Joseph J. Nigl and the People's Brewery

    For most of the Highholders who came to Oshkosh, Wisconsin in the late 1880s up to the early 1900s, life pretty much revolved around the 100 plus sawmills and door factories that lined the Fox River.

 

    There, the recently arrived Bavarians and Bohemians worked six days a week, twelve hours a day to eke out a meager living. One exception to this pattern was Joseph J. Nigl, born in Bischofsreut, Bavaria in the 1870s. Joseph’s father and mother immigrated to the U.S in 1872 and brought young Joseph to the U.S.A.  Joseph’s father, Joseph Sr. worked in the lumber mills and eventually saved enough money to buy a house, which he fixed up to become a boarding house near the corner of Ninth and Ohio Streets.

 

     Because of the large number of newly arriving immigrants from Bavaria and Bohemia, the boarding house did a brisk business. Using the income from his renters, Joseph Sr. was able to buy a grocery store at the Northwest corner of Ninth and Ohio. Later, Joseph Sr. added a tavern to the back of the grocery store, called the “Gemutlichkeit”.

 

    Joseph J. Nigl helped his father manage both the grocery store and the tavern business. Joseph J. Nigl’s involvement with the “Gemutlichkeit” Tavern eventually led to his interest in establishing a new brewery in the city of Oshkosh.

 

    Some people have suggested that there was need for a new brewery in Oshkosh, but in fact at this time there were about seven breweries operating in Oshkosh. To understand why Joseph J. Nigl was interested in starting a new brewery, one must understand the business practices of the local breweries in the early 1900s. In the early 1900s, local breweries tried to put monopolies on their beers, allowing only one brand of beer to be served at individual taverns.

Competition between the breweries was fierce and they would stop at nothing to gain control of a tavern’s business. The practices of the local breweries quite naturally upset the tavern owners and operators. For example, if the Breweries banded together, they could decide to put a local tavern out of business by blackballing the establishment and not allowing any beer to be delivered.

 

     It was because of these monopolistic practices that Joseph J. Nigl and a group of Southside Oshkosh businessmen gathered together in 1912 to found a new brewery.

 

    The name chosen was The People’s Brewery, or in German, Volksbier.  Volksbier means beer for the ordinary folk. Joseph J. Nigl was elected President of the Peoples Brewery and served in this capacity until his death in 1921.

 

    Ironically in 1970, the name of this Brewery attracted a new buyer Theodore Mack, who became the first Black American to own a brewery in the U.S.A. Theordore Mack tried very hard to make a success of the Peoples Brewery but, unfortunately the small capacity of the Peoples Brewery did not allow him to compete with the Miller Breweries and Anheuser Busch’s of the world.

According to the great grandson of Joseph J. Nigl, also Joseph Nigl , of Madison, Wis:

 

    Prior to 1912, Joseph J. Nigl, a successful businessman, was considering running for Mayor of Oshkosh. Apparently prior to this, a Mr. Stoeckbauer, who was either Deputy Mayor or actually Mayor of Oshkosh, and who was a Highholder, ran with his family a tavern on 6th St. on the Southside.

 

    When word got around that Joseph J. Nigl was considering running for Mayor, the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern began a campaign to outlaw "foreign born" individuals from becoming the Mayor of Oshkosh. This law was passed by the Oshkosh Aldermen and signed into law.

 

    The interesting point behind all this is that the same family that owned the Daily Northwestern also owned the Chief Oshkosh Brewery, the Schwalm Family.

 

    Was it just a coincidence that the newly formed Peoples Brewery headed by Joseph J. Nigl opened directly across the street from the Chief Oshkosh Brewery? It appears that there was some sort of grudge match between Joseph J. Nigl and the Schwalm family.