Bennett Pieters & Co.

< --Previous Up Next–>

Bennett Pieters & Co., Schwab, Pieters & Co., Schwab, McQuaid & Co., McQuaid-Monheimer Bros.
Location: 31 and 33 Michigan av.
Life Span: 1866-1871
Architect:

Halpin & Bailey’s City Directory for the Year 1863-64
Pieters Bennett & Co.(Bennett Pieters and John F. Stafford), whol. liquors, 149 S. Water

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1866
Pieters Bennett & Co. (Bennett Pieters and John F. Stafford), distillers and wholesale liquor dealers, 31 and 33 Michigan av.

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1867
Pieters Bennett & Co. (Bennett Pieters and John F. Stafford), distillers and whol. liquor dealers, 31 and 33 Michigan av.

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1869
Schwab, Pieters & Co.(Charles H. Schwab, Bennett Pieters Edward McQuaid and L. Monheimer), distillers and whol. liquor dealers, proprs. and mnfrs. Red Jacket bitters, 31 and 33 Michigan av.

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870-71
Schwab, McQuaid & Co. (Charles H. Schwab, Edward McQuaid and L. Momheimer), distillers, 31 and 33 Michigan av.

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1871
Schwab, McQuaid & Co., distillers, 31 and 33 Michigan av.

Chicago Tribune, January 23, 1866

A MODEL DISTILLERY.
Bennett Pieters & Co.—Opening Day—Liquors and Red Jacket Bitters.
Bennett Pieters & Co., long and well known as distillers and manufacturers of the “Red Jacket Bitters,” on River street, Chicago, have recently erected and fitted up a new establishment at Nos. 31 and 33 Michigan avenue, which was thrown open to the public yesterday in a formal opening, at which many of the members of our Board of Trade, and principal bankers and merchants, generally were present. After a thorough inspection of the premises and its machinery, the party adjourned to a collation of eatables and drinkables of rare excellence.

The plan of the establishment, and the way in which its objects are carried out, exhibit so many novel features as to be worthy of more than a brief notice.

The business of distilling in this country is generally carried on as two distinct branches of industry. One class embraces the distillers of high-wines, those who make the crude alcoholic product from the grain, and fallen cattle with the slops; some of these gentlemen have heretofore been held responsible for the presence of a great portion of the filth which has made the North Branch of our river so pestiferous. The second class includes the rectifying distillers—those who buy the highwines from the first distiller, and run them over in copper-stills, purify them, and make therefrom alcohol, spirits, gins, and whiskeys. The great objection to this arrangement is, that there is a strong temptation to the first distiller to buy his corn as cheaply as possible, and it is a well known fact that large quantities of unsound, wormy grain finds its way into the distillery, and goes to produce “first class” highwines, making it impossible for the rectifier to be certain of the quality of the material purchased. Bennett Pieters & Co. have arranged to obviate this uncertainty, by conducting both processes under the one roof. They make their alcohol, spirits, gins and whiskeys direct from the very best grain that can be obtained, using no other, and their lofts are full of the different kinds of No. 1 grain—wheat, rye, barley, &c., while malted grains occupy a large space on the floor below. Their gins are made direct from malted barley, rye, &c., in precisely the same manner as they are made in Holland; the whiskeys are made in the same way as they used to be manufactured in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, but on a much larger scale.

The distillery is built of solid stone and brick, five stores high with basement, and is filled with a stock of fixtures of the most perfect kind. It is pronounced to be the ne pius ultra of excellence by all who have examined it, and this number includes more prominent distillers from all parts of the country. The boilers are equivalent to eighty horse of steam, and supply two model engines and live steam pumps. The workmanship of the copper stills, columns, etc., is admirable, and the mills, mash tubs, fermenting and condensing vats, with the thousand and one fixtures here used, are all complete of their kind, and have been constructed with especial reference to cleanliness in operation and that continual exhibition of progress so essential in the distillery. We notice also the presence of a very against fire, in the shape of an immense reservoir of water in the top story, which is connected with two-inch flexible tubing on every floor. Much credit is due to. Mr. H. Howland, the chief distiller, for the observable order and cleanliness pervading the whole distillery. It is worthy of remark, too, that at the present time, when the distilleries in this section of the country have generally suspended operations, the tax paid to the Government by this establishment during the few weeks it has been in working order, already amounts to over sixty thousand dollars—a sufficient proof of public confidence in the superior quality of their liquors.

The distillery lies in the rear of, and is separated by an alley fifteen feet wide, from the store, which is on the first floor of a building fifty feet wide and one hundred feet long, built of solid stone and brick, with marble front. The counting room and offices for shipping and receiving occupy the whole of the street floor, the suit of offices being among the neatest and most convenient we have seen. The basement is divided by a strong longitudinal wall, into a bonded warehouse and a native wine cellar. The former gives the advantage of placing goods manufactured in the distillery directly there for storage, and they can remain there and improve by age, the tax not being required till the goods are taken out for use; in the latter division are stored native wines in greater quantities and varieties than we had supposed could be effected were all the stores of these goods in Chicago gathered into one. It is a novel, and decidedly agreeable feature in our Chicago business, and one which has grown up to surprising dimensions in a short space of time. Here are all varieties—so many that we do not remember one half the names, and all of the very best quality, their purity and flavor being unsurpassed.

The great feature (attractively considered) in this building is, however, the manufacture of the now justly celebrated “Red Stomach Bitters.” Hitherto New York has been the great centre of Bitter manufacture; now Chicago is hard pressing her for the palm. The superiority of the “Red Jacket” is in universal demand, not only in the West but all over the South, and reaches far away down towards the East, obtruding largely on the old stalking ground of the New York houses. Such is the favor with which they are regarded, that Bennett Pieters & Co. experience considerable difficulty in filling the orders continually pressing in upon them, although they are working with two sets of hands, and economizing time as much as possible, by the use of the most approved machinery. The two upper stories are exclusively appropriated to this purpose, and here immense quantities of herbs, roots and barks meet the eye of the visitor, piled up in tiers of boxes and barrels innumerable. For the working of these there are no less than twenty-two large macerating vats, from which, after being properly treated, the material passes through a series of pipes into as many filtering and receiving vats. On the second floor is the bottling room, a perfect bee-hive, where scores of hands are busily employed in labeling, washing, filling and casing, The bottling and washing machine is a perfect Yankee institution, scarcely susceptible of description, so ingenious and complicated is it, but a perfect gem, and puts the work through with a rush. Hot steam, brought from the boilers below, is used, and in the twinkling of an eye eighteen bottles are washed, perfectly clean, and turned over to the filler, who on the other side of the machine fills and passes them over to the corker with equal expedition. Eight hundred cases of one dozen bottles each are turned out here every day. A six cent Government revenue stamp is put over the cork of each bottle, giving to the astounding amount of three hundred dollars per day used in Government stamps in this room alone; and this amount is daily increasing.

The whole establishment, from cellar to attic, is heated by steam—steam coils wind around the walls of every floor. An elevator platform, worked by steam, travels from story to story landing goods from the basement and the bonded warehouse in the left and vice versa, in about eighty seconds, saving hours of time per day and the work of several hands in hoisting alone. The employes of the establishment, including bookkeepers, travelling agents, clerks, distiller, miller, engineer, firemen, cooper, bottlers, teamsters, &c., number about eighty.

The institution, with the entire internal arrangement and works, is the actualization of the ideas and plans of Mr. Bennett Pieters, and have been executed under his direct supervision, reflecting no little credit on his enterprise and taste, and speaking volumes for his business knowledge and abilities. The entire cost of buildings, machinery, fixtures, &c., amount to a little over one hundred thousand dollars. We append the following list of firms selected to do the work, obligingly furnished by Mr. Pieters; we may add that they have acquitted themselves in a superior manner:

Store Buildings.

Distillery Buildings.

Fixture, Machinery, &c.

Rush Street Bridge

Chicago Illustrated

A Stranger’s and Tourists’ Guide to the City of Chicago, 1866

Notable Stores.
Passing up Michigan avenue, we come to the new establishment of Messrs. Bennett Pieters & Co., distillers, at Nos.31 and 33. This firm had long and successfully pursued the manufacturer of the Red Jacket Bitters, and their business expanding beyond the limits of their former building, has erected and now occupies a store of palatial proportions—solid stone and brick, five stories high with basement, and one hundred feet in depth by fifty feet front. The front is of white marble, finely sculptured and embellished. This is used by the store. The upper stories are devoted to the manufacture of the renowned Red Jacket bitters.

The Morning Democrat, April 2, 1866
From the Chicago Evening Journal.

Grand Opening of a Mammoth Distillery-The Model Establishment of the West.
Yesterday, about six hundred of our best known business men and public officials attended a banquet given by the well known firm of Bennett Pieters & Co., who, in their characteristic manner, celebrated the opening of their mammoth and elegantly equipped distillery buildings, Nos. 31 and 33 Michigan Avenue.

The feast was worthy of the place and the occasion—an occasion of no little moment to business circles. Four story marble palaces are not of mushroom growth, springing up in a night. They are the product and result of study, enterprise, genius, commercial capacity and means.—They are the monuments that large hearted and unmiserly men erect to the good of commerce and themselves, earning the proud distinction of having achieved one of the greatest triumphs that mark the farthest extreme from savage and barbaric life.

And thus viewing it, the well-known and long-established house of Bennett Pieters & Co., keeping step to the music of civilization and progress, wheeled into line yesterday, and exhibited to hundreds of admiring spectators a mammoth and model distillery and manufactory of highwines, etc.

Distilling in this country, as generally carried on, is divided into two classes. First comes the highwine distiller, who distills high wines from corn and fattens cattle with the slops. In the second class is the rectifying distiller, who buys the highwines from the first distiller, runs them over in his copper stills, purifies them and makes therefrom alcohol, spirits, gins, whiskies, etc. It is, of course, for the interest of the first distiller to buy corn as cheap as possible, and damaged and inferior grains are often used to produce highwines. Bennett Pieters & Co.’s distillery is an entirely different institution from the two above named. Here the alcohol, spirits, gins and whiskies are made direct from the very best grain that can be obtained. Their lofts are full of wheat, rye, barley, malted barley, etc. Their gins are made direct from the malted barley and rye, in precisely the same manner as they are made in Holland. The whiskies are made in the same manner as they used to be made in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, only on a larger scale.

Distillers from all parts of the country have been here to examine this model distillery, and all pronounce it the most perfect establishment ever conceived. Eighty horse power of steam is used, two engines and five steam pumps. The workmanship of the copper stills, columns, etc., is most perfect. The mills, mash-tubs, fermenting and condensing vats, and all the “thousand and one” fixtures here used are the most complete ever invented. The building is of solid stone and brick, five stories high with basement For the few weeks the establishment has been in operation the taxes paid to the Government already amount to over sixty thousand dollars.

The Store and ‘Red Jacket” Bitters Manufactory.
An alley, fifteen feet wide, divides the distillery from the store. The store is 50 feet wide by 100 feet long, and is built of solid stone and brick, with marble front. The two upper stores are used for the manufacture of the celebrated “Red Jacket Bitters.” Here immense tires of herbs, roots, barks, etc., astonish the eye of the observer. Twenty-two immense macerating vats and as many filtering and receiving vats are here seen. The second floor is the bottling room. This looks like a perfect bee-hive of hands, labeling, washing filling and casing. The bottling and washing machine is a perfect Yankee institution. One must see it, as it is almost impossible to describe it. Hot steam is used. Eighteen bottles are washed with tubes almost in an instant, and filled in like manner. Eight hundred cases, of one dozen bottles each, can be turned out here every day. A six cent Government revenue stamp is put over the cork of each bottle—the astonishing amount of three hundred dollars per day being used up in stamps in this room, and this amount is daily on the increase.

During the Civil War the Federal Government put a special excise tax on alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic bitters were considered medicines, therefore, Red Jacket Bitters, were taxed at a lower rate. Selling both whiskey and bitters, Bennett Pieters was subject to the taxes and acknowledged it by printing custom designed 6¢ revenue stamps to wrap on the cork of each bottle, reflecting the surcharge.

The first floor is used entirely for the counting room offices and for shipping and receiving. The suit of offices is the finest and most convenient we have ever seen.

The basement is divided into a bonded warehouse and a native wine cellar. The bonded warehouse gives the advantage of
placing goods manufactured in the distillery in the same, where it can lie and improve by age, the tax not being required until the goods are taken out.

The whole establishment from cellar to attic is heated by steam. Steam coils wind around the walls on every floor.

An elevator platform worked by steam travels from story to story, carrying goods from the basement and bonded warehouse to the loft, and vice versa.

The employes of the establishment numbers from seventy five to eighty, consisting of book keepers, traveling agents, clerks, distillers, millers, engineers, firemen, coopers, bottlers, teamsters, etc., etc.

The institution was planned by Mr. Bennett Pieters, and was erected and completed under his direct supervision. The entire cost of buildings, machinery, fixtures, at etc., amounts to a little over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Chicago Tribune, November 15, 1866

Almanac For 1867.—The almanac is a national need. Everybody wants it. Years ago it cost more than a good sized volume; now a really good almanac can be had for nothing. We refer to the one for 1867, just issued by Bennett, Pieters & Co., Nos. 31 and 33 Michigan avenue, Chicago, and 103 South Second street, St. Louis, it is a very neat compilation of the usual astronomical and statistical facts for the year, in addition to which it contains a complete list of United Stales Tax Laws, Stamp Duties, Licenses. &c., with other useful and valuable information. It may be obtained free of all grocers and druggists, to whom they are furnished for distribution.

Chicago Evening Post, August 25, 1868

Mr. Bennett Pieters will probably need a new carriage, his present one having been smashed by a combination of circumstances, policeman, driver aud dray. The colored driver in driving the carriage to the Sherman House, yesterday afternoon, was ordered by an officer to halt when at the corner of Lake and Clark streets to allow a lady to pass. John couldn’t see it, Mr. Bennett Pieter’s turn-out was not to be turned out for any mortal, and he dashed ahead un style. He was pursued by the “peeler” and the team nabbed, the haughty “cullud pusson ” getting spilled in the confusion. Policeman then took the reins and the nags took to cutting up capers and ran into a dray, smashing the carriage. The officer dismounted and arrested the darkey, while another patrolmen took away the horses to the pound.

Chicago Tribune, September 6, 1863

Chicago Tribune, March 7, 1864

Chicago Tribune, December 22, 1872

Removal of & Liquor House.
In another column will be found the notice of removal of Schwab, McQuaid & Co., to their new stores, Nos. 26 and 28 South Water street. This firm is the oldest, and one of the largest, liquor houses in the city. Parties in want of goods in their line will do well to give them a call and examine their stock of imported wines and liquor, also Pennsylvania ryes and Kentucky Bourbon whiskeys, and everything appertaining to the liquor trade, before purchasing elsewhere.

Chicago Tribune, January 3, 1880

AN OLD ESTABLISHMENT DISSOLVED.
The firm of McQuaid-Monheimer Bros., formerly Schwab, McQuaid & Co., for over twenty years in the wholesale liquor business in this city, was yesterday dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. McQuaid going out of the late firm.

Mr. McQuaid, we understand, will establish himself as heretofore in the wholesale wine and liquor business, and as he has hosts of friends in Chicago, throughout the Northwest, extending to the Pacific Slope, and Lake Superior region, his success in the future is well assured.

His many friends will be glad to greet him in his new business arrangements, and with his well-known ability and enterprise he will again appear as one of Chicago’s prominent and successful merchants.

Leave a Reply