The Knave Kramm Anchor Steam Dieves San Leandro Road Sun, Jul 23, 1961 – 49 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, Alameda, California, United States of America) · Newspapers.com[Published a few days ago, this news story from the San Jose Mercury, Oakland’s new beer district, Sierra Nevada Brewing news and more caught my eye. I'd recently clipped the article above, about Oakland's brewing history, along with a story about Volcano, CA, some politics and a reminiscence about Ralph T. Flewelling. The sections on politics and Flewelling are omitted in my transcription. You can find them in the clipping, above. For a much better description of Oakland brewery history, see this post on Oakland Momma and this post on Our Oakland. What piqued my interest was the mention of Joseph [P.] Dieves, and his connection to the golden era of bicycle riding with his ownership of Three-Mile House. - MF]
Those Good Old Days
Warm July days foster dreams of tall, sprawling shade trees, arbors and scads of cool, refreshing glasses of foaming beer. Today it would take something more than a Sherlock Holmes to find a brewery in Oakland but, back in 1869 when the picture on this page was snapped, the Oakland Brewery on Broadway at Ninth St. was turning out approximately 400 barrels of beer a year. This beer production was upped considerably in 1870 when the Oakland Brewery completed its new plant on Telegraph Ave. at Durant St. and eventually turned out 18,000 barrels of beer a year. The Oakland Brewery had been brewing beer in Oakland since 1853 at the Broadway and Ninth St. site. Its founders were identified by early scribes only as "two enterprising men." Closer research determines that J. C. Wilman had it for some time, then Joseph Becht. Becht was the proprietor in 1863 when flames leveled the plant. The same Joseph Becht rebuilt of brick and then sold to Lawrence and Fred Knauer, a father and son team who were the proprietors until 1869 when Charles Kramm, H. Mangle and Charles Bose took over. ["Hermann Mangle is preparing to erect a large brewery building on the corner of Eighth avenue and the East Twelfth street..." - MF] Mangle and Bose left the firm the latter part of that year, but Kramm found a new partner in Joseph Dieves, a native of Heimerzheim, Germany, who was also an Oakland pioneer. Dieves had just returned from a visit to his homeland and was seeking a new investment here. So it was in 1870 that work on the new brewery on Telegraph Ave. at Durant St. was begun and completed. After 1870 the Oakland Brewery's brick building at Ninth and Broadway served only as the downtown offices for the big brewery "out in North Oakland.”. What was then Durant St. is now 19th St. The new Oakland Brewery of 1870 stood on the northeast corner, and beyond on the same side of Telegraph Ave. were the homes of Joseph Dieves and Charles Kramm. [Joseph Dieves was 1416 Telegraph, Kramm 1414. - MF]
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| Broadway at Ninth St. in 1869. The brewery dates from 1853. For years the corner was known as the "old Oakland Brewery" [This photo and caption are from the 1961 article. -MF] |
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| This, much better version of the photo is linked from Oakland Momma's RAISING A PINT TO OAKLAND BREW…TODAY AND LONG AGO post. Go read it. |
They Remember When
Three surviving granddaughters of Charles Kramm recall visiting their grandmother at the old Kramm home when the Kramm stables stood where the Newberry store on Broadway stands.
They romped and played among the trees that flourished where the H. C. Capwell store is now. Those three girls are now: Mrs. Elza Paul of Oakland, Mrs. Augusta Maffini of Castro Valley and Mrs. Annette Caiocca of St. Helena. Mrs. Caiocca and Mrs. Maffini are twins. Grandma Kramm, [Augusta Kramm - MF] it is recalled, abhorred the encroachment of such new-fangled things as the automobile, and kept a stable of horses and rigs right up to her demise n 1918. Her first and only ride in an auto was when her son, the late Joseph W. Kramm, drove her to the hospital in a "machine." The Oakland Brewery was not on the Oakland scene alone in those early days. The Washington Brewery had been a competitor from the year 1856. It was founded at Second and Harrison Streets by a Mr. Lyons, who afterwards moved to Hayward and built the Lyons Brewery later taken over by Palmtag and Heyer.
By 1874 the Washington Brewery was at Sixth and Broadway under the proprietorship of J. Gieschen & Co. When Charles Bredhoff and Herman Cordes took charge they moved the Washington Brewery to Fifth and Kirkham into a new brick building that still stands today. [No longer. - MF] It was the Washington Brewery that was the foundation, so to speak, of the more recent Golden West Brewery. Other early Oakland brew plants were envolved [sic] in the consolidation, too. The Brooklin Brewery was first put on foot by A. Miller in 1872 at the corner of 18th Ave. and E. 14th St. In Berkeley there was the smaller West Berkeley Brewery, and a few years later the Hofburg Brewery. Victor Ruthardt had the Alameda Brewery between Railroad and Santa Clara Avenues. [Now that would be 6th Street, between Lincoln and Santa Clara Avenues. - MF]
Those were the days when visitors to Oakland were charmed by the beauty of the drives through the city and its suburbs. Streets were just being macadamized. Except in very wet winters the roads as far out as Berkeley, the Summit House on the San Pablo Range,
Fruit Vale, San Leandro, and Alameda Point were considered the most lovely of all suburban drives in California. Telegraph Ave. and San Pablo Ave. were the two great driveways north of town, and from them radiated numerous roads that led up and into the hills. Two beautiful drives led to Piedmont Springs, five miles from Oakland. One was by way of Broadway or Webster St., and the other out 12th St. to the Lake Road. There were markers (finger boards) at all crossroads pointing the way. By 1877 there was a substantial bridge across San Antonio Creek on line with Eighth St., a new entrance to what was once Brooklyn.
| Charles Lyons Brewery |
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| This 1878 Alameda West map shows Teutonia Park being the location corresponding to "3rd Ave bet Railroad and Santa Clara Aves" |
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| According to this 1878 map, Summit House was right near the Fish Ranch / Grizzly Peak intersection |
Kramm & Dieves
The brewery partnership of Charles Kramm and Joseph Dieves was a lifelong affair. Kramm had a son, Joseph, said to have been named for Dieves. Joseph Kramm was born Sept. 5, 1880. He was educated in Oakland schools and followed in his father's footsteps, eventually becoming a brewer. This was the Joseph Kramm who had the old Anchor (steam beer) Brewery at 49th St. and Shattuck Ave., across Shattuck from the old car barns that are now Verns Market. It was about this period that the Independent Brewery was located on Claremont Ave. at Clifton St., in later years the site of the Keva Mattress Co. and now the location of a Safeway store. Joseph Kramm married in 1905 and fathered the three daughters mentioned here earlier, as well as a son, Joseph W. Kramm, who died in 1953. Joseph Dieves died here in 1889. He had come to Oakland in 1858 and was occupied chiefly as an inn keeper in the early days. Some biographers name him as the founder of the Eagle Hotel on Broadway at Second St., but others insist it was the Eagle Rock Hotel in San Leandro. By 1861 he had a roadhouse on the old stage road to Stockton, [I believe the "old stage road to Stockton" is now Highway 4. - MF] and later the Three-Mile House on San Leandro Road. After this he had charge of the Continental Hotel in San Francisco, then returned to Oakland and took charge of the Cosmopolitan Hotel until 1868. It was then that he went back to Germany for a visit. When he returned he joined up with Kramm as a partner in the Oakland Brewery. Dieves had a son, also named Joseph, and young Joe also followed in his father's footsteps. He was given charge of the Three-Mile House and it was during his reign that the inn was famous as headquarters for sport figures. Pugilist Peter Jackson trained there, and politicians found young Joe Dieves a great aide in their campaigns for office. Also among his friends was Justis Daniel Plitt [I think it was "Justus." - MF] who for a time held the lease on the Piedmont Springs Hotel. Joe married Lillian Plitt, a daughter of Justis Daniel Plitt. So popular was the bride that all Oakland was soon calling her "Diamond Lil.” These were the same Oaklanders who cheered her ponies when they won at the old Oakland Trotting Park in Emeryville. But after her husband's death in July of 1901 she has lived quietly. She continues to call Oakland home. At present she is recovering at her home on Kenwyn Road [per Biography of Joseph Dieves it was 581 Kenwyn Road. - MF] from a fall in which she suffered a broken hip.
The Sage of '49 Flat
The Knave: Last spring I again visited the old mining camps of Volcano and Fiddletown. At Volcano I sought and visited the rocky knoll which holds the cave where the Masonic Lodge of the famous mining town was organized by the early miners. There are several entrances to the cave, one by a long flight of stairs up the tree-covered and rocky knoll. As I walked around the interesting old town with its stately ruins my memory recalled a visit of many years ago to this historic area. On the winding country road between Fiddletown and Volcano [Hale Rd. - MF] lived at the time a notable character by the name of Hart Barker.
He had mined in many of the Mother Lode camps with varying success and had joined the gold rush to the Klondike, where he had camped and mined alongside of Robert W. Service, the "poet of the Yukon," and Jack London, famous novelist. At the time of my visit Barker was reopening an abandoned tunnel into a mountain where he figured to recover a fortune. I parked my car in the little ravine below his cabin and climbed the winding trail to the small, tree-surrounded bench which he had named "Forty-Nine Flat". He arose from an outdoor table where guests were seated at lunch and came to meet me. Barker was a distinctive and picturesque individual with clear, sparkling eyes and a kindly, intelligent face. I brought him greetings from an old and intimate friend. He beamed with pleasure and bestowed on me every courtesy and hospitality. I shared his fried chicken dinner and cold lemonade along with his other guests. The little "flat" with its flower-surrounded cabin and well curb were most charming, and our host was a magnetic conversationalist. At length he took us to the mouth of his gold tunnel, explaining its 2,000-feet reach into an ancient riverbed where lay his expected treasure. Barker related stories of his past years in which he often took part in community pageants in which he played the part of James Marshall, Kit Carson and other distinguished golden day heroes. On one occasion at Sutter Creek where in a pageant Barker had played a leading part he stepped aside to recomb his long, windblown hair when a friend from the rear shouted: “Barker, you're a blankety-blank old sissy." Barker wheeled about with fight in his eyes, but mellowed into a hearty laugh with an old friend. As I took my departure from "Forty-Nine Flat” Hart Barker escorted me to my car. He bid me a gracious farewell. My country road led me past many mouldering cabins and stately stone ruins which added fragrant memory to an interesting episode.
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