Back in the Day

German brewers made lasting local impact

By KELLY SULLIVAN
Posted 3/13/20

By KELLY SULLIVAN "e;Hey neighbor! Have a 'Gansett!"e; That phrase equaled dollar signs for six German Americans in the late 19th century. The Narragansett Brewing Co. was founded in Cranston in 1890. Standing along New Depot Avenue, Cranston Street and

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Back in the Day

German brewers made lasting local impact

Posted

“Hey neighbor! Have a ’Gansett!”

That phrase equaled dollar signs for six German Americans in the late 19th century.

The Narragansett Brewing Co. was founded in Cranston in 1890. Standing along New Depot Avenue, Cranston Street and Garfield Avenue, it would go on to become the largest producer of quality lager beer in New England.

Forty-three-year-old John Henry Fehlberg – a native of Cracow, Germany, according to his immigration papers – was president of the company. Arriving in the United States in 1872, he was naturalized in 1885, with two of his later partners in the brewing business acting as his witnesses. One was Augustus Borchandt and the other was Herman George Possner.

Possner, who was 36 at the time the company was founded, acted as its manager. Possessing a great deal of determination, he went on to found the Germania Club of Providence the following year to promote social, literary and scientific culture. With others, he also founded the Providence Dairy and the Narragansett Dairy and served as the president of the Sure-Lock Paperclip Co.

Possner’s success was evident in the elaborate home he had constructed on Narragansett Boulevard in Edgewood, known as Possner Castle.

The other three men involved in getting the Narragansett Brewing Co. off the ground were Jacob Wirth, George Gerhard and 46-year-old Constand Moeller. A resident of New Haven, Moeller later served as president of the company and went on to have his own mansion constructed, complete with a concert hall for his daughter Clara, who was an opera singer. When Moeller died, he left a $5 million estate which fueled bitter lawsuits.

The Narragansett Brewing Co. consisted of over two-dozen buildings, including a brewing house, ice plant, barn, blacksmith shop and a stable with 75 horses and nearly 50 delivery wagons. Twenty-five refrigerated train cars could be loaded just steps away at the railroad tracks.

In 1913, a new bottling building was erected on the grounds. Made of steel, brick and cement, it was completely fireproof and judged to be one of the most modern and hygienic facilities of its kind in New England. Thousands upon thousands of barrels of high-quality lager beer were bottled there in Cranston over the years and put into the hands of a thirsty public.

In those early years of the Narragansett Brewing Co., there were over 50 brewers living and working in Rhode Island. One had come from Sweden and one had come from England. Three hailed from Austria and nine were born and bred Americans. Ten of those brewers came here from Ireland. The others, over 30 in total, were German.

As we look back over the long history of Narragansett Brewing, which now operates out of Providence, we can see what those six men must have realized back in 1890 – when it came to beer, Germans knew what they were doing. Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.

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