The Leisy Brewing Company (f. 1873) was established by Isaac Leisy & Co. on the near west side of Cleveland, Ohio. Leisy was an Iowa brewer who purchased Cleveland's Haltnorth Brewery with help from his brothers August and Henry. Branches throughout Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and Indiana distributed Premium Lager beer. After several plant improvements and enlargements, seventy-five employees were producing 90,000 barrels a year by 1890. After reaching a peak of 355,000 barrels in 1917, prohibition closed the plant until 1935. In the 1950s, Leisy Light, Dortmunder, and Mello-Gold beer were distributed in many of the Great Lakes states and Kentucky. But in 1959 the company closed citing rising taxes as an obstacle to effective competition with larger breweries. At the time of its demise, Leisy was Cleveland's oldest brewery and one of the oldest family-operated breweries in America.
The Leisy Brewing Company Records, 1838-1975 and undated, consist of incorporation papers, patent and trademark papers, newspaper clippings, a company history, papers relating to Otto Leisy's early life, scrapbooks, bottle labels, advertising posters and pamphlets, and a monthly sales record book.
This collection is useful for understanding a local German family brewery's incorporation, its sales, and its promotions. Those studying the history of business and entrepreneurship in Cleveland, Ohio, in the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century will find this collection useful.
The collection is arranged by document type and then chronologically.
The researcher should also consult PG 422 Leisy Brewing Company Photographs.
Processed by Daniel J. Linke in 1988.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4143 Leisy Brewing Company Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Herbert F. Leisy, 1975.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.