# Another find from yesterday



## CALDIGR2 (Apr 21, 2012)

A friend had called me about this Ruhstaller ice box handle and I told him that I would take it. It has Capt. Frank Ruhstaller's head and an "R" on the bottom. These are quite rare and usually sell for around $400, but this was a 10th of that. Just as cruddy as it was used, it'll stay as-is. No polishing the aged patina and greasy hand prints off.


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## epackage (Apr 21, 2012)

Nice find, did you let him know the value after the sale...[]


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## surfaceone (Apr 21, 2012)

Hey Mike,

 Great piece, sir.

 Here's a brief history of Captain Frank Ruhstaller.






From the New Micro-Brew.

 Have you dug the old Ruhstaller Home?

 "One name that rose above many others was that of Frank Ruhstaller, a Swiss immigrant who rose to prominence as the founder of City Brewery and Ruhstaller Brewery. Ruhstaller was smart and ambitious, and his brewery operations were ahead of their time.

 He passed on those skills to a son, Frank Jr., who began his apprenticeship at age 15 and eventually took control of the Buffalo Brewery, which was started by Herman Grau in 1890.

 "On paper," Carroll, writes, "this company represents the pinnacle of German capitalist achievement in Sacramento and, on a larger scale, the entire state."

 The brewery used hops grown in Yolo County and water from the Sacramento River. Under the young and dynamic Frank Ruhstaller Jr., the company grew to be the largest brewery in the West, and it shipped its beer internationally.

 The contributions of Ruhstaller senior and junior were destined to go largely unheralded by today's bar crowd â€“ until a young businessman, J-E Paino, got the idea to pay tribute to their legacy." Sac-Bee.

 Have you tried to dig the cannon? Has it ever been found?


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## surfaceone (Apr 21, 2012)




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## surfaceone (Apr 21, 2012)

"First Sports Team

 Despite the fact that country was in a recession at the time â€“ or maybe because of it â€“ Sacramentoâ€™s first and second professional sports teams were formed within a few months of each other in 1886. 125 years ago on June 26, The Capitol City Wheelman bicycling team was formed. They held races at Agricultural Park between B & G and 20th &22nd and also competed in Stockton and San Jose. They were a politically active group whose main focus was road improvements. When pavement came to town, 105 cyclists (20% of the estimated riders at the time) rode around downtown carrying lanterns in celebration. They however, were not Sacramentoâ€™s first sports team.  That honor belongs to the Sacramento Gilt Edge Base Ball (two words back then) Team, who had begun playing games a few months earlier that spring. They were sponsored by Ruhstaller Brewery and named after Gilt Edge Beer. They played also played at Agricultural Park until the games moved to Snowflake Park (between S and R, 28th and 30th) which was named after a whiskey. Drinking and bball what a nice way to spend a hot Sacramento night! Especially if the home team is winning and they did -  the Gilt Edge were California league champs in 1898, â€™99 and 1900." From.


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## CALDIGR2 (Apr 21, 2012)

Ruhstaller was not the founder of the City Brewery, my great great grandfather, William Borchers and his partners Benedict Hilbert and Charles Schwartz were. They responsible for the success of the City Brewery. It opened in 1856 and was a successful keg and bucket operation. Hilbert died in 1866, leaving Borchers and Schwartz as sole owners. Schwartz retired from the business in 1878, leaving William Borchers as the sole owner and proprietor. Frank Ruhstaller was an employee of the City Brewery and and Borchers elected to sell the very successful operation to Ruhstaller in 1881. W.F. Borchers was killed in a hunting accident in 1887, but his wife, Bridget, lived in Sacramento until 1911, when she passed of flu. My great aunt Lois, born in 1891, regaled us with stories of "Gramma Borchers" and her home on H St. I have some great photos of her and her husband in our family album.

 Be careful what you read in so called "history books". Many are contrived and bent toward the prejudices of the authors.


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## surfaceone (Apr 21, 2012)

Hey Mike,

 Sorry to have passed on this particular bit of hoo-ha:

 "One name that rose above many others was that of Frank Ruhstaller, a Swiss immigrant who rose to prominence as the founder of City Brewery and Ruhstaller Brewery." that was courtesy of the Ed Carroll / Sacramento Bee Article by Blair Anthony Robertson.

 Good to hear the history from kin.




From.


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## CALDIGR2 (Apr 22, 2012)

> ORIGINAL:  surfaceone
> 
> Hey Mike,
> 
> ...


  I had to correct Ed and he later completed a book on Sacramento Breweries that is rather well researched and complete. I do not have much Ruhstaller stuff, but have retained a bunch of Sacramento beer and liquor advertising. One piece in particular is unique and the only piece remaining, other than two beer glasses, from the Pacific Brewery. Pacific operated as a keg only brewery from 1858 to about 1897.


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## surfaceone (Apr 22, 2012)

Hey Mike,

 Thanks for showing the Pacific bathing Beauties. Is that a heavy card portion of a calendar? I remember you showing the occasional piece of very significant Sacramento breweriana. I always appreciate seeing those. Thanks


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## CALDIGR2 (Apr 22, 2012)

> ORIGINAL:  surfaceone
> 
> Hey Mike,
> 
> Thanks for showing the Pacific bathing Beauties. Is that a heavy card portion of a calendar? I remember you showing the occasional piece of very significant Sacramento breweriana. I always appreciate seeing those. Thanks


 It is most likely a calendar and complete with top and bottom tin pieces. I can see no staple holes for a calendar, so it may have been just a advertisement for the brewery. The is a "509 O'Farrell" and '89 beneath it. It probably indicated the address of the maker and the date of the piece. I owned one of those topless Indian maiden riding the buffalo pieces a while back but traded it to a friend. Here is another fine Buffalo Brewing calendar for 1902, the Gypsy Girl. The calendar is perfect, it's the reflection of the flash that contorted it.


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## surfaceone (Apr 22, 2012)

> Here is another fine Buffalo Brewing calendar for 1902


 
 Man, Mike,

 She is a beauty! You gotta get up close and study those dates. [8D]

 I went looking after that 509 O'Farrell, and havent got very far, yet. Did find a couple interesting listings. Check 1st & last:

 "Buffalo Brewing Co , 521 Fifteenth 



 California Brewery, S s Douglass bet 
 Seventeenth and Eighteenth 

 Chicago Brewing Co., 1420 Pine 

 Enterprise Brewing Co., 2019 Folsom 

 Fredericksburg (San Jose, Cal.) office 
 403 Market 

 Hagemann Brewing Co. (Albany 
 Brewery) 71 Everett 

 Haves Valley, 512 Grove 

 Hihernia, Matthew Nunan, 1225-1229 
 Howard 

 Hofberg Brewery, 403 Market 

 Jackson, W. A trederick & Co., 1428 
 Mission 

 Jones, Mundey & Co. (Anheuser- 
 Busch, St. Louis and Val. Blatz 
 Milwaukee Beers) 16 Front 

 Lux F. A., 1431 Pacific 

 Milwaukee, Lumiann & Garmes, W s 
 Tenth bet Harrison and Bryant 

 National Brewing Co., SE cor Fulton 
 and Webster 

 North Beach, Joseph Schwarz, NE 
 cor Powell and Chestnut 

 Oakland, office 403 Market 

 Pacific, 403 Market " Langley's Directory 1895.

 Wouldn't you like to get under 509 Ofarrell?


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