An 1897 biography characterized Basilius Winter as “a self-made man who, without extraordinary family or pecuniary advantage at the commencement of life, has battled earnestly and energetically, and by indomitable courage and integrity has achieved both character and fortune.” Without in the least denigrating the achievements of this Rock Island, Illinois, wholesale liquor dealer, Winter had more than one helping hand along the way.
Born in a farm on Rhine River near Haibach, Bavaria, the son of Joseph and Mary (Dauber) Winter, in July 1849, Basilius, shown here in adulthood, was brought to America by his parents in 1853 and settled on a farm in Henry County, Illinois. The family apparently was drawn to this northwestern corner of the state by kinship with other German emigres.
In 1852, his mother’s sister, Theresa Dauber, had married Peter Fries, also a Bavarian native who had emigrated to the U.S. several years earlier and initially struggled to find a niche. Shown here, Fries had a rocky start in America. He had failed in the tanning business in Pennsylvania and fared no better at that trade in Illinois. A subsequent effort manufacturing vinegar in Iowa also proved unsatisfactory. In 1854, he moved to Rock Island and there, as a biographer put it, “now fortune smiled on Mr. Fries.” He prospered as a distiller, rectifier, wholesale dealer in whiskey, and more.
By the time Basilius had reached his late teens, his Uncle Peter was a rich man, “whose personality was strongly impressed upon Rock Island County” as a merchant, banker and real estate mogul. Fries reached out to the young Winter and took him into his liquor house, teaching him the business. The young man worked intermittently with his uncle over the next 13 years.
In 1880, Winter at the age of 31 struck out on his own in the whiskey trade, but not entirely. He formed a partnership with James E. Mott, calling the firm “Mott & Winter.” Mott was one of Rock Island’s most respected businessmen and a recognized “old settler.” He had roots in the community that helped insure success for their business, advertised as “rectifiers, wholesale dealers and importers of wines and liquors.”
Winter’s move may have been triggered by his growing family responsibilities. In December 1871, he married Lizzie Bartermeier of Davenport, Iowa. The couple had four children in rapid succession, two sons and two daughters, one of whom died in infancy. Eleven years after their marriage, Lizzie also died, leaving Basilius with three minor children. Two years later he married Lizzie’s younger sister, Johanna Bartermeier, a union that produced four more children, two sons and two daughters. Shown here is the family home at 526 Twenty-third Street as it looks today.
In 1885 James Mott retired, selling his share in the liquor house going to another well-known Rock Island businessman, Henry Lemberg, president of a local savings and loan institution. Lemberg’s connections also were a definite boon to the company that now became “Winter & Lemberg.”
Only when Lemberg retired five years later did Winter become a sole proprietor, establishing “B. Winter, Wholesale Dealer and Importer of Wines and Liquors.” His enterprise was located in a substantial two-story brick building at 1616-1618 Third Avenue, a major Rock Island commercial street. By this time his sons were reaching maturity. Louis J. Winter became the bookkeeper and other Winter boys worked in the firm.
Winters gained attention for a nostrum he had concocted called Winter’s Stomach Bitters. Shown here is a illustrated ad that shows a corpulent gent who used Winter’s Bitters and a scarecrow of a man who “will hereafter.” “Everyone drinks it and keeps well,” trumpeted the ad. U.S. authorities branded these remedies as “booze medicine,” with alcohol as the principal ingredient and having little or no medicinal value. Nonetheless, Basilius’ bitters apparently proved popular with the public and he profited handsomely even after paying the special bitters tax required by the IRS. He bottled his stomach bitters in square amber bottles, shown below, cherished today by collectors.
Winter also was coming to public notice in Rock Island through his civic activities, particularly with German-American organizations, helping found the local Turner organization and active in Maennerchor, a German singing and social group. A charter member of the Rock Island Volunteer Fire Department, Basilius also held memberships in the Moose Lodge and St. Mary’s Catholic Church. These multiple connections let to his involvement in politics. A Democrat, Winter was elected three times in the 1880-1890s to the Rock Island City Council. According to a contemporary biography: “He is an influential and popular member of that body and the duties of his office he has most faithfully and capably performed….”
Beginning in the early 1890s Winter’s health began to decline as he was plagued with frequent bouts of asthma. A picture of him in advanced age when compared to an earlier photo above suggests the toll the malady was taking on him. Nevertheless, Basilius continued to be active in business and the community. 
Just before Christmas in 1910, however, Winter's breathing problems intensified over a two day period. He died, age 61, on December 23 at his home with family members gathered around his bedside. After a funeral service at his parish church he was buried in Rock Island’s Calvary Cemetery, joining his first wife, Lizzie, and other family members in the Winter family plot. His second wife, Johanna, would join them there 28 years later.
“The Biographical Record of Rock Island County Illinois” (1897), from which earlier quotes were taken, emphasized the theme that Winter was “self-made,” stating: “Although he started out in life for himself empty-handed, he is now the head of a large and profitable business, the result of his own industry, enterprise and good management.”
Even if Winter were flattered to read those words, he must have known deep in his heart that his uncle Peter Fries and his former partners, Mssrs. Mott and Lemberg, had been instrumental in boosting him upward toward his business and political success. The proprietor of "Good Luck Bourbon," Basilius Winter was not “self-made” but “self-directed,” that is, able to make the most of the opportunities that came his way.
Notes: The Biographical Record of Rock Island County cited above was published by the S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. of Chicago. Another important reference was Winter’s obituary that ran Dec. 24, 1910, in the Rock Island Argus. Thanks go to Ferd Meyer for permission to use photos of his Winter’s bottles and other material from his October 12, 2014, post on his always interesting Peachridge Glass website.
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