University Place

cc >> Well, good afternoon and welcome to History Sandwiched In. Today we have an excellent presentation, I'd like to introduce our speakers. Gary Hess, born and raised in Madison, the grandson of Frank J. Hess, son of Joe Hess, cousin to Jim Hess. A board member of historic Blooming Grove Historical Society. Gary's cooperage collection was in a box in his basement for 35 years until he donated it to the Dean House. Now Jim Hess was also born and raised in Madison, the grandson again of Frank J. Hess, son of Tony Hess, though, and cousin to Gary Hess. And Jim's cooperage was in a wood chest in his basement and now his collection is at the Dean House as well. Now, Frank J. Hess and Sons Cooperage was the Wisconsin's largest independent cooperage. When it was closed in 1966 it was the last cooperage in America that manufactured white oak beer kegs. Now Gary and Jim ask that you save your questions until after the presentation but right now please welcome Gary and Jim Hess.

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>> Well, thank you. My name is Gary Hess and I live in Madison. Before I go any further, I want to introduce to everyone my friend and first cousin, Jim Hess of Madison. Jim and I are grandsons and on the screen is a 1947 photo of our grandfather Frank J. Hess who was born in southern Bohemia. Jim and I will answer all of your questions after our presentation. At this time we would like to thank Beth Lemke for giving us this opportunity to give our Frank J. Hess and Sons Cooperage PowerPoint presentation to the Wisconsin Historical Museum. We are delighted to be here today. So far we have given 30 of these presentations, every one is free. Yours is number 31. We do these presentations to honor our grandfather and his four surviving sons who built their factory up to be Wisconsin's largest independent cooperage. Another reason why we do these presentations is in 1966 when the factory closed it was the last cooperage in America that manufactured white oak beer kegs for the breweries. And this was the end of an American industry. And this was our grandfather's factory which sat in Madison on Schenk's Corners. A little bit about your handouts that you all have. We'll be talking about your handouts about a third of the way through the presentation and at the very end. This is our grandfather right here in a 1947 photo, Frank J. Hess, Sr. And he was a cooper and he was born in southern Bohemia. I was in Bohemia for 10 days in May of 2007. And while I was there I had fun learning some of the Bohemian language. For example, good morning is...

SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Good afternoon is...

SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Good night is...

SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Hi, how are you is...

SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

I am fine is...

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Goodbye, have a nice day is...

SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Jim is going to help me here. Jim is holding up a glass and I'm holding up a bottle, a beer bottle. Beer is...

SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

In America when we clang glasses we say cheers. But in Bohemia when they clang glasses they say...

SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

We'll do that one more time. In Bohemia when they clang glasses they say...

SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

That's right. Now Jim is now going to hold up the pony keg because we're going to identify parts of a barrel. Everyone look at Jim. The vertical wood parts are called staves. The top of the barrel is called a top head. And the bottom of the barrel is called a bottom head. And the barrel is held together with four hoops. And each hoop has two rivets on it for a total of eight rivets. And the hoop is held in place by a hoop fastener. And the widest stave is where the bung-bushing is installed. Today, you'll be looking at 1947, 1949 and 1954 and 1966 photos. This is a 1947 photo right here of our grandfather Frank J. Hess, Sr. Behind him are four stacks of top heads and bottom heads. At our grandfather's factory they manufactured four different sizes of barrels. A full barrel held 41-gallons of beer, wine or whiskey. The popular one-half white oak beer keg on the bottom here held 15 and a half gallons and a quarter barrel held half of that and a pony keg held four gallons. On the floor here to the left is a top head with a cooling coil attached to it. Thank you for inviting us today. Our grandfather Frank J. Hess, Sr., was born in -- Bohemia; a small village 80 miles south of Prague on April 10, 1870. At age 14 he wanted to learn the cooperage trade, a cooper makes barrels or kegs, so he served a three-year apprenticeship at the Pilsner Brewery in Pilsen, Bohemia. After three years he was a journeyman cooper. He worked two years at a large brewery in Vienna as a cooper. At age 19 he immigrated to America by ship and by train to Chicago. He worked at Chicago's Westside Brewery as a cooper. In Prairie du Chien he met and married Anna --. Both of Anna's parents, Martin and Theresa, were born in Bohemia. In 1895 Frank and Anna's first son James was born. James died in 1920 of tuberculosis. In 1896 they moved to Prairie du Chien. Frank worked as a cooper, manufacturing beer kegs for the Heileman Brewery of La Crosse and the Silversmith Brewery of Prairie du Chien. Their children, Josephine born in 1898, in this photo right here. Now I'm going to remain silent so some of you may want to read this text. Joe 1900, Charles 1902, Tony 1903 and Frank, Jr. or Foots 1906, were born. Charles died in 1944 of Hodgkin's disease. This is a 1947 photo and I'm going to identify the people from left to right. Here is my uncles Eddie, Tony, our grandfather, Joe and Frank, Jr., or Foots. The reason this guy was called Foots is, because of the four surviving sons, Foots had the largest feet.

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So that's why he was called Foots. On Fridays when he would get his pay check he would go across the street to the Security State Bank and he'd sign his check Foots on the back and he'd get his money.

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True story. Absolutely true story. Then in 1904 Henry Fauerbach of the Fauerbach Brewery in Madison persuaded our grandfather, Frank J. Hess, Sr., to move to Madison to start an independent cooperage business. From left to right here is Karl Fauerbach, my grandfather, our grandfather Frank J. Hess Sr. and Don Hughsby by who was the Fauerbach controller. My good friend Peter Fauerbach of Madison is a grandson of Karl and Karl's uncle was Henry Fauerbach. Frank and Anna's last son Edward was born in Madison in 1908. The Frank J. Hess and Sons coopers business address was 1952 Atwood Avenue at Schenk's Corners. This is a drawing that I made of the Schenk's Corners area and from bottom to top is Winnebago Street, Atwood Avenue, the railroad tracks, Main Street, to the left is First Street, to the right is Second Street. This building right here was built in 1894 and became the Schenk's Department Store. In the 1950s the same building was the Schenk's Heigl Department Store and the Rennebohm Drug Store. Currently it's the Schenk's Heigl and the Anchor Bank. For decades this building was a Security State Bank and currently it's the Chase Bank. In 1966 there were eight buildings along through here and today there's only two buildings there. These two buildings are no longer there, however, our grandfather built both of those buildings. This is a the Hess house, and this is where they lived. And this is the Trophy Tavern owned and operated by Joe, of Madison. These two buildings here are their factory buildings, and this is the west building, and here's a little sawmill behind the west building, and this is the east building. In the east building, which is that one, and that's where the setup room was and the steam room and where new barrels are made. The west building, that one, is where the finishing room was and where all the repair work was done. In the finishing room is where all four finishing hoops were installed on all of the white oak barrels and the bung-bushing was installed into the widest stave and it's also the building where all the repair work was done which is half of their business. In those years it was common to have the house on the same property as the factory and it was also common to have the sons work in the factory that their father had built. The rounds and squares up here. The rounds are stacks of heading pieces that were stored outside for a year to season, and the squares are staves stored outside for a year to season. This is a 1927 photo showing the Schenk's Corners area. Our grandfather built both of these buildings. This is the Hess house where they lived. And this is the Trophy Tavern owned and operated by Joe, of Madison. During prohibition, which started in 1920 and ended in 1933, business at our grandfather's factory was slow mostly manufacturing barrels for the dairy industry. So Foots and Eddie worked at the Hess Grocery Market. Eddie was the delivery boy. This is the Hess Grocery Market. And Foots is the one with his hands on his hips. And this is Eddie and he's the younger brother and he's ready to drive this vehicle away to deliver all the groceries to all the customers. When prohibition ended in 1933 all four brothers worked at our grandfather's cooperage factory for the next 33 years. This building here became Larkin's Hardware in the mid-1940s and remained Larkin's Hardware for the next 25 years. Now Jim is going to explain more about the Schenk's Corners area including what happened on Friday nights on the front steps of the Hess house. >> Schenk's Corners when I was a boy was a very popular shopping area, very populated and busy. The main shopping, of course, was up town here around the square and around the capitol. And stores didn't stay open like they do now. On the square stores stayed open

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00 o'clock on Monday nights and Thursday nights. But on Friday nights they stayed

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00 o'clock on Schenk's Corners. And my father and I would sit on the front porch of the homestead there in the middle and watch the people go by doing their banking and their shopping and just having an all around good time. And on a hot summer day that's what we did. We didn't have air conditioning or TV. >> All right, thank you Jim. Here's an early photo of a wagon with 37 empty beer kegs on it pulled by two horses. And here you look at this horse right here and you see a sign which is hanging from the side of this horse and this sign reads Fauerbach. We know that Peter's grandfather's uncle Henry persuaded our grandfather to move to Madison to start an independent cooperage business in 1904. It is likely that these beer kegs were made at our grandfather's cooperage factory for Peter's grandfather's brewery. The building in the background is still standing today. It is at the corner of Blount Street and the bike path. This building, for over five decades, was the home of the International Harvester Company of America. It was built in 1898 with an addition added on in 1910. And this photo shows the addition. On January 17, 2008, this building appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal. The current owner applied for a spot on the National Register for Historic Places which means that this building will never be torn down, it's in very good condition. This is very good news for all historians. Inside are offices so this building can pay for itself. And this is the Fauerbach Brewery. In addition to manufacturing and repairing beer kegs for the Fauerbach Brewery, they provided barrels for the Hausmann Brewery located, at the time, at the corner of State and Gorham streets. And this is a Hausmann quarter barrel that was manufactured at our grandfather's factory for the Hausmann Brewery. The Breckheimer Brewery on Kings Street, two blocks from the square, and the Brunkow and Mueller Brewery at Pheasant Branch just outside of Middleton. Soon they were providing beer kegs for the Potosi Brewery in Potosi. And here is an early photo of the Potosi Brewery in Potosi and if you look at this wagon pulled by two horses and then look at the wagon itself, you'll see a name which reads Potosi. Now Jim is going to tell you more about the Potosi Brewery in Potosi. >> When I was going to school I worked at the cooperage in the summertime. And one summer my father and my uncles came to Potosi Brewery and bought all their wooden beer barrels, put them on a train dock and shipped them back to Madison to be repaired or made into cooler kegs. We also did this at the Mineral Point Brewery and Superior Brewery at that time. You might say we were the first recyclers. But Potosi Brewery now is the National Museum for Breweries, and it's won out over Milwaukee and St. Louis. >> And we all know that St. Louis is a large city. We all know that Milwaukee is a large city. But Potosi, Wisconsin, the population is between 700 and 800 people and they have the national museum. Stork Brewery in Slinger and the Rhinelander Brewery, also they provided beer kegs for breweries in Portage, Baraboo, Sauk City, Columbus, Jefferson, Watertown, Wausau, Janesville, Duluth and Monroe. As business grew they shipped barrels to breweries out of state like the Star Brewery in Sioux City, Iowa, the West End Brewery in Utica, New York, and the Hamm's Brewery in Baltimore, Maryland. All four surviving brothers, Joe, Tony, Foots and Eddie, worked with their father, Frank J. Hess Sr., in Madison. Josephine, the only daughter in the family, was the secretary and did all the bookwork for the entire time the business existed. This is a 1954 photo which appears on the bottom of all your handouts. From left to right, in this 1954 photo, are my uncle Foots and he is holding a top head with a cooling coil attached to it. And here's Eddie and he's holding a top head with a cooling coil attached to it. And here's Joe and Tony and here's our grandfather. As I go along, you'll notice that both buildings have wooden floors with overhead shafts and pulleys and leather belts coming down through all the machinery. And very last and very important in this photo is this stack of female cattail leaves. Jim Hess is now holding vertically a stack of female cattail leaves that we brought along to this presentation. These cattail leaves shown here on the photo and what Jim held up were very important in the manufacture and assembly of all white oak barrels at our grandfather's factory. We'll be talking about where they were used and why they were used about halfway through the presentation. This is a 1947 photo showing our grandfather and his four sons. On the floor here is a one-half white oak beer keg completely assembled, and on top is a one-half white oak beer keg partially assembled showing a cooling coil attached to the top head. These cooling coils were installed into all of the one-half white oak beer kegs and then they were shipped to breweries on the east coast of the United States. And at those breweries they would fill this barrel full of beer and send them to all the taverns and saloons. And at that point, the tavern operator would install his beer tapper on top of the barrel, in this area right here, and then he would pump air into the barrel so the beer would not go flat and he would pump cold water into this aluminum tube, cold water would go around these coils and come up the other tube. Typically they were anywhere from one to three dozen of these filled one-half white oak beer kegs in the back rooms of all the taverns. All those barrels have beer in them and all the cooling coils have cold water in them to keep the beer cold for all the customers when they walk in the door. This man's name is Tony. That's Jim's dad. And he's holding a top head with a cooling coil attached to it. This man's name is Joe. That's my dad and he's holding a cooper's hammer. These next four photos-- Jim is now showing you the cooper's hammer. These next four photos I took myself in 1962 and here I am standing in the middle of the Security State Bank and I am facing east and what you're looking at is a side view of both buildings. This is actually the west building and you can see dozens and dozens of hoops piled up here is and this is the location of the sawmill. As you can see the east building is taller than the west building. In between both buildings is an alley. This is the east building and that's where the setup room was, the steam room and where new barrels were made. In the west building, which is that one, to the right, is the finishing room was and where all the repair work was done. In the finishing room, in this building to right, is where all four finishing hoops were installed on all the white oak barrels and the bung-bushing was installed into the widest stave. It's also where all of the repair work was done which was half of their business. This photo shows heading pieces stored outside for a year to season and here's some more hoops, dozens and dozens of hoops, stored outside. And now Jim is going to explain to you the significance of this ladder. >> Well, this looks like a ladder but it's not a ladder used vertically, it's a ladder used horizontally. And you put the right hand of the ladder in the door of the finishing room and the left hand on the barrel. And you can see the left hand has -- so that you can put another ladder attached to it on the barrel and into the train car and then those ladders would be fixed so you can roll the barrel from the finishing room into the train car or vice versa. >> All right, thank you. >> We'll see an example of this later on. >> Yes, we will. And here is a photo showing the round piles and these are heading pieces. And Jim is now going to show you a heading piece. And the square piles are staves. Now Jim is going to show you a straight stave. There we are, straight stave. This is our grandfather in this 1954 photo. The Hess coopers business was the largest independent cooperage in Wisconsin. In 1966 when the Frank J. Hess and Sons Coopers closed, it was the last operating cooperage manufacturing white oak beer kegs in the nation. As I mentioned, this is a 1954 photo and here's our grandfather working away in a factory that he created way back in 1904 and here he is 84 years old still working away in his factory. What he's doing here is removing cattail leaves. From the tops and bottoms are these brand new one-half white oak beer kegs and he's got a knife in his hand. On the floor is residue of cattail leaves on the floor. Jim is now holding up a short piece of a female cattail leaf. Here's our grandfather again and he's operating this cooper's lathe. And the one-half white oak beer keg is actually right here and is rotating in this direction. Over here there's a plane with a curved bottom to it and as you can see, it is removing white oak chips. This plane goes back and forth like so, while the barrel is rotating. It's hooked to a hook and goes back and forth on this bar. Right here, to the right, is a white tube and this is belt dressing that used to be used on the belts to prevent them from squeaking and slipping. And right here is a draw knife. Jim is now holding up a draw knife because this is my uncle Foots and he's using this draw knife to modify this stave. And once it's modified then he's going to assemble it into the barrel and send it back to the brewery where it came from. Both buildings were heated by free-standing stoves and the fuel was scrap white oak. And here's another draw knife right here. However, right here is a spokeshave. And Jim is now holding up a spokeshave. This is my dad and he's using the spokeshave to repair a quarter barrel for the Huber Brewery in Monroe. How do I know this barrel is for the Huber Brewery in Monroe? Well, we'll look at this quarter barrel again and then we'll focus in on the name on the top of the barrel and the name reads Monroe. So that barrel, once repaired, is going to go back to the Huber Brewery in Monroe. Now Jim is going to explain to everyone what Joseph Huber did every Thursday. >> After we got done working for four days making beer barrels we were pretty tired by Thursday afternoon. Friday was usually a clean-up day. So every Thursday afternoon the Huber Brewery truck would stop and drop off a case of Huber beer and everything stopped at that point.

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>> That's a true story. And here's some cooper's tools of the trade. Above the shelf is some saws and here are four round planes that used to be used on the tops and bottoms of all the barrels. Now Jim is going to demonstrate that. There we go. And below the shelf is another saw here, and here are different shapes and lengths of draw knives. One there and there and there and there and there, one there and one over there. These draw knives are different shapes, designs, some have two handles, some one handle. And here's a square and here's a divider. On top of the shelf is another stack of female cattail leaves. In 1966 when the Frank J. Hess and Sons Coopers closed it was the last operating coopers manufacturing white oak beer kegs in the nation. This is a 1966 photo and this is the very last brand new one-half barrel that was made at our grandfather's factory. This barrel turned out to be a wine keg and is still in Madison today. And here's a 1954 photo taken in the east building, and here's our grandfather working away with all four of his sons. Another example of the wooden floors and overhead with the pulleys and leather belts coming down with all the machinery. This photo shows the machinery that cut the staves at a proper length, width and thickness. And here's Jim's dad and here's my dad. And now Jim is now going to show you a straight stave. Very good. This is a truss hoop driver operated by my uncle Eddie. This truss hoop driver is this large machine right here which has these black arms on it and there's one over here and some more over there. The one-half white oak beer keg is actually sitting in the center here and it has four truss hoops attached to it. One, two, three and four. And these truss hoops were only used during the manufacturing process. And these fingers will pull each down really tight and I'll explain that a little bit more in detail later. Another view of the truss hoop driver is this view right here, followed by Foots and Tony, and here's some more truss hoops and here's another stack of female cattail leaves. I have three remaining cousins, Toby and Jimmy Hess of Madison who are sons of Tony, and we have with us today Jimmy. And Mary Hess of Brookfield who is the daughter of Charles. The Hess Cooperage used only white oak logs to manufacture barrels. Wisconsin white oak, which was plentiful and of good quality otherwise, is not suitable for use as staves because it is too brittle and cannot be bent without breaking. But it can be used to make the headings where bending is not necessary. White oak more supple logs for the staves were shipped at the Hess Brewery from sawmills in Missouri and Arkansas. We have three photos of the logging process, and here's our grandfather right here with his four sons and as you can see, there's a large white oak log here with a chainsaw they're going to make a slice here and another slice there and those pieces are going to taken over to their sawmill. Behind in the background are stacks of heading pieces and stacks of staves. All of the white oak logs were delivered to our grandfather's factory by railroad and by truck. Another one of my favorite photos is this one. As you can see, this is a large diameter white oak log. And three of the sons are pictured here. With a chainsaw they're going to slice the log here and slice the log here. Then they're going to tip this piece on end so it looks like that. Then they take steel wedges and they place these steel wedges all along through here and all along through here and they hit these steel wedges with sledgehammers until this large log splits into four equal pieces which looks like that. And Jim is showing you the steel wedges right now. From the point that this is a quarter of a log they go into the sawmill and each quarter of a log is sliced like this and sliced like that and that process is called quarter sawing. The Hess Cooperage had its own sawmill which was located behind the west building. The white oak logs were roughly quarter-sawed, which reduces wood shrinkage by half as much, into staves and heading pieces then stored outside for one year. At any one time there were many tall round stacks of heading pieces and many tall square stacks of staves. After the stacks of oak that were outside for a year they were seasoned and ready to use. We have four photos of the sawmill and the sawmill is this large structure here. This is our grandfather. This is Jim's dad. And this is my dad, and here's a quarter of a log. And here's another quarter of a log right here and a big saw blade that's going to be cutting this log. Another view of the sawmill from a little different angle shows our grandfather and more quarter of logs here in this area. This photo shows a large electric motor driving this 54-inch carbide tipped saw blade. And as you can see there's a quarter of a log sitting on end right here. I'm showing that. And this large saw blade is currently cutting this, or quarter-sawing, this log into heading pieces and staves. And you can see the saw dust coming out here. And here's our grandfather and here's Jim's dad and he is currently filling this wagon with heading pieces. And if you look closely you can see that he's just released a heading piece. Jim is showing that right now. And it's going to land in this wagon. Once this wagon is completely filled then they're going to wheel it up to this area right here. And here's our grandfather. Now they're going to unload this wagon, and they're going to make this stack of heading pieces this tall and they're going to make this stack of heading pieces this tall so that all three stacks of heading pieces were this tall. All of this, this tall. Now Jim is going to explain to you how they made these heading pieces this tall without the use of forklift trucks and without the use of ladders. >> The heading stacks started on the ground and there were three circles, and outer circle, a middle circle and an inner circle. They went around until it would get so high and they couldn't reach it anymore. Then Eddie and Foots would go on top of the stack and my dad and Gary's dad would be down low and this is how they got the heading pieces to the top of the stack.

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They threw them up. When the stack got as high as it did right there, and then he climbed down the outside by the ladder. >> Now what would OSHA think in 1954 when this photo was taken, when they see our uncles climbing down like that? Wouldn't they have a fit? And here's another view of heading pieces and staves stored outside for a year to season. All this white oak is gone today. This vehicle is gone today. This building is gone today but yes, you are correct, the railroad tracks, they are still there.

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In the summer of 2005, I was invited to the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison. While I was there we discussed the Hess Cooperage and they gave me two documents to take home with me. This document shows and describes why white oak was used to manufacture barrels. And I'm going to read out loud from the middle of this paragraph all the way to the end and you can follow along if you like. White oak. Hardwood pores are usually plugged with tylosis which tend to make the wood impenetrable by liquids. Consequently, most white oaks are suitable for tight cooperage. Many hardwood pores of chestnut, oak, lack tylosis. White oak is heavy averaging somewhat greater in weight than red oak wood. The hardwood has good decay resistance. White oaks are usually cut into lumber, railroad cross ties, cooperage, mine timbers, fence posts, veneer, fuel wood and many other products. High quality white oak is especially sought for tight cooperage. Live oak is considerably heavier and stronger than the other oaks and it was formally used for extensively for ship timbers. An important use of white oak is for planking and bent parts of ships and boats. Hardwood is often specified because of its decay resistance. White oak is also used for finisher, flooring, pallets, agriculture implements, railroad cars, truck floors, furniture, doors and millwork. This is a second document that they gave me and this document shows exactly what quarter sawing is. And here we have the end view of a large white oak log with rings in here and these rings are precisely what they are, they are growth rings of the tree. And we all know that one ring represents one year's growth of the tree. Over to the left is a perfect example of an end view of a heading piece. Now Jim is going to hold up the end view of a heading piece and Jim is going to be pointing to vertical lines on the end of his heading piece and I'm doing the same thing with my laser. These vertical lines are the growth rings of the tree. And to me that's a dead give away whenever I see the growth rings vertically that's a dead give away that the lumber has been quarter sawed. Another dead give away that Jim is going to show you now are the white looking marks, those are called rays. And also to me whenever I see rays, Jim is pointed it to you now, another dead give away for me when I see rays is that lumber has also been quarter sawed. The next time you're at your local lumber yard, on the top here look at the end of their lumber which looks like this, however this is quarter sawing. 40-barrels or kegs was considered one order. In the east building where the setup room was staves were then cut to the proper length and thickness and angle jointed on the sides so they would fit properly when laid up in barrels. My father Joe started two weeks before the order began sorting the jointed staves for width on the layout bench. When the staves filled the bench between two set points, enough wood is complete for one barrel. My father Joe did this until there were 40 individual piles of staves. This is a drawing that I made of a one-half size layout bench which starts at this corner, on the left, on the top. And goes down to here and over to here, back up to there to the right and over to the beginning. That is a one-half sized layout bench. The vertical lines are the staves. Jim Hess is now going to be holding up both straight staves because my dad would take the widest stave and he would place it in the center because that's where the bung-bushing would go and then he would place narrower staves in this area right here and then also narrower staves over to the right. And I have purposely omitted this last space where this narrow stave would be placed because my dad would have to make three or four, five attempts to find a narrow stave that would perfectly fit in that spot. Why was that so important? Well, when we all went to high school we learned that pi times diameter equals circumference. In this case, from this arrow to this arrow is the circumference. And when these staves are placed vertically to form a circle or to form a shape of a barrel, then the diameter is created which means that that barrel would then hold 15 and a half gallons of beer, wine or whiskey. Our grandfather learned that during his apprenticeship in Bohemia. Then enough staves for five barrels were placed on a platform and a large hood was lowered over them. Steam was turned on for 90 minutes. After being steamed for 90 minutes the hood was raised and the hot staves were carried to a table alongside the stave bender. I have two photos of the steaming process. Here is my dad. And here's Jim's dad. And here are 12 rows of staves. And here's a platform. So they would place 12 rows of staves on this platform. Then they would lower a hood, which is hanging from the ceiling, and lower this hood all the way down to this point on the bottom. Then they would turn the valve on, let steam go inside for 90 minutes, and then they would turn the steam off 90 minutes later and raise the hood to the ceiling and take these 12 rows over to the stave bender. And this is Eddie and here's Foots and here's 12 more rows of staves. These 12 rows is enough for four barrels. Now in this 1949 photo, you're looking at this stave right here. An end view of this stave with the angle on them. Now Jim is going show you the end view of the widest stave because this stave is probably going to be where the bung-bushing is installed, and Jim is now showing you that. Then the powerful stave bender that Foots was running flexes and bends the hot supple stave so that a span iron or hook can be quickly placed over both ends of the bent stave to hold it in correct curvature. We have two photos of the stave bender. The second photo is better than the first photo, however this is a stave bender right here, and here's a straight stave and here's some bent staves and some span irons and another bent stave right here. This is a very good photo of the stave bender in this area right here, to the right. One day my father came home from work and he told me we bought a brand new stave bender. And this is the machine. This machine would collapse like it is now and go straight and collapse and go straight again. It would complete a cycle about every five seconds. So Foots, when the stave bender was straight, would place the stave, which is in this area right here, on the stave bender and then the stave bender would collapse which would bend the stave. Then he would place this hook or span iron on both ends of the stave to hold it in correct curvature. Now Jim Hess is now going to demonstrate exactly how the stave bender operated. >> Hot stave, span iron, bend. Hot stave, span iron, bend. Hot stave, span iron, bend. You can see that Eddie is handing him a span iron and taking a bent stave. And Foots is bending the stave exactly like I just showed you. I did the job that Eddie's doing one summer and they gave me hell because I didn't do it fast enough.

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>> Now Tony, with a setup hoop in his left hand, places curved staves inside the hoop as they come from the bender. Both hands and one foot brace and hold the staves until the barrel is completely formed. Then the setup hoop is driven down and a barrel is turned over and a setup hoop is hammered into place. Next the span irons are knocked out and the staves are tapped into alignment. Everyone watch Jim Hess now as I explain this. To the left and to the right is Jim's dad. And this is Tony and he's starting to assemble a barrel using both hands and one foot. And here is the hoop with two staves. And Jim is doing the same thing that his dad did. To the right and the barrel is it completely formed. And here's the one-half white oak beer keg with the setup hoop on top and you can see there's some span irons or hooks still in place here. And here's another example of Jim's dad assembling this one-half white oak beer keg. And as you can see he's wearing gloves, the staves are hot. And here's a curved stave with a span iron attached to it. Notice that span iron is still attached to that stave. Jim is now holding up a bent stave and the span iron and notice that the stave is shorter than what the span iron is and we're going to explain why that is in just a few moments. And here is Tony again and he's installing the second setup hoop into place on this one-half white oak beer keg using a cooper's punch and a cooper's hammer. And Jim is now going to show you and demonstrate using a cooper's punch and a cooper's hammer. Very good. Now Eddie, using the powerful truss hoop driver, removes the setup hoops one at a time. Then four temporary truss hoops are driven into place and a new barrel is roughly but tightly formed. This is Eddie and he's operating this truss hoop driver which has these long black arms on it. And there's one over here and some more over there. The one-half white oak beer keg is setting in the center there. And here's a truss hoop there, one, two, three and four. These truss hoops were only used during the manufacturing process of all barrels. These arms would grab this hoop and pull it down tight and then they would move out and go down and grab this hoop and pull it down tight. The barrel is reversed so that that truss hoop and that truss hoop could be pulled down tight, as well. These truss hoops were only used during the manufacturing process. There were three different types that were used. The first type was called the setup hoop and the second type was called a truss hoop. And the third type was called a finishing hoop. And here is another view of the truss hoop driver followed by Foots and Tony and here's some more truss hoops and right here is another stack of female cattail leaves. Now my father Joe uses a machine, which has a rapidly rotating cutting head in it. This is my dad Joe. The machine is this large machine right here. This flat belt here would rotate the barrel slowly in this direction. This is the barrel, the end view of the barrel, slowly in this direction. This flat belt would rotate the cutter, which is inside the barrel and this cutter is rotating in the opposite direction and rapidly. And here's the inside of the barrel. Now everyone watch Jim Hess as I read this. The new barrel rotates slowly while the rapidly rotating cutting head machines four cuts to one-half of the barrel. The first cut trims the top ends of the staves. And second cut bevels the inside edge at the top of the barrel. The third cut smoothes the inside of the barrel, while the fourth cut creates the groove into which the head will be fitted. And Jim is pointing to the groove. Then the barrel is reversed and the same procedure is done to the other half. The machine has a cam in it so that each barrel is cut to the same dimensions. Now Jim is going to hold up the bent stave with the span iron or hook connected to it. And notice that the stave is shorter than what the span iron is and that is because the stave that Jim is holding has come out of a barrel that has already gone through the machine and had both ends machined. So that's why that's shorter. And here's another view of the machine from a little different angle. Now Foots using a cooper's lathe shaves the outside of the barrel removing weather stains from its being seasoned outside in the open air. And this is Foots and here's a one-half white oak beer keg rotating in this direction. And you can see this plane with a curved bottom to it and it's removing white oak chips going back and forth removing old looking wood until the wood looks new again. The heading pieces are fitted together with wood pegs, actually steel pegs. The steel is now square, the head is now square. My father Joe places a square head into the head circling machine. This machine intensely cuts the head a half inch out of round. The larger dimension being perpendicular to the wood grain. We have three photos of the head circling machine. And here is the head being cut a half inch out of round, the cutter is actually behind it. And here are some heads right here. This top head is going to be installed into a one-half white oak beer keg. The reason I know, to me it's a dead give away, I see this hole right here and this hole right here, which are only found on one-half white oak beer kegs because that's where the cooling coils were attached. This photo here shows a square head. And it's being cut a half inch out of round, here's the head right here, and it's being cut by this cutter. And this piece will fall to the floor and that piece will fall to the floor and here's my dad, he's picked up one piece from the floor and he's holding it up for the photo. And it shows this head being cut a half inch out of round by this cutter which is in this area right here. Now Jim is going to hold up the round head and he's going to hold the wood grain so it is horizontal. Okay, now typically wood would compress at a greater rate vertically than horizontally. So that's why all the heads were cut a half inch larger in diameter vertically to compensate for the compression of the wood. That's great. Also in the head circle machine there's a cam so that every head is cut to the same dimensions. All of the oak chips in the setup room were swept into a bin which was located in the basement next to the boiler. They were then shoveled into the boiler for fuel. Most of the cooper's machines were operated by electric motor, overhead shafts, pulleys, clutches and long flat wide leather belts. The new barrel is partially disassembled on one end only and the bottom head is fitted in with cattail leaves which I will explain in a minute. A setup hoop is hammered on. Here's my dad in this 1966 photo and he has removed this top truss hoop and now he's going to install some cattail leaves into the groove of the top of the barrel, the bottom of the barrel and then install the bottom head. Tony is about ready to remove this truss hoop then he will take some cattail leaves here and install a layer of cattail leaves in the groove here and then install the bottom head. The barrel is reversed, disassembled on the top end and a top head with a cooling coil is fitted in with cattail leaves and a setup hoop is hammered on. So here's Foots and as you can see he has removed this truss hoop and that truss hoop and he's going to install this head with a cooling coil attached to it inside the barrel, but first he's going to install a layer of cattail leaves in the groove at the top of the barrel. And as you can see in this 1947 photo, it shows the cooling coil attached to the top head. Here is the paragraph all about cattail leaves. New barrels were always assembled with cattail leaves. I would go to the marsh with my father and Jim would go to the marsh with his father and uncles in the pickup truck to bring back loads of cattail leaves. The marsh was located where the Dane County Coliseum is now. At the cooper's shop they were stored in the attic to dry out. On the first floor dry cattail leaves were inserted into the groove between the head and the staves and between the stave joints where the joints intersect the barrel head and between the individual heading pieces themselves. This procedure is called flagging. Only the leaves of female cattail leaves were used. Cattail leaves were used as a gasket to seal the barrel against leakage when the wood shrinks in an empty barrel. When the keg is full of beer, the cattail leaves actually swell, preventing the barrel from leaking. Cattail leaves will never rot. We have three photos of the flagging process, however first, our grandfather learned the flagging process during his apprenticeship in Bohemia and brought all that knowledge back to America. At this time Jim is going to show you the round head and he's going to, Jim is going to show you the round head and he's going to point to the cattail leaf which is still present in this round head and this head was manufactured over 40 years ago at our grandfather's factory. Now Jim is going to show you the stack of cattail leaves that we brought along to the demonstration today and there are the cattail leaves. Now everyone watch Jim as I explain this. On the floor are some cattail leaves and this is Jim's dad Tony and here's another cattail leaf right here. Now he's going to install a layer of cattail leaves in this groove. Also he's going to install cattail leaves in between each stave joint. Down to here and up to there and down to there, all the way around the bottom, all the way around the barrel, on both ends. And that procedure and called flagging and our grandfather learned this in Bohemia during his apprenticeship. This view is a closer up view and it showed, on the left, this long cattail with a hand on each end and here's another long cattail with a hand on each end. So they're going to install this cattail leaf as far as it will go down to here, and then take a second cattail leaf and go down to here, and a third one, and fourth one, and fifth one, and sixth one, until this joint is completely filled with cattail leaves, and they will do that all the way around the bottom, all the way around the barrel on both ends. Once the barrel is completely filled with cattail leaves then the flagging process is complete. And you will see residue of the cattail leaves on both ends of the barrels which look like this. There's one there, and one there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and here's another one. Another view of the cattail leaves being flagged, or the barrels being flagged, is in this photo. And here's our quarter barrel followed by four one-eighth barrels which are laying on end, laying down. And can you see cattail leaves here, and there, and there, and there, and they have not been cut off yet by a knife. This is a 1947 photo and from left to right is Joe, that's my dad, Eddie, our grandfather, Foots, Tony, that's Jim's dad, all four of these sons never finished high school. And the reason they never finished high school is because they were loyal to their father, they worked for their father their entire working lives manufacturing white oak barrels at the Hess Cooperage in Madison on Schenk's Corners. Now Jim is going to explain to you the significance of the quarter barrel with the five signatures on it. >> This is one of the last barrels manufactured by the cooperage in 1966 and it was given to the president of the bank. And it was in the bank's family until this year, and the bank family gave it to the Hess family, and the Hess family has donated it to the Historical Society. And it's on display at the Dean House in Monona. So what's really great about the barrel is it's signed by Joe Hess, Gary's dad; Tony Hess, my dad; Foots and Eddie, the youngest brother. And on the side Josephine signed it manager. Now you can see the oldest brother is at the top and the youngest brother is at the bottom. Than just gives you some idea of the respect they had for each other. >> That's correct, thank you Jim. Next the barrels were rolled over a ladder to the finishing room in the west building. The bung-bushing was installed into the widest stave and all four permanent finishing hoops were installed. So here's my dad and he's standing in the east building and he's rolling these brand new one-half white oak beer kegs over this ladder to the finishing room. Now Jim is going to explain the significance of this ladder. >> I'll give you an example of how the barrels were rolled on the ladder. Usually a barrel was never picked up until it was being stacked because it was just too heavy to move around other than rolling it. >> And here is a view of Foots installing four finishing hoops to that barrel, and here's Tony again operating this truss hoop driver and you can see the one-half white oak beer keg sitting right here with all four finishing hoops completely installed. Note all eight rivets are perfectly in line. Jim is now going to point to all eight rivets in a barrel that we brought to the presentation today. And here is a hoop and it has one rivet installed and they're punching a hole in it for a second rivet and Tony is now going to install the second rivet into place in this hoop. All the hoops were placed through a hoop setter which stretches the material so that this diameter of the hoop is larger than that diameter hoop so that hoop would fit over a barrel properly. Here's my dad. And he's going to drill a hole into the widest stave of this one half white oak beer keg. How do I know this barrel is for a one-half white oak beer keg? To me, it's a dead give away, because I see this hole right here and I see this hole right here and that's where the cooling coils were installed and that's only found on one-half white oak beer kegs. So here's my dad and he's operating a drill press. And he's got a drill bit on here and he's going to drill a hole into the widest stave. Then he will take this drill bit out and he will install a bung driver. And Jim is now holding a bung-bushing with a largest hole in it and this machine will actually thread the bung-bushing into the wood as far as it will go because a bung-bushing has threads on it. The other bung-bushing with a smaller hole in it gets attached to the top of the barrel and the top head. At the breweries they would put a cork into this hole and then they would fill the barrel through this hole. And then they would put a cork in this hole in the bung-bushing large hole and ship it over to the tavern. At the tavern, it was the taverns operator's responsibility to install the beer tapper on top and he would turn it a quarter of a turn until the beer tapper got tight then he would wrap the handle down which would force the cork inside of the barrel, then he would pump air into the barrel so the beer would not go flat. And then he would pump cold water into this tube until the cold water came out of that tube. Typically there anywhere from one dozen to three dozen of these one-half white oak beer kegs stored in the back rooms of all the taverns, all of them filled with beer and all of them having the cooling coils have cold water in them for all of the customers when they walk in the door. And here's that 1947 photo again showing our grandfather and his four sons. Two of the sons were the clowns of the family. That's this one, Foots and the other one is Tony. And guess what? You are right, they're looking at each other.

LAUGHTER

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So for fun, and they had fun, Foots would blow into one end of a cooling coil with one finger fluttering on the other end to make it sound like a trumpet. So Footsy, shown here, would blow into this hole and while he was blowing he would flutter his finger on the other side so it would sound like a trumpet.

MAKES TRUMPET SOUND

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And it would sound like that. Tony could tap a hoop into place with his punching hammer creating a musical tune. So here's Tony and he's using his punch and hammer and he's tapping this second setup hoop into place. What he's doing here is actually walking around the barrel while he's tapping the hoop into place with his punching hammer. Now Jim Hess is now going to demonstrate the musical tune. >> I can't do it, of course, like he would do it but it's something like this.

HAMMERING IN RHYTHM

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But he would do it much faster and he was actually putting the hoop on.

LAUGHTER

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>> And I saw all four sons do this process, and Tony was the best at it so that's why we're using his photo. Half of the Hess Cooperage business was repairing barrels or kegs. A whole barrel holds 31-gallons of beer, wine or whiskey. The popular one-half barrel holds 15 and a half gallons. A quarter barrel holds half of that. Now a pony keg holds four gallons. The popular oak one-half beer keg empty weighs 75-pounds. An oak beer keg, if not abused, will last 40 years. The Hess Cooperage manufactured beer, whiskey and wine barrels. Wine barrels are planed inside and the staves are thinner than beer or whiskey barrels. Whiskey barrels were charred on the inside using oak wood chips and alcohol which was set on fire. The Hess Cooperage did that. Beer kegs were pitched on the inside. Pitch was extracted from the resin of fir and pine trees, and refined to take out all the turpentine which also could alter the taste of beer. The breweries did the pitching by heating the pitch with steam heat. Then the molten pitch was poured into each barrel. Next each barrel had to be rolled and tilted from end to end until the molten pitch would thoroughly cover the inside of the barrel. In summary, wine, whiskey and beer kegs were assembled using female cattail leaves in all the wood joints. When wet, the cattail leaves would swell which prevented the barrel from leaking. At the breweries beer kegs were pitched. The pitch was a liner that was made from tree resin which was safe for the human population. The returned empty barrels were thoroughly cleaned inside before refilling them with beer. This is the second floor of the Dean House. You've seen all of these photos to the left here plus dozens and dozens more and this is our collection, part of our collection, that's here today. Jim and I keep our collection at the Dean House because our grandfather's factory sat on Blooming Grove property on Schenk's Corners and the Dean House also sits on Blooming Grove property, however the Dean House is a museum. The Dean House is an 1856 farm house and it is located at the corner of Dean Avenue and Monona Drive on the golf course. The Dean House is open to the public every Monday morning at 8:30. This is a work day. The second Sunday afternoon

00 to 4

00. This is open house for the general public and seven summer back porch concerts on Thursday nights. Okay, this is the end of our presentation. And I would like everyone to look at their handouts, they look exactly like this. With a photo, 1954 photo on the bottom. There's three Web sites.

The top Web site is

fauerbachbrewery.com, you merely follow the simple instructions to view 16 photos. On page two you will see a photo of Peter Fauerbach and I holding up our favorite barrels. Web site number 2, the center one, is Wisconsinhistory.org I worked for months and months with the Wisconsin Historical Society creating 25 photos on their Web site. This photo right here is one of 25. And you merely click on any photo to read a description of that photo. The bottom Web site is Yahoo.com, where you will find ten Web sites of interesting reading about the Hess Cooperage if you would like to do that. Following all of our presentations we have noticed that one of the most frequently questions that we are asked is how much did a barrel cost? Well, a one-half white oak beer keg cost $35 in 1954, brand new. A bit of history here, on October 28, 1918, Bohemia became Czechoslovakia. On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia became the Czech Republic and Prague is the capital. Prohibition started on January 16, 1920. On that date there were three breweries in Madison. Fauerbach, Hausmann and Breckheimer. Also on that date there were dozens and dozens and hundreds of cooperage factories in the nation. Prohibition ended on April 7, 1933. On that date there was only one brewery left in Madison and that was Fauerbach. Also on that date way back in 1933, there were only five beer cooperage factories left in the nation, and our grandfather's factory was one of five way back in 1933. In 1966 when the Hess Cooperage closed it was the last cooperage factory in America that manufactured white oak beer kegs for the breweries. This was the end of an American industry and this was our grandfather's factory which was located in Madison on Schenk's Corners. We are about ready to answer all of your questions now. But Jim and I have two questions for you. The first question is who knows how many gallons are in a one half barrel? >> 15 and a half. >> 15 and a half is correct. And who knows what happens to cattail leaves when they get wet? >> They expand. >> They expand, that's correct. >> Why just the females? >> We're going to be answering that. You'll get the first question. You get the first question. When we answer your final question, please approach Jim's table and ask Jim to show you the quarter barrel with the five signatures on it. Thank you.

APPLAUSE