C.J. Dresen Muskegon Michigan Blob Beer

[DaddyDaughterDiggers]

We found this in the dump where we are digging in Southeast WI. I can't find any info on it except that it has similar words on it to a Muskegon Brewery (Pure and Without Drugs or Poison). WF&S Milwaukee is embossed on the bottom and it is a Baltimore loop blob top.

 

[DaddyDaughterDiggers]

Here is a close up of the front

 

[UncleBruce]

It's not listed in AMERICAN BREWERIES II so it is a bottling company. There is a definite lack of information available for turn of the century Michigan companies. I did find this image in google books MICHIGAN FEDERATION OF LABOR under Muskegon.

 

[DaddyDaughterDiggers]

I did find this

Joe Dresen was born Nov. 3, 1909 to Charles Joseph Dresen (1863-1958) and Stephanie
Fortenbacher Dresen (1874-1947). Joe was the youngest of eight children who included
six sisters and one brother. According to a 1970 Muskegon Chronicle article the senior
Dresen was born in Milwaukee and as a very young man worked on farms and in his
spare time enjoyed playing baseball with friends and family. C. J. Dresden needed to
earn a better living for himself, so when his brother who already lived in Muskegon told
him about jobs available in sawmills for $1.75 a day, Dresen forgot farming and baseball
dreams for the reality of steady work here in 1882. Later in 1889 he was employed by the
Muskegon Valley Furniture Co. In1895 he and George Hoos opened a saloon named
the Dresen & Hoos Saloon across the street from the busy Union Depot on West Western
Ave. A few years later Dresen moved a few doors westerly, and in partnership with
Adam Kurdelski opened another saloon, plus Dresen on his own opened the Dresen
Brewery on the same site. Competition from the much larger Muskegon brewery on now
Lakeshore and Michigan Ave. where his brother had worked, plus people who didn’t pay
their bills or fulfill their promises took a toll, so the businesses were sold and the buildings
razed in order to build the Hotel Muskegon for opening in 1914. In 1921, Dresen opened
the Dresen Coal Co. at 423 W. Laketon at Park Street.

This was a beginning section of a section on the Dresen estate out of the Senior Perspective publication in Western Michigan. I just want to find out how rare the bottle is and what it may be worth? The Article did state that C.J. Dresen did have a Brewery but only for what I account for less than 10 years.

 

[marjorie040]

C. J. Dresen was born in Wisconson in1864 and died in Muskegon, MI 1958. He's in the US City Directory for Muskegon from 1897 to 1948!! All of which confirms the above info!
I have a directory ad for his business but can't seem to cut and paste it.

Regards,
Marjorie

 

[druggistnut]

Rollon,
If you decide to part with it, I could trade you a nice Wisconsin blob or pottery bottle for it.
Let me know.
Thanks,
Bill

 

[Plumbata]

Awesome bottle, and C J Dresen sounds like one heckuva fellow. Very industrious and business-minded. Also, getting paid 1.75 per day back in 1882 was one helluva gig. I'd work that job 7 days a week for years until i saved enough to buy some land... Or open a brewery. []

Anyway, regarding the bottle, the "pure & without drugs or poison" wording makes it quite desirable/valuable, even if it is common, which I doubt.

That is one awesome dump you and your daughter have to dig. Excellent stuff with good value; I wish i had a place like that to root around in.

 

[hemihampton]

The pure & free of drugs or poison comment seems common on Michigan bottles from the 1906+ period. I have many with this saying. LEON.

 

[druggistnut]

the "pure & without drugs or poison" wording makes it quite desirable/valuable, even if it is common, which I doubt.

>>The pure & free of drugs or poison comment seems common on Michigan bottles from the 1906+ period.<<

I have to dispel (again) the myth that the embossing had ANYTHING to do with the 1906 Safe Food and Drug Act.

Look up Section 5404 of the Compiled Laws of 1897 (Michigan), and you will read all about why this law was passed. It required a sticker or stamping or printing of the words.

This is from ABN, on the same subject. You were in the posting, Leon. >>
https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/m-551955/mpage-2/tm.htm

There are MANY embossed beers in Michigan with this wording on them. I believe two other states passed the same type of law, at about the same time. If I am recalling it right, they were also midwestern states.
Bill

 

[mtfdfire22]

the best way to put that theory to rest is to look and the makers marks. i have several " pure and without...." bottles which have makers who were out of business before 1906. good example was my 7 oz. saltzberg Kolb from bay city mi. its a little split size blob top and the maker was out of business by 1904 if memory serves correctly.