Luxemburg Bottling Works was organized after 1900 and Kewaunee Bottling Co. - the largest and best remembered company - was organized in 1919 by Henry and Julia Baumeister. A year later, their first building was sold and the business was moved to the northwest corner of Harrison and Dodge Streets, the place remembered by most of today’s residents.
Burmeisters had little money but their enthusiasm and determination made the business a success. Henry Baumeister did most of the remodeling and repairs to the 1920 building himself with the after school help of Julia’s brothers, Ed and Loddie Schultz who lived with the couple until they themselves married. Gilbert Baumeister ran the company after Henry, and Gene Baumeister followed his father Gilbert. From its beginning, Kewaunee Bottling Co. grew in size and reputation. Distribution area included all of northeast Wisconsin and upper Michigan.
Pop manufacturing went beyond the factories. During the Depression, many made their own root beer, putting a raisin in the bottle before corking. The raisin "worked" and gave the pop its fizz. If one decided to speed up the process adding another raisin, there was a little too much fizz. Al Capone and Baby Face Nelson were in the news. There were always reports of them being in Wisconsin. Then there was John Dillinger at Little Bohemia in 1934. On a moonless winter night just after Little Bohemia, the kids were doing homework at the dining room table when the raisins started working a little too much, blowing off the pop bottle caps into the basement walls and ceiling. The screaming kids knew they were under fire and that Chicago gangsters were attacking the farm!
