It was the best of times!
It was the driest of times!
Prohibition roared into existence as the roaring 1920s began.. There are snippets from history that people were in rare form in Times Square News Years Eve before prohibition went into effect.. The great zoggling.. On November 18, 1918, prior to ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, the U.S. Congress passed the temporary Wartime Prohibition Act.. this was supposed to save grain for the war effort.. The Wartime Prohibition Act took effect June 30, 1919, with July 1, 1919 becoming known as the “Thirsty-First”..
Speakeasies became the way of secret consumption for more than a decade..
It wasn’t until years after the roaring 20s that alcohol was dispensed again–during a Great Depression no less!! On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen–Harrison Act, legalizing beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% (by weight) and wine of a similarly low alcohol content. On December 5, 1933, ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment..
It was over..
And just as soon as it finished, a bright and shining star was ready to burst into the alcohol scene in 1933
FROM THE PUREST OF SPRINGS
On October 5, 1933, various local fishwrappers had begun to report the news in their extra additions: Fountain Springs PA was getting a new brewery! It was one of those new fangled places producing the “near beer” of low alcohol content..
Peter Sakowski of Shenandoah, a prominent mortician, announced that permits were received and that brewing had commenced. According to local reports at the time, Sakowski had starting the brewing of 3.2% beer… it was hoped that the product would be available for distribution by before Christmas 1933.
The Pure Springs Brewing Company was not new to the location. It was actually the same place where the “Fountain Springs Brewing Company” was resided prior to the onset of prohibition. That brewery was seized by the government in 1921 for violating the Prohibition Act..
And long before that, the Wm. E. C. M. & Henry R. Engel & Schmidt Brewery was the first there in 1897..
PURE MOUNTAIN SPRINGS
Early reports from 1933 stated that 25 men would have jobs bottling low alcohol beer for Peter Sakowski in Fountain Springs.
The brewery promised to be a modern behemoth! Equipped with turn out keg beer.. a large bottling plant.. and turnout for case beer and delivery.
Published reports at the time and archived logos still traded online showcase the bragging rights the brewery had: The pure springs of the mountain water would be used to make the beer. The company said only pure spring water would be the ingredient.
Initially the brewery had the capacity to produce 3,000 barrels a month. Perhaps not matched well against Yuengling at the time, but respectable for a brewery near a spring.
3,000 BARRELS OF BEER IN THE SPRINGS, 3,000 BARRELS OF BEER
An ad for pure springs that ran in various newspapers in the winter of 1933 through the early part of 1934 said to be prepared for unexpected guests with Pure Springs Beer on ice… Quality, not quantity it said… ,ade with the purest of springs and the finest hops… It appealed to the senses and said “let your good taste tell what a uniformly better beer it is.”
ONE OF MANY
The fact that the Pure Springs Brewery existed is not a surprise. As a matter of fact, Schuylkill County was home to many before and after Prohibition..
Ashland had one founded in 1911 called the Schuylkill Home Brewing Co.. Frackville had one at Middle and Chestnut Streets. Hazleton had three.. Mahanoy City had Kairers, which closed in 1968. Minersville was busy making suds and such with four breweries between the 1870s and the onset of prohibition. Shenandoah had three .. Tamaqua chalked up two more. And besides the famous Yuengling, Pottsville had two more, the Mt. Carbon Brewing Co and Ludwig Reader…
Beer was flowing fondly across the county and parts beyond ..
On October 30, 1934, trucks were getting bigger than building fire escapes!
It was reported in the Pottsville REPUBLICAN that a truck delivering PURE SPRINGS beer in Pottsville was passing down a street when the truck became caught in the fire escape. The truck was released without damage, and the building sustained none as well..
On May 10, 1934, it was reported that George Sharp, and employee at Pure Springs, was injured when he fell off a ladder.. He was receiving treatment at the Ashland State Hospital…
FIRE BAD
On January 14, 1935, the short life of the Pure Springs Brewery came to a fiery end.
Three-fourths of the property was destroyed by a fire .. the loss at the time was reported at $75,000.. With inflation that would be $1.4 million in today’s dollars.
The Mount Carmel ITEM reported that George Sharp, a fireman who discovered the laze outsize the wall of the boiler house, turned in the alarm for a number of other fire companies in the area. The natural spring water that helped created product was now directed at extinguishing the blaze.
All of the buildings of the brewing company were reported as destroyed.. the boiler house gone. The refrigerating plant was gutted…
The good news, according to the reports, the beer that had just been barreled was rolled out and saved, and guarded to prevent theft.
The Pure Springs Brewery was a loss..
Gone..
The bottling stopped.
LEGAL ISSUES
On February 27, 1936, just less than after the fire the destroyed the Pure Springs Brewery, the company was listed in a lawsuit filed by the Harry Morgolis Trust wanted to recovery $300 and interest for auditing services..
Another lawsuit was reported on in November 1935 when Edith Blakeman, part owner of Pure Springs, said that Sakowski stole money for his owner interest!
Things got dicier for the owners of Pure Springs.. On March 20, 1936, the AP News dispatched this information:
3 were convicted of illegal operation of a brewery!!
Peter Sakowski, CEO, was convicted on four charges… the charge? Federal agents said that the brewery was a front for Abe Minker, who was convicted and sentenced the year before as a leader of an alcohol diverting ring from Scranton! Sakowski was a character witness at the Minker trial.
Another guilty verdict was found against William Schimpff, a high school teacher in Scranton. . he was convicted, along with Harry Whalen, of failing to see that the brewery filed a bond with the IRS..
According to federal agents at the time, they discovered reused stamps on beer barrels at a distributing agency in Philadelphia..
The reused stamps means that taxes were not paid accordingly..
UNTAXED LIQUOR GETS YOU IN JAIL QUICKER!
Abe Minker was connected to the Peter Genelli alcohol syndicate ..Genelli was the head of a bootleg liquor operations. Genelli pled guilty in 1935 to charges relating to violations of revenue laws by selling untaxed liquor.
Minker was the ‘reputed head of a gang of 62″ who operated a “gigantic conspiracy” out of Scranton.. at the time the Department of Justice said that Minker was connected to illegal operations at the Pure Springs Brewery..
On March 26, 1936, Sakowski was sentenced to serve 3 months in prison and pay a fine of $1,000 for tax fraud.
The Shamokin News DISPATCH mentions the ‘mysterious fire’ in their March 1936 article..
DEATH OF A BREWER
Pure Springs died in a fire and its reputation died in the post Prohibition era.. Peter Sakowski finally died in January 1975.. His obituary talked about his mortuary experience and his days as a semi-pro baseball player.
No mention of the brewery.. the history. Just the solemn reminder of his family that he left behind..
Meanwhile, to this day, the few and rare symbols of the brewery live in.. Including this logo of the Pure Springs Company:
Also one more thing that lives in, well into 2021.. The company itself!
According to records at the Pennsylvania Department of State, Pure Springs remains an ‘active’ company!
It was registered in Delaware. As at publication of this post, Pure Springs Brewery Co. still exists, and has been active for 87 years, and 4 months…
