Library to host program on barrel making Nov. 13
Gary and Jim Hess, the grandsons of Frank J. Hess Sr will give a presentation on The Frank J. Hess and Sons Cooperage at the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library on Thursday, Nov. 13 at 3 p.m.
A cooper is a barrel maker. Frank J. Hess Sr., born in southern Bohemia in 1870, served a three-year cooperage apprenticeship at the Pilsner Brewery in Pilsen, Bohemia. At age 20 he immigrated to America and worked as a cooper in Chicago and Prairie du Chien.
In 1904, Henry Fauerbach, of the Fauerbach Brewery in Madison, persuaded him to move to Madison to start an independent cooperage business, The Frank J. Hess and Sons Cooperage factory – located on Schenk’s Corners for 62 years and the state’s largest independent cooperage.
The factory closed in 1966 and was the last cooperage factory in America that manufactured white oak beer kegs for the breweries. The free presentation Nov. 13 at the library will include history about the cooperage and barrel making in general.
The Irvin L. Young Memorial Library is located at 431 W. Center St., Whitewater. For more information stop in, visit www.whitewaterlibrary.org or call (262) 473-0530.
