E. G. Lyons Was Frisco’s “French Connection”

 Known in its early days as the “Paris of the Pacific,” San Francisco by 1852 boasted a population of at least 6,000 French immigrants, said to be the largest single foreign contingent in the burgeoning city until the Chinese arrived to build the railroads.  Among the French population was Paris-born Ernest Gabriel “E.G.” Lyons. Shown here, Lyons was destined to be remembered for his assistance to the French community while operating a thriving liquor and wine house, an enterprise that endured for years after his death. 

The tide of French immigration to America resulted from a period in France that brought political turmoil, strikes, riots and high unemployment.  That instability, along with the lure of gold, convinced French by the thousands to head for California.  Among them were Hughes and Amelie Lyons who brought their 18-year old son Ernest with them.  In 1852 Hughes went into the wine and liquor business in Sonora, a boom town during the Gold Rush.  For the next  decade, Ernest would work side by side with his father, learning the liquor trade.  With Hughes' death in 1861, amid a downturn in Sonoran mining activity, Ernest Lyons moved to San Francisco, below, his home for the rest  of his life.

During this period, Ernest also found time to marry.  In San Francisco he met and in 1862 wed Emilia Buser, a local girl of French ancestry.  He was 28 at the time of their nuptials, Emilia was 19.  The couple would produce a family of seven children.  Emilia is shown here later in life in a passport photo. 

Lyons’ sister was already in San Francisco, married to Jules Mayer, aka “Hayes.” The two men went into business together in an enterprise called E.G. Lyons & Company.  In 1865 the partners bought out Crevolin and Company, a French-owned wholesale dealership in wines and liquors located at 510 Jackson Street.  Lyons’ newspaper ads included a message from the Crevolins recommending the new ownership.  The building would be Lyons’ headquarters for the next 36 years.

As shown above, Lyons advertised his firm as liquor merchants. Its whiskey brands, neither trademarked, were “Pacific Club” and “Walnutine.”  Increasingly, however, company marketing was directed toward selling bitters.  One 1865 ad  featured no fewer than seven brands of bitters.  Of greatest importance to Lyons and his partner was their own label — Lyons’ Celebrated Stomach Bitters — advertised as: “A certain cure for dyspepsia, liver complaint, fever, and ague [malaria],  and all kinds of periodical disorders; a means of immediate relief in flux colitis and choleric maladies….”  This nostrum was sold in distinctive four sided bottles as shown below.

As the Lyons Company grew and expanded, Ernest was gaining a reputation among the French population for the helping hand he willingly held out his countrymen.  Among them were the French-born Sainsevain Brothers, Pierre and Kean Louis.  They had purchased the El Aliso vineyard in Los Angeles and immediately proceeded to expand its operations.  In 1857 they opened a store in San Francisco, and by 1858 they led the state with a production of 125,000 gallons of wine and brandy.

Among their customers was Lyons who sold wine under the “Belvista” brand and claimed to have trademarked it.  The colorful label featured the “Entrance to the Golden Gate” showing a masted schooner entering San Francisco harbor at sunset years before the famed bridge was built to the far shore.  The relationship with the Sainsevains reached fruition in January 1874 when the vintners gave exclusive rights to Lyons to bottle and merchandise Sainsevain’s Wine Bitters.  Lyons marketed this product from his Jackson Street headquarters under the name of Pioneer California Wine Depot.

Under Lyons’ guiding hand his business grew and prospered for some 28 years, making him one of San Francisco’s wealthiest men.  He never forgot his roots and became a prominent  figure among his fellow French.  At his death in February 1893 at the relatively early age of 59, he was much mourned by his countrymen.

The company Lyons built lived after him another 27 years.  His daughter Ida had married a Frenchman named Joseph C. Raas who became part of Lyons’ management team.  With his brother Andre as secretary, Joseph took over the presidency of the liquor house.  He renamed it E. G. Lyons & Raas and moved to a new address at Folsom and Essex Streets.  The Raases repositioned their brands to emphasize cordials, fruit brandies, cocktails, wines and juices.  Gone was company advertising for bitters and most brands of “hard” liquor.

The Raas brothers apparently saw that National Prohibition was coming.  When the ax fell in 1920, they seemingly made a quick and seamless switch to become the Lyons Cal Glace' Fruit Company, said at the time to be the world’s largest enterprise dealing in candied fruit products.  Thus was the legacy of Ernest Lyons carried forward “sweetly” into the ensuing 14 year ban on alcohol in America.

Notes:  This post was composed by referencing a number of Internet sources, among them an undated post by Warren Friedrich on Lyons bottles and material provided by Ferd Myers to the Virtual Museum of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC).  Those sources have been supplemented by data from ancestry.com.