FRED C. KNAUER

Sacramento County

Biographies

FRED C. KNAUER

FRED C. KNAUER, proprietor of the Pacific Brewery, Sacramento, is a native of Germany, born at Sonnenfeld, Saxe-Coburg, December 16, 1839, his parents being L. and Anna (Burkhardt) Knauer. L. Knauer, his father, came to America in 1847, locating in Chicago, where he conducted a liquor and cordial factory. In 1849 he came across the plains to California by team, with a party of six, among whom was Fred Werner, the journey requiring about seven months before they reached Sacramento. He went to Auburn, and there started a small bakery. He also mined on Feather River, and in the latter part of 1850 went to Weaverville, Trinity County, and opened the Miners’ Hotel. He did a big business, and in 1853, having accumulated a great deal of money, decided to go back to Europe. Proceeding to San Francisco, he stopped at the Globe Hotel, and deposited a large shot bag full of gold in the hotel safe. When it was time to leave, he boarded the steamer, and deposited the sack with the purser. He opened it to show the purser the genuineness of the gold, when, to his amazement, he found the sack filled with lead! His feelings on the trip back to his old home in Germany can well be imagined, when, after working hard and accumulating a fortune on foreign shores, he must meet his family and friends deprived of all, on account of the theft and treachery of those in whose care he had deposited his wealth. F. C. Knauer spent his boyhood days at his native place, and there attended the government schools from his sixth year until his fourteenth. About this time his mother died. In 1853, in company with his father, he came to the United States, sailing from Bremer Haven the latter part of October on the Sylphide, and landing at New York in December. After a few days he went to New Brooklyn, where he was engaged at various occupations. In 1855 he came to California, sailing from New York on the steamer Northern Light, and landing at San Francisco in February, from the steamer Cortez. In San Francisco he again joined his father, who was foreman at the Lafayette Brewery. He was in the city at the time of the vigilance committee of 1856, and saw Casey and three others hung. Later in the same year he went to French Bar, Stanislaus County, where his father had by this time opened a brewery. The Fraser River excitement broke up mining and business in Stanislaus County, and the senior Knauer came to Sacramento and took the position of foreman in Scheld’s brewery, and our subject came here and also went to work in the brewery. The spring of 1861 found him working in the Sutterville Brewery, but he left there and went up to Salmon River on horseback. Finding no prospects there, he returned to San Francisco afoot. His father, who was a musician, was playing the piano in the city, but went in the spring of 1863 to Idaho City, Idaho, where, in partnership with Henry Martz and Henry Boissellier, he started the Ohio Brewery and bakery. Fred C. Knauer worked for Mrs. Mueller in the Ohio Brewery until 1864, when he went up to Idaho to join his father. The property there was sold out on July 8, 1865, and the father went to San Francisco, but our subject remained there until December 16, when he started to Portland, Oregon. By this time all the rivers were frozen up, and snow had fallen so heavily that even the stage companies made little effort at travel. He went to Boise City, and from there proceeded as far as Straw Ranche, from which point on the road was blocked. He remained there over a week, but got restless, and started for the next stage station afoot, with others. They got lost in a blinding snow storm, and after walking all day brought up at night just where they started from, and were glad to get back. They would surely have perished had it not been that, when more dead than alive, they found their own foot-prints in the snow. As soon as possible they proceeded on, and arriving at Umadilla, found the river frozen, and on the second day the stage line was opened. They reached the Chute by river, and then found it necessary to take the stage again to the Dalles. There they found the Columbia River frozen, and after waiting ten days, it thawed out, and they proceeded on toward Salilo; when they got within five miles of the latter place, they found they could go no further by water, and they footed it for that distance. The trip was also an expensive one. They got one meal a day, which cost $1, while a piece of bacon, a couple of crackers and an apple cost four bits. At the Lower Cascades they found everything frozen up again. A few days later, however, a steamer took them to Portland, the trip having occupied six weeks. When they reached Portland, news came that the steamer “Sierra Nevada”, which was to take them to San Francisco, had gone on the rocks, and they had to wait two weeks for the steamer “Pacific.” The voyage lasted eight or nine days, and Mr. Knauer got to San Francisco with just fifteen cents out of the $600 with which he had started. He remained idle for a time taking a much-needed rest, then he and his father bought the property in Oakland known as the Oakland Brewery, corner of Ninth and Broadway, on the 20th of April, 1867. They carried on the business there until May 20, 1869, when they sold the real estate to Black & Moffatt, and the furniture, fixtures, good will, etc., to Charles Clinn, Mangerts & Bode. On the 17th of June, 1869, they bought the Pacific Brewery in Sacramento. This brewery was started in 1858 by J. B. Kohler, George Ochs, and a Mr. Lorenz. The original buildings are still standing on the premises. J. B. Kohler died in 1859, and Lorenz died in 1862. Thereafter Mr. Ochs carried on the business until is was purchased by L. Knauer & Son. Since his father’s death, in 1881, F. C. Knauer has conducted the trade alone. He has built up an extensive business, and employs improved machinery and competent workmen in every department of his business. Mr. Knauer was married in this city, December 15, 1870, to Miss Charlotte Berger, a native of Louisiana. She died in Sacramento, leaving two children, viz: Fred Charles, Jr., and William. Mr. Knauer married his present wife October 2, 1880. She was formerly Miss A. P. S. Gardner, a native of New York. Mr. Knauer is a member of Union Lodge, No. 21, A. F. & M.; of Union Lodge, A. O. U. W.; of Sacramento Turn-Verein, and of Sacramento Stamm No. 124, Red Men. He is a pushing business man, and has a host of friends in trade and society.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 738-740. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.