In baseball it takes three strikes and “you’re out!” In contrast, Henry Campe discovered that after his three partnerships in the San Francisco liquor trade had failed, going it alone could mean success. His liquor house survived for 30 years, providing a range of artifacts to remember Campe, a man who refused to give up.
Census records from 1870,1880 and 1900 differ widely about when Henry Campe was born in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. The date cited on Ancestry.com from the 1900 census is 1846. That means Henry was brought to the United States when he was six years old. The names of his parents have gone unrecorded, as has his education and early career.
Campe first appeared in the census of 1870 living in San Francisco. His Ancestry entry cites his wife as Anna Bearden, born in 1845 in New York. She was the mother of Campe’s son, Harry M., and two daughters, Anna and Mary. Although the date of Anna’s death is not recorded, by 1878 Henry had married again. She was Elise Thode, 30, born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. They also would have children.
The confusion in Campe’s census records carries over to his career selling liquor. The highly respected author of the Western Whiskey Gazette blog, signing himself as JSGlass, cites Campe as “a true survivor, lasting through three failed partnerships.” He records Campe’s ultimately ended collaborations with George Siebe, Henry Wolters and Henry Decker, the last a partner who apparently died within a year. I have found a “certificate of copartnership” between Campe and Siebe dated January 1, 1884, but nothing on Wolters or Decker.
JSGlass suggests that these failed partnerships ultimately impelled the German immigrant to strike out on his own, creating Henry Campe & Company. In 1888 he initially located his liquor house at 301 Front Street. With the growing success of his enterprise there years later he moved to larger quarters at 221-225 Front. Campe was a liquor retailer and wholesaler, selling his whiskeys and other alcoholic products to San Francisco’s saloons, hotels and restaurants.
The company used the brand names: “Americus Club,” "Black Eagle,” "Briar Rose,” Edgedale," “Ferndew,” and "Old Campe.” Americus Club was its flagship label. Packaged in attractive square-bodied flasks, shown above, this whiskey also came in a “pony” size that replicated the larger bottles, shown right. The company did not register any of its proprietary brands with the government until after 1905 when Congress strengthened the laws. The company then trademarked Ferndew in 1905, Old Campe and Briar Rose in 1906 and Americus Club in 1907. It also warned on the rear of its bottles: “Some unscrupulous dealers make it a practice to REFILL our flasks allowing the labels to remain intact.” To discourage this practice, Campe put a strip with his name over the cap. If broken or missing it was evidence that the flask had been refilled.
As his son Harry reached maturity, his father took him into the firm and taught him the fine points of whiskey merchandising. That would have included the art and science of “rectifying” raw whiskeys for the company’s proprietary brands, That is, blending batches of raw whiskeys obtained from California and out-of-state distilleries to achieve desired color, smoothness and taste.
The 1900 census found Campe living in a spacious three-story San Francisco townhouse at 20 Devisadero St., shown here as it looks today. With him was his wife, Elise; daughter Clara, 21, and son George,13. As he aged Campe’s heath deteriorated. Suffering from chronic heart disease and kidney problems in September of 1900 he died at the age of 54 and was cremated.
By this time, his eldest son, Harry Campe, 35, was fully capable of taking over and operating the liquor business his father had founded. Retaining the company name, he moved the store to 53-61 Drumm Street, the building shown here and brought his half- brother, George, into management. The liquor house continued to thrive.
Given the timeframes, I credit Henry’s boys with trademarking the proprietary brands and issuing many of the artifacts associated with the Campe name. Those likely included the attractive back-of-the-bar bottles that were given to saloons, hotels and restaurants featuring Campe products. Shown above are two bottles advertising Edgedale and Briar Rose whiskeys. To both wholesale and retail companies might be given etched shot glasses advertising Americus Club and other house labels.
Of particular note were the serving and tip trays the Campes gifted to customers. Although such trays were a common give-away item from distilleries and wholesale liquor houses, many of them bore stock pictures of comely women, animals and other scenes. By contrast the Campes went the extra mile on cost and designed their trays to present their distinctive Amicus Club whiskey bottle.
Even more interesting is an artifact that I assume is a blue metal ashtray, with an elderly man smoking a long pipe. He is identified as “Old Tom,” advertising “London Club Gin.” Near the base it says “Compliments of Henry Campe & Co.” After years of looking at liquor artifacts, I have seen nothing comparable.
Harry Campe operated the company as president for the next 16 years until his own health failed and he died. George Campe became president until 1919 when the firm was shut down by the advent of National Prohibition. The liquor house that the German immigrant founded had prospered thirty years under family management. For Henry Campe striking out early in business turned out to be a prelude to hitting a home run.
Note: This post relies heavily on the account of Henry Campe provided in the Western Whiskey Gazette blog from JSGlass, dated May 5, 2013, both for facts and photos. Other information came from genealogical and bottle sites.
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