Hometown Breweries and Breweriana - Aurora, Indiana (Part 1 - Crescent Brewing Company)

As noted in an earlier post, I started collecting beer cans at age 11 in my hometown of Aurora, Indiana - back in 1975.  Aurora is an old Ohio River town just about 40 minutes west and down river of Cincinnati, OH.  Although distilling of whiskey was a major industry in SE Indiana, brewing beer in Aurora included just one historical brewery until 2008, when a very small microbrewery began brewing beer in the historic downtown area. 

In the mid 1860s, an Aurora businessman named Thomas Gaff and his brother James decided that a brewery would be a profitable addition to his shipping and distilling empire.  Thus was born Aurora's first brewery--the Aurora Brewing and Malting Company - located on the Ohio River at the bottom of Market Street.  By 1874, the brewery had expanded into a six-story stone and brick building that stretched for 300 ft along Market Street and changed its name to the T & J.W. Gaff Company.  Because of the steep hillside along the river, the entrance to the main offices on Market Street was actually the third floor.  The brewery's primary product was "Aurora Lager Beer" (later shortened to simply "Aurora Beer")

In 1877, Thomas Gaff retired to his mansion "Hillforest" and the brewery reorganized as the Crescent Brewing Company with James W. Gaff as President.  For the next 16 years, even though James Gaff passed away in 1879, the brewery did well and expanded its markets --especially into the southern states of North Carolina and Georgia.  The brewery plant was upgraded with a large engine room, ice-making machines and ice storage rooms, as well as rock-lined cellars for lagering (fermenting at cold temperatures) the beer.  



A postal envelope showing a "factory scene" from the early 1880s.  Although
these printed images often bear no resemblence to reality, the brewery building
is more or less accurate on this one. 

 
In the late 1880s, the brewery attracted the attention of a British brewing syndicate headed by the famous Watney of London brewery and Crescent was bought by the syndicate and merged with the Jung Brewing Co of Cincinnati.  While the sale was great timing for the original owners, the British syndicate soon ran into the fierce Cincinnati brewery competition (Christian Moerlein, Windisch-Mulhauser, and Hauck were much larger operations), just as the U.S. prohibition movement was gaining ground.  Losing money, the syndicate closed the Crescent brewery in 1893, and moved all of their brewing operations to Cincinnati. 



Crescent Brewing Co letterhead from the early 1890s showing a highly
stylized factory scene typical of that era.  (Photo from John Ullrich, long-time
photographer in Aurora)

  The Crescent brewery plant remained empty for at least two decades, and was reportedly reduced to a ruined shell by a fire just before World War I.  The brick walls were torn down, leaving nothing but two partial lagering cellars extending into the hillside under Market Street and a few fragments of brick wall along the steep hillside.  The cellar tunnels can still be seen across the street from the parking lot at Lesko Park.

Over the 27-year history of the Gaff - Crescent brewery, but particularly during the golden years of the 1880s, the brand "Aurora Beer" was promoted with some eye-catching signs and humorous advertising.  One of these signs is on display at the Thomas Gaff mansion "Hill Forest" located in Aurora.  Another beautiful lithographic sign is known to exist in a private collection.  Other promotional items of the era included "Aurora Beer" pocket mirrors and playing cards.  The Gaff family also had a captive audience for selling some of their beer -- the Gaff riverboats that plied the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.  The same boats also carried cases of Aurora beer to New Orleans, where it was sent abroad on the high seas for the enjoyment of passengers on the fast clipper ships of the era.  



A collection of humorous trade cards for Aurora Beer.  These likely date to the early 1890s.  Trade cards were often handed out by salesman.  Some were the backs of playing cards (a perfect item for a firm tied into the steamboat business and riverboat gamblers!!).  The cards above were actually found tossed out in a dump in Aurora in the 1970s and aquired later by photographer John Ullrich.



A 2" diameter pocket mirror with a tout for a Aurora Beer on
the back.  I guess the thought was that men would notice the
ad when their lady friends decided to do a little primping!!

Although the Crescent Brewing Company was a relatively large brewery and sent its products far abroad, bottles from the brewery are relatively scarce.  Like many breweries of the 1880s and 1890s, the Crescent brewery used "blob-top" cork stopper capped bottles.  At least two sizes (12 oz and approximately 24 oz) with a simple embossed slug plate label are known.  The 24-oz bottle pictured below dates from the later 1880s or early 1890s.  While the bottle is not in the greatest shape, the story behind the bottle tells a lot about the reach of the Gaff family shipping empire--this bottle was found in 1999 buried in an 1890s vintage trash dump in Brisbane, Australia!  The gentleman who dug the bottle believed it got to Australia aboard an American ship that sailed out of the Port of New Orleans, and likely carrying passengers to Australia during a gold rush in the early 1890s.  Quite a journey for a bottle of beer that was filled in Aurora, Indiana.





Time to call it a night and have a cold one.  Tonights brew is a very special one--the first ever canned beer from Aurora, IN.--a Great Crescent Coconut Porter.  That story will be Part 2 of this blog!  CHEERS!