Adolphus Busch
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Colonel Adolphus Busch (July 10, 1839 – October 10, 1913) was the cofounder of Anheuser-Busch with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser.
He was born in 1839 in Kastel, Germany (now Mainz-Kastel, Wiesbaden, Germany). He was one of twenty one siblings. The family worked in winery and brewery supplies. He attended the Collegiate Institute of Belgium, and left his home in 1857 with three of his brothers for St. Louis, Missouri. His first job in St. Louis was working as a clerk in the commission house.
He married Lilly Eberhard Anheuser on March 7, 1861 in St. Louis. Lilly was the daughter of Eberhard Anheuser (1805-1880). They had the following children: Adolphus Busch II; August Anheuser Busch I; Carl Busch; and five daughters.
During the US Civil War he served in the US Army for 14 months. It was at this time that he learned that his father had died and that he had inherited a portion of his father's estate. He used the money to start a wholesale brewer's supply store, and four years later he bought a share in the Bavarian brewery from Eberhard Anheuser, his father-in-law. The company was first called Anheuser and Company, but at the death of Eberhard Anheuser in 1880, it was changed to Anheuser Busch Company
He envisioned a national beer with universal appeal. Toward this end, he created a network of rail-side ice-houses and launched the industry’s first fleet of refrigerated freight cars. Success came when Adolphus found a method to pasteurize the beer so it kept fresh. The beer could now be shipped all over the country. He was also an early adopter of bottled beer. In 1891 sales surpassed the one million barrels of beer benchmark.
In 1912, Busch constructed the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas, then the tallest building in the state.
He died in 1913 while on vacation in Langenschwalbach, Germany (now Bad Schwalbach, Germany). He had been suffering from dropsy since 1906. His body was brought back in 1915 by ship to the United States and then a train to St. Louis and he was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.
[edit] Legacy
The Adolphus Busch is also an intentionally sunk ship off of the middle Florida Keys. This is a marine habitat and popular dive site.
[edit] References
- New York Times; October 11, 1913; Adolphus Busch Dies in Prussia; St. Louis's Millionaire Brewer Suffered from Dropsy for Seven Years. Langenschwalbach, Prussia, October 10, 1913. Adolphus Busch, the St. Louis brewer, died here today. Mr. Busch had been a sufferer from dropsy for seven years, but when his son, August A., left here a few weeks ago to join him at his castle on the Rhine, he did ...
- New York Times; October 26, 1913; Adolphus Busch Buried. 25 Truck Loads of Flowers, Valued at $100,000, Sent as Tributes. St. Louis, Missouri; October 25, 1913. After a remarkable tribute from friends all over the United States and abroad, and from thousands of his brewery employees, the body of Adolphus Busch was laid in its last resting place in Bellefontaine Cemetery this afternoon. ...
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