Adolphus Busch facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Adolphus Busch
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| Born | July 10, 1839 |
| Died | October 10, 1913 (aged 74) |
| Occupation | Brewing Executive and Founder |
| Net worth | US$60 million at the time of his death, approx. $1.5B in 2018 |
| Spouse(s) |
Lilly Eberhard Anheuser
(m. 1861) |
| Children | Nellie Busch (1863) Edward Busch (1864) August Anheuser Busch Sr. (1865) Adolphus Busch, Jr. (1868) Alexis Busch (1869) Edmee Busch (1871) Emilee Busch (1870) Peter Busch (1872) Martha Bush (1873) Anna "Tolie" Louise Busch (1875) Clara Busch (1876) Carl Busch (1882) Wilhelmina "Minnie" Busch (1884) |
| Parent(s) | Ulrich Busch (1779 - 1852) and Barbara Pfeiffer (1792 - 1844) |
Adolphus Busch (born July 10, 1839 – died October 10, 1913) was a very successful businessman from Germany. He helped start the famous company Anheuser-Busch with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser. Adolphus brought many new ideas to the company, helping it grow into a huge success in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He also used his wealth to help others through donations to education and charity.
Contents
Early Life and Moving to America
Adolphus Busch was born on July 10, 1839, in Kastel, a town in Germany. He was one of 22 children in his family! His family was wealthy and ran a business that sold supplies for wineries and breweries. Adolphus and his brothers all received good educations. He even graduated from a special school in Brussels, Belgium.
In 1857, when he was 18 years old, Adolphus moved to St. Louis, Missouri in the United States. Three of his older brothers also moved there. St. Louis was a popular place for German immigrants to settle at that time. Since Adolphus had so many siblings, he knew he wouldn't inherit much money from his father. He wanted to make his own way in the world.
St. Louis was a great place for brewing beer. Many German immigrants lived there, creating a big market for beer. The city also had two important natural resources for making and storing beer before refrigerators existed:
- The Mississippi River provided plenty of water.
- The city had many natural caves that kept beer cool.
Building a Business Empire
Adolphus Busch's first jobs in St. Louis were working as a clerk and then at a wholesale company. During the American Civil War, he served in the Union Army for six months. Around this time, he learned that his father had passed away and he had inherited some money.
Busch started his first business with a partner, Ernst Battenberg. They sold brewing supplies to the many breweries in St. Louis. One of their customers was Eberhard Anheuser. Anheuser was a soap maker who had lent money to a small brewery. When that brewery struggled, Anheuser took it over and renamed it Anheuser.
In 1861, Adolphus married Eberhard Anheuser's daughter, Lilly. After the Civil War, Busch joined his wife's family's brewery business. He bought out Eberhard's business partner. In 1879, the company was officially renamed Anheuser-Busch.
When Eberhard Anheuser passed away in 1880, Adolphus Busch became the president of the company. He became very rich as the brewery grew. He had a big dream: to create a beer that everyone across the country would want to drink.
Innovations in Brewing and Distribution
Adolphus Busch was known for using new science and technology. He also had a smart plan to sell his beer far and wide. He focused on one main brand, Budweiser, and made it the most popular beer in the country before the time of Prohibition.
To make Budweiser a national beer, Busch did several important things:
- He built a network of ice-houses next to train tracks.
- He created the first fleet of refrigerated train cars. This allowed beer to be shipped long distances without spoiling.
- He started using pasteurization in 1878. This process heated the beer to kill germs, keeping it fresh for much longer.
- He was one of the first to sell beer in bottles. He even started his own company, Busch Glass Company, to make the bottles!
- By 1901, the company sold over one million barrels of beer.
Busch also believed in something called "vertical integration." This means buying all the different parts of a business. He bought:
- Bottling factories
- Ice-making plants
- Companies that made wooden barrels
- Timberland (for wood)
- Coal mines
- A refrigeration company
- Even railways!
He also bought the rights from Rudolf Diesel to build diesel engines in America, starting the Diesel Motor Company. The Busch family also bought farms that grew hops, a key ingredient in beer.
The Budweiser Story
The name Budweiser was originally owned by another person, Carl Conrad. He had Anheuser-Busch make the beer for him. Busch studied how to brew "pilsner" style beer in Europe, which was used for Budweiser. In 1882, when Carl Conrad went bankrupt, Adolphus bought the rights to the Budweiser name.
Community Involvement
Adolphus Busch was also involved in his community. In 1895, he joined the Board of Directors for Washington University in St. Louis. He stayed on the board until he died in 1913. His son, August Anheuser Busch Sr., took his place.
He also served as president of the South Side Bank and the Manufacturers Railway, which helped local businesses. He was also a director for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, helping with this big city event.
Busch invested in new buildings in Dallas, Texas, a fast-growing city. In 1912, he built the Adolphus Hotel there, which was the tallest building in the state at the time. Another building he invested in, the Busch Building, is now known as the Kirby Building and is a very important historical landmark.
Giving Back: Philanthropy
From a young age, Adolphus Busch was generous and gave money to help others and support education. He always cared about his home country, Germany. When the Rhine River flooded Mainz-Kastel in 1882, he helped repair the damage.
He also donated $100,000 to San Francisco after the big earthquake in 1906. Half of this money came from him personally, and half from his company.
Busch gave a total of $350,000 to Harvard University to create a German museum, which was named Adolphus Busch Hall.
Family Life
Adolphus Busch married Elise "Lilly" Eberhard Anheuser on March 7, 1861, in St. Louis, Missouri. Lilly was the third daughter of Eberhard Anheuser. They had thirteen children together:
- Nellie Busch (1863 - 1934)
- Edward Busch (1864 - 1879)
- August Anheuser Busch Sr. (1865 - 1934)
- Adolphus Busch, Jr. (1868 - 1898)
- Alexis Busch (1869 - 1869)
- Edmee Busch (1871 - 1955)
- Emilee Busch (1870 - 1870)
- Peter Busch (1872 - 1905)
- Martha Busch (1873 - 1873)
- Anna "Tolie" Louise Busch (1875 - 1936)
- Clara Busch (1876 -1959)
- Carl Busch (1882 - 1915)
- Wilhelmina "Minnie" Busch (1884 -1952)
The Busch family often traveled to Germany. They even built a large mansion there called Villa Lilly, named after Mrs. Busch. It is located in Lindschied, near Bad Schwalbach.
Death and Lasting Impact
Adolphus Busch passed away in Lindschied, Germany, in 1913 while on vacation. He had been ill since 1906. He was survived by his wife, five daughters, and two sons, August A. and Carl Busch. His body was brought back to the United States by ship in 1915 and then by train to St. Louis.
Nearly thirty thousand people came to pay their respects to Adolphus Busch when his body was at the family mansion in St. Louis. Important people like the U.S. secretary of agriculture and the presidents of Harvard and the University of California attended.
His funeral procession was huge. It included twenty-five trucks to carry all the flower arrangements and a 250-person band leading the way. The procession was twenty miles long, from the Busch family home to Bellefontaine Cemetery, where Adolphus was laid to rest. As many as 100,000 people lined the streets to watch. For five minutes, everything stopped in St. Louis: lights were turned off at hotels, and streetcars were halted.
Lilly Anheuser Busch felt that Adolphus deserved a grander resting place than the existing family mausoleum. She had the original structure taken down and built a new, magnificent mausoleum. It was designed in a Bavarian Gothic style and made of stone from Missouri. Completed in 1921, it cost $250,000. The mausoleum features grapevines, representing Adolphus's German birthplace and his favorite drink. The words "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (meaning "I came, I saw, I conquered") are carved above the entrance.
Lilly Busch passed away on February 17, 1928, in Pasadena, California. Her body was brought back to St. Louis and buried next to her husband.
Images for kids
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Busch's wife, the former Lily Anheuser
