Volume 35, number 3!
Rapids Historical Society
November 2013
Grand River Times The Newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society
Inside this issue: Cover Story: November program: Beer Brewing in Grand Rapids Letter from our President, page 2 History Detectives Wins State Award, page 3 The Yellow Kid, page 4 When Old is Not So Cool, page 5 Happening in History, page 6 Photo Sleuth, page 7
Search: Grand Rapids Historical Society
Next Program: The Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Michigan, by Rob Burg, site manager for the Michigan Historical Museum. Save the date: Thursday, January 9, 2014, 7:00 p.m., at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.
Beer Brewing in Grand Rapids Thursday, November 14, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Presented by William W. Seeger Grand Rapids was recently designated Beer City, USA, but beer has been a popular beverage in the United States ever since the days of the earliest colonists to these shores. In 1620, the Mayflower, which carried the Pilgrims to the New World, stocked a goodly supply of beer on board, not only to satisfy crew and passenger thirst, but also as a measure for preventing scurvy. The English colonists in Virginia and all along the eastern seaboard chose beer as a healthful alternative to the dangers of drinking the water. The Dutch who settled New Netherland in the early part of the seventeenth century were even fonder of the foaming brew. The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, founded in 1626, had a population of 350 by 1629; about three years later the Dutch West India Company, proprietors of the colony, built a brewery not far from the fort. The first brewer in Grand Rapids was an Englishman named John Pannell, who came to town in 1836 and built a small brewery over a stream at the bottom of Prospect Hill on Kusterer’s Crew circa 1860 striking a pose for the annual spring the east side of Kent Street. His modest output - "a barrel release of Bock Beer. or two at a brewing" - of English hop beer gradually increased, and by 1844, thanks to rising demand, his brewery was doing quite well. That same year, Christoph Kusterer, a brewer trained in Germany, established a brewery on the west side of the river and shortly thereafter went into partnership with Pannell. Christoph Kusterer was a prominent figure in the local German-American community. A founding member of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Immanuel in 1857, he was the captain of the Grand Rapids Rifles, a German-American militia unit. He also served as a parade marshal for the "Grand German Jollification," an event which celebrated Prussia's victory over France in 1871. Kusterer's life came to a tragic end in Continued on page 4
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