Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Sr. (February 4, 1847 – June 5, 1929) was a German American brewer who founded the
Adolph Coors Company in
Golden, Colorado
Golden is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 20,399 at the 2020 United States Censu ...
, in 1873.
Early years
Adolph Hermann Joseph Kuhrs was born in
Barmen
Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal.
Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...
in
Rhenish Prussia
The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It ...
on February 4, 1847, the son of Joseph Kuhrs (c. 1820–1862) and Helena Heim (c. 1820–1862). He was apprenticed at age thirteen to the book and stationery store of Andrea & Company in nearby
Ruhrort
Ruhrort () is a district in the borough of within the German city of Duisburg situated north of the confluence of the Ruhr and the Rhine, in the western part of the Ruhr area. Ruhrort has the largest river harbour in the World, with quays extendin ...
from November 1860 until June 1862. His mother died on April 2, 1862. The Kuhrs family moved to
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
,
Westphalia
Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants.
The territory of the regio ...
. In July 1862, Adolph was apprenticed for a three-year period at a
brewery
A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...
owned by Henry Wenker in Dortmund. He was charged a fee for his apprenticeship, so he worked as a bookkeeper to pay for it. His father died on November 24, 1862. Orphaned, Adolph completed his apprenticeship and continued to work as a paid employee at the Wenker Brewery until May 1867. He then worked at breweries in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, and
Uelzen
Uelzen (; officially the ''Hanseatic Town of Uelzen'', German: ''Hansestadt Uelzen'', , Low German ''Ülz’n'') is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a ...
in Germany.
Early in 1868, he came to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
as an undocumented stowaway. He remained ashamed of that action for the rest of his life, and decreed that his family should never speak about it. It wasn't until his son's death in 1970 that the family openly discussed the fact that the family patriarch had been a stowaway. He sailed from
Hamburg
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Hamburgian(s)
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to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and then moved to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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arriving on May 30, 1868. His name was changed from "Kuhrs" to "Coors". He worked in the spring as a laborer, and during the summer he worked as a
brewer
Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...
. In the fall and winter, he worked as a
fireman
A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...
, loading coal into the firebox of a steam engine. In the spring and summer of 1869, he worked as an apprentice
bricklayer
A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsman and tradesman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry. ...
and a stone cutter. He became foreman of John Stenger's brewery on August 11, 1869, in
Naperville, Illinois
Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city.
Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was ...
, about 35 miles west of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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.
He resigned from Stenger's brewery on January 22, 1872, and moved to
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, arriving in April. He worked in Denver as a gardener for a month, and on May 1, 1872, he purchased a partnership in the bottling firm of John Staderman. In the same year, he bought and assumed control of the entire business.
Golden Brewery
On November 14, 1873, Coors and the Denver confectioner Jacob Schueler purchased the abandoned Golden City Tannery and converted it to the Golden Brewery. By February 1874, they were producing beer for sale. In 1880, Coors purchased Schueler's interest, and the brewery was renamed Adolph Coors Golden Brewery.
When
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
began in Colorado in 1916, he converted his brewery to make
malted milk
Malted milk or malt powder is a powdered gruel made from a mixture of malted barley, wheat flour, and evaporated whole milk powder. The powder is used to add its distinctive flavor to beverages and other foods, but it is also used in baking ...
. The company also manufactured porcelain and ceramic products made from clay mined in Golden. The Coors Porcelain division has since split off and is now known as
CoorsTek
CoorsTek, Inc. is a privately owned manufacturer of technical ceramics for aerospace, automotive, chemical, electronics, medical, metallurgical, oil and gas, semiconductor and many other industries. CoorsTek headquarters and primary factories a ...
.
Marriage and family
Immediate family
On April 12, 1879, Adolph Coors married Louisa Webber, the daughter of the superintendent of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad maintenance shops. They were married at the Coors home on the brewery grounds. Adolph and Louisa raised three sons and three daughters to adulthood, with two children dying in infancy. Louise was born on March 2, 1880, and was nicknamed Lulu among her many friends. Their second child was Augusta, born in 1881, and known by her nickname of Gussie. The fifth born and third surviving child was
Adolph Coors Jr., on January 12, 1884. Bertha Coors was born on June 24, 1886, and Grover C. Coors was born in 1888. The last addition to the family, Herman Frederick Coors, was born on July 24, 1890, while the family was on vacation in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
.
All of the daughters attended the
Wolcott School for Girls in Denver. Louise married Henry F. Kugeler at the Coors Mansion, and Augusta married Herbert E. Collbran there on October 5, 1905. At the time, ''Transcript'' editor George West wrote, "Miss Coors is a native Golden girl and proud of it. She is pretty and talented, and by her universally pleasant and courteous demeanor has endeared herself to all the people of her native town." She and her husband moved to
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
, where his father was the nation's transportation adviser. Herbert Collbran held an important position with the government railways. It is possible that the international shipping of Coors beer, beginning in Korea in 1908, was related to the family's presence there.
Adolph Jr., Grover and Herman all graduated from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, and returned to Denver to take positions in the family operations. Adolph Jr. was married to Alice May Kistler at the Kistler home, and the family lived in Denver. Grover married Gertrude at the Coors Mansion. Bertha, who became an accomplished equestrienne and
safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
hunter, married Harold S. Munroe on January 8, 1911, at the Coors Mansion. They moved to
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
where Harold worked in gold mining operations. Herman Coors married Doreathea Clara Morse on May 25, 1916, in
Tompkins, New York
Tompkins is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 1,247 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Daniel D. Tompkins, the fourth governor of New York and sixth vice president of the United States.
The town is ...
. Herman Coors married Janet Ferrin and remained in Golden, working in the family porcelain factory. In 1926, he moved to
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...
, where he established the
H.F. Coors China Company.
Siblings
Adolph Coors is known to have had at least two siblings, a sister and a younger brother, William Kuhrs, who was born in
Dortmund, Germany
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
in 1849. William followed his brother to America in 1870 and took the same respelling of the family name. He made his way to Chicago where he made a good living as a cabinet maker and arrived in Golden by the mid-1870s. He took a good position of employment at his brother's brewery, in which employ he remained for the rest of his life. Following further in his brother's footsteps, William married Louisa's sister Mary in 1881, and ten years later moved to
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
where he had charge of the Coors interests in that city. The couple had three daughters, two of whom were Mattie and Helena. William Coors died on December 30, 1923, and is buried at the Golden Cemetery. Upon his death the ''
Colorado Transcript'' described him as "a genial, accommodating man, and had many friends in Golden, Denver and elsewhere." His oldest daughter married William J. Gilbert and the second married Charles Nitschke.
Death
On June 5, 1929, Adolph Coors fell or allegedly committed suicide by leaping from the sixth-floor window of the
Cavalier Hotel
The Cavalier Hotel is a historic hotel building at 4200 Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The seven-story building was designed by Neff and Thompson with a Y-shaped floor plan and was completed in 1927. Most of its hotel rooms feature ...
in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
See also
*
Eberhard Anheuser
Eberhard Anheuser (27 September 1806–May 1880) was a German American soap and candle maker, as well as the father-in-law of Adolphus Busch, the founder of the Anheuser-Busch Company.
Anheuser grew up in Kreuznach, where his parents operated ...
*
Jacob Best
Jacob Best Sr. (1786 – 1861) was a German-American brewer who founded what would later become known as the Pabst Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Life and career
Best was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, where he learned the trade and ran a s ...
*
Valentin Blatz
Valentin Blatz (October 1, 1826 – May 26, 1894) was a German-American brewer and banker.
Biography
Valentin Blatz was born in Miltenberg, Bavaria, and worked at his father's brewery in his youth. In August 1848, he immigrated to America, a ...
*
Adolphus Busch
Adolphus Busch (10 July 1839 – 10 October 1913) was the German-born co-founder of Anheuser-Busch with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser. He introduced numerous innovations, building the success of the company in the late 19th and early ...
*
August Anheuser Busch Sr.
August Anheuser Busch Sr. (December 29, 1865 – February 10, 1934) was an American brewing magnate who served as the President and Chief executive officer, CEO of Anheuser-Busch, based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1913 to 1934. It became the wo ...
*
Adolph Coors III
Adolph Coors III (January 12, 1915 – February 9, 1960) was the grandson of Adolph Coors and heir to the Coors Brewing Company empire.
Life and career
Coors was born on January 12, 1915, the son of Alice May (née Kistler; 1885–1970) and Adol ...
*
Pete Coors
Peter Hanson Coors (born September 20, 1946) is an American businessman and politician. He formerly served as the chairman of the Molson Coors Brewing Company and chairman of MillerCoors.
Coors was the Republican party nominee in the 2004 United S ...
*
Gottlieb Heileman
Johann Gottlieb Heileman (January 6, 1824 in Kirchheim unter Teck, Württemberg – February 19, 1878 in La Crosse, Wisconsin) was the founder of the G. Heileman Brewing Company in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Heileman founded the brewery in 1858. ...
*
Frederick Miller
Frederick Edward John Miller (November 24, 1824 – May 11, 1888) was a brewery owner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born as ''Friedrich Eduard Johannes Müller'' in Riedlingen, Württemberg, he founded the Miller Brewing Company at the Plank Road Br ...
*
Frederick Pabst
Johann Gottlieb Friedrich "Frederick" Pabst (March 28, 1836 – January 1, 1904) was a German-American brewer for whom the Pabst Brewing Company was named.
Biography
Early life
Pabst was born on March 28, 1836, in the village of Nikolausrieth ...
*
Joseph Schlitz
Joseph Schlitz (May 15, 1831 – May 7, 1875) was a German-American entrepreneur who made his fortune in the brewing industry.
Early life
Joseph Schlitz was born on May 15, 1831 in Mainz, Hesse-Darmstadt. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1850.
Care ...
*
August Uihlein
August Uihlein (1842–1911) was a German-American brewer, business executive and horse breeder.
Early life
August Uihlein was born Georg Karl August Ühlein in 1842 in Wertheim am Main, Grand Duchy of Baden, which is now in Germany. He had a bro ...
References
Further reading
* Banham, Russ. ''Coors: A Rocky Mountain Legend'' (1998).
* Baron, Stanley. ''Brewed in America''
* Baum, Dan. '' Citizen Coors: A Grand Family Saga of Business, Politics, and Beer'' (2001).
* Bellant, Russ. ''Coors Connection: How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism'' (1990).
* Dansky, Eli. "Coors, Adolph" ''American National Biography'' (2003
online* Downard, William L. ''Dictionary of the History of the American Brewing and Distilling Industries'' (1980).
* Kostka, William. '' The Pre-Prohibition History of Adolph Coors Company 1873–1933'' (1973)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coors, Adolph
Coors family
1847 births
1929 deaths
German emigrants to the United States
American drink industry businesspeople
People from the Denver metropolitan area
People from Golden, Colorado
American brewers
Deaths from falls