening News referred to businesses being located in the "Agnitch block" on North 5th St., Calumet, while a search for "Agnitsch" turned up nothing.

The Houghton County Polk directory did not have a listing for Agnitch, but its first volume was issued in 1895 (1), not early enough for this bottle. The breakthrough came with the discovery of a notice in The Calumet and Red Jacket News that repeated in Feb-Mar 1889. We do not have access to earlier issues so we do not know when the notice started. It stated that Jacob Agnitch in Red Jacket was selling Val Blatz's special Wiener Beer, Export Lager, and the celebrated Half-and-Half (5). He was also the proprietor of the Detroit House, which the 1895 Polk directory located in Lake Linden, but by that volume, Agnitch was no longer proprietor (1). Therefore, it turns out Jacob Agnitch was an agent for Blatz and his bottle did in fact contain beer.

Blatz Brewing Co. – Valentin Blatz worked for John Braun at his brewery in Milwaukee for two years, and then started his own small brewery in 1851 on one-half of a city lot (12) with a capital of only $500 (15). He produced 150 barrels in the first year (12). Soon after Blatz started his brewery (12), Braun died in Apr 1851 from injuries sustained by being thrown from his wagon (13). Blatz married Braun's widow (12,17) in Dec 1851 (14) and acquired Braun's brewery (12,17), which was merged with his own (12). In 1867, Blatz was the highest producing Milwaukee brewery with 18,241 barrels, followed closely by Philip Best & Co. with 18,011 barrels (20). By the start of 1868, Blatz's buildings occupied about three-quarters of a city block and the storage vaults undermined more than a city block (20). Blatz reportedly was the first Milwaukee brewery to bottle its beer (18). In 1873, Val. Blatz designed the export beer bottle and the William McCully glass factory produced six gross for Blatz (19). Nationwide, however, E. Anheuser & Co. (later renamed Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association) was the first brewery to bottle pasteurized beer, having done so in 1872 (19). In 1886, Blatz was the third largest brewery in Milwaukee with a production of 180,010 barrels, trailing the Philip Best Brewing Co. with 457,971 barrels and Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. with 327,425 barrels (21). The Valentin Blatz Brewing Co. was incorporated on 29 Sep 1889 with a capital of $2 million (16). In 1891, Blatz sold the brewery to an English syndicate, but continued as president until his death on 29 May 1894 (15).

Jacob Agnitch probably distributed Blatz beer out of a saloon. The Michigan State Polk directory listed a saloon for Stephen Agnitch in the 1887 and 1889 volumes (2,11) and for Agnitch Bros., consisting of Stephen and Jack, in the 1891 volume (3). In Feb 1891, "Mr. Agnitch" decided to go out of the saloon business, and along with being the Blatz agent, proposed opening a meat market (9). It is unclear if his plans were actually realized since about two months later, the Agnitch Brothers installed a new bar in their saloon (10). Stephen Agnitch was then listed as a brewer's agent in the 1893 directory (4), and the 1893 Sanborn map showed a depot for Blatz. Since neither of them were listed in the 1895 directory (1), the Blatz agency apparently changed hands. Blatz closed its Red Jacket branch in Jan 1897, but maintained its Hancock branch (8).

A marriage record from 1891 listed a Jacob Agnitch as a merchant and resident of Red Jacket (6). He was from Austria and married Mary Ahrus on 17 May 1891. The 1890 U.S. Federal Census was mostly destroyed by fire (22), and we could not find him listed in the 1900 census. The 1910 census listed him as a machinist in a shop and a resident of Yellow Jacket in Calumet (7). It noted that he immigrated in 1885, which means he would not have been listed in the 1880 census. If this was the same Jacob Agnitch, it shows that his time at the saloon was short-lived.

Jacob Agnitch was an early distributor of Blatz beer in the Copper Country. He distributed Blatz beer before Blatz established a depot in Red Jacket. Bottles bearing the Blatz name have been found locally but they lack embossing of a local town name, and thus, we do not know if they were used exclusively by a Copper Country branch. We are fortunate to have the one Agnitch bottle with a local town name to commemorate Blatz's early presence in the Copper Country.

Citations

1. R. L. Polk & Co. 1895. Houghton County Directory 1895-96. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
2. R. L. Polk & Co. 1887. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1887-88. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
3. R. L. Polk & Co. 1891. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1891-92. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
4. R. L. Polk & Co. 1893. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1893-94. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
5. anonymous. (1889, Mar 01). untitled. The Calumet and Red Jacket News (Calumet, MI). p. 1.
6. Michigan, U.S., Marriage Records, 1867-1952 (accessed on ancestry.com).
7. U.S. Census Bureau. 1910 United States Federal Census. accessed on ancestry.com.
8. anonymous. (1897, Jan 16). Business card. The Copper Country Evening News (Calumet, MI). p. 4.
9. anonymous. (1891, Feb 20). untitled. The Calumet and Red Jacket News (Calumet, MI). p. 3.
10. anonymous. (1891, May 01). untitled. The Calumet and Red Jacket News (Calumet, MI). p. 3.
11. R. L. Polk & Co. 1889. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1889-90. R. L. Polk & Co. Detroit, MI.
12. anonymous. 1903. One Hundred Years of Brewing. H. S. Rich & Co., Publishers. Chicago and New York.
13. anonymous. (1851, Apr 02). Deaths. The Weekly Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI). p. 3.
14. Wisconsin Marriages, 1836-1930. FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XRJM-9QH : 29 February 2024), Valentine Blatz, 1851.
15. anonymous. (1894, May 29). Death of Val Blatz. Daily State Gazette (Green Bay, WI). p. 1.
16. anonymous. (1889, Sep 29). What is going on in Milwaukee. The Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL). p. 10.
17. anonymous. (1894, May 26). Valentine Blatz dead. The Weekly Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI). p. 14.
18. Walzer, J. B. 2016. Blatz Brewing Company. Encyclopedia of Milwaukee. emke.uwm.edu/entry/blatz-brewing-company/.
19. Lockhart, B. 2007. The origin and life of the export beer bottle. Bottles and Extras May-June: 49-58.
20. anonymous. (1868, Jan 29). Lager beer. Baraboo Republic (Baraboo, WI). p. 1.
21. anonymous. (1887, Aug 25). Wisconsin items. Mirror Gazette (Kilbourn City, WI). p. 8.
22. United States Census Bureau. 14 Dec 2023. Availability of 1890 census. www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/decennial_census_records/availability_of_1890_census.html.