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Michael Barr
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Otto
Wahrmund traveled around the country in his own railroad car (the
equivalent of today's private jet). He was a director of City National
Bank of San Antonio, and he owned shares in a copper mine south of
Torreon, Mexico. He served 5 terms as a state representative and was
a member of the San Antonio Water Board. But he is best remembered
as a founder and general manager of one of the most iconic businesses
in Texas. (Hint - it's not Blue Bell, Dr. Pepper or Buc-ee's.)
Wahrmund was born in Fredericksburg
on September 19, 1855. His father, William Wahrmund, was a Gillespie
County pioneer, stonemason, merchant and long-time county judge.
The Wahrmund home still stands on the 200 block of West Main Street
in Fredericksburg. |
William Wahrmund
House
206 W. Main St.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977
Photo
courtesy Michael Barr, April 2023 |
After graduating
from the Texas Military Institute, Otto Wahrmund served in the Texas
Volunteer Guard, rising to the rank of colonel. For the rest of his
life, newspapers and the general public often called him Col. Wahrmund.
He married Sofie Nimitz, Chester
Nimitz's aunt, in 1879. He was in business in Fredericksburg
for several years before moving to San
Antonio as part of the ownership and management team at the San
Antonio Brewing Company.
That company began in 1884 as Jaroslav Behloradsky's City Brewery.
Two years later an investment group, led by Oscar Bergstrom, bought
City Brewery at a sheriff's sale.
Bergstrom, a lawyer from Pleasant Valley near Boerne,
knew nothing about brewing, so he gathered around him some of the
best talent in the beer business.
Otto Koehler, born in Germany, had brewing experience in St. Louis
and at the Lone Star Brewing Company. Koehler was president and the
executive genius behind the San Antonio Brewing Company.
John J. Stevens, a likeable Irish story-teller, was the company secretary.
Born and raised in a section of San
Antonio called the Irish Flats, just a few blocks from the Alamo,
Stevens would later build a mansion in the King William District.
Before joining the San Antonio Brewing Company he served as Postmaster
of San Antonio. Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to that position.
Otto Wahrmund, vice-president and general manager, was born to run
things. He was a serious man, large in stature, with a push broom
mustache, a booming voice and a commanding personality. The San Antonio
Express described him as a "magnificent figure of a military man."
Bergstrom, Koehler, Wahrmund and Stevens - a Swede, 2 Germans and
an Irishman, founded the San Antonio Brewing Company, but it took
an unknown German brew master, with a genius for branding, to make
the company famous. The brew master thought the bubbles in a freshly
poured glass of beer looked like "Perlen" (a bead of pearls). The
beer has been called Pearl ever since. |
 |
Pearl Brewery
in 1910. (Staats Collection)
Click on image for panoramic
view
'Notice all three modes of beer transport are shown: train, horse
drawn wagon, and delivery truck."
Wikipedia |
The two top
executives at the company, Koehler and Wahrmund, had very different
personalities. The San Antonio Express wrote that when Col. Wahrmund
"was ready to leave the Pearl Brewery for the day, he would order
his coach, and if the driver failed to hold the reins just right,
there was a terrific bawling out. Otto Koehler, on the other hand,
would walk to the carriage house himself."
Though different in personality, the two men got along very well.
The Express reported "They had adjoining offices with the door open
in between, and neither one questioned the judgement of the other."
Then in 1914 Otto Koehler died - shot by his mistress in their little
house just off Presa Street. Koehler's widow Emma took over his share
of the company. (The Hotel Emma at the Pearl is named for her.)
Meanwhile Otto Wahrmund served 5 terms in the Texas legislature. (Voters
elected him to a 6th term but he resigned before being sworn in.)
His political career ended in controversy when Wahrmund, as an executive
of the San Antonio Brewing Company, made a substantial loan to Governor
Jim Ferguson. Wahrmund's political opponents claimed he made the loan
in exchange for political favors.
In the summer of 1929, Col. Wahmund and Sofie were spending time at
their summer home a mile northeast of Kerrville.
On June 21, 1929 he became ill and died on the way to the hospital.
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