Frank Jones was a marketing genius. Originally a farmhand and a rag picker, Jones bought out John Swindell’s brewery in 1859 and cleverly named it after himself. His Frank Jones Brewery produced countless barrels of Frank Jones Ale from his expansive West End facility. Shipped by rail, beer spread the Jones “brand” as far as New Brunswick and Pennsylvania. Jones campaigned boisterously for mayor, governor, and congressman in New Hampshire. He owned banks, hotels, insurance companies, railroads, utilities, and racing stables. He even carved his own profile into the face of the Rockingham Hotel. He now molds beneath the tallest tombstone in the state.
But what of Heman Eldredge, who founded what was to become Eldredge Brewery while Jones was still selling stoves in his little shop on Market Street? Heman (not “Herman”) is a Hebrew name that translates as “faithful.” Heman and his sons Marcellus and H. Fisher Eldredge were key competitors of Jones. They operated a large brewery on what is now Bartlett Street. But until today — maybe — we’ve never seen the face of the second most successful brewer in town.
Snowbound on eBay
Thank heaven for the Internet. Driven indoors by frigid temperatures and stranded under six-foot snowdrifts, I tend to live online, reading and writing about local history. One winter I purchased 10 small photographs, called “carte de visite,” from an online auction. All but one of these playing card-sized portraits (about 2.5 x 4 inches) were taken by the Davis Brothers when their studio was located at 15 and 17 Pleasant Street. Only one card depicts a woman. Eight of the anonymous men are lost to history. But the name “Mr. Eldridge” is penciled across the bottom of one card.
If not for blizzard after blizzard, I might have set that little portrait aside. But the face of the 50-something gentleman was intriguing, and I wasn’t going anywhere. An hour or two of Web surfing turned up a local newspaper ad for J. Eldredge & Sons, formerly J. & H. Eldredge, wholesale dealers in corn, grain, and flour. According to the Portsmouth City Directory of 1851, Joshua and Heman Eldredge were shipping agents, running regular “packet boats” from New York to Nantucket and Portsmouth, with offices here at 75 and 77 Market Street. It would have been a natural progression from importing hops and barley to investing in the brewery business.
It was the man’s crazy beard that kept me digging. Both Joshua and Heman were called “Captain” Eldredge, and hailed from the Cape Cod area. New England mariners are renowned for their funky facial hair. The Eldredge in my photo is clean shaven straight down to the center of his chin. From there a neatly-trimmed white beard hangs down to his collar like a permanent turtle-neck sweater.
Spelling doesn’t count. The Eldredge name is spelled a variety of ways, including “Eldridge.” The timing for the photo is right. One Capt. Heman Eldredge (died 1872, aged 55) is buried beneath an impressively tall tombstone column in Chatham, Massachusetts. Another Capt. Heman Eldredge died in 1886 and is buried at Nantucket. Capt. Joshua Eldridge (1792-1861) is buried in Yarmouth. I’ll bet you the $10 I spent on eBay that my guy is one of these three.
Fathers and sons
Ray Brighton, author of the only biography of “ale king” Frank Jones, credits Heman Eldredge as the founder of Eldredge Brewery. Historian Glenn Knoblock of Wolfeboro, author of Brewing in New Hampshire, notes that the company was originally called M. Fisher Brewing Company. It appears to have been in operation from 1858 and was later run, in turn, by Heman’s sons Marcellus Eldredge and H. Fisher Eldredge. Both brothers were born on Cape Cod in Chatham, Massachusetts. In 1870 Portsmouth’s second largest beer-making plant was renamed H. Eldredge & Son, eventually shortened to Eldredge Brewing Company, makers of Portsmouth Ale.
The company’s origin is still fuzzy, and answers may yet lie in the archives of the Fisher family. (The 1860 Portsmouth Directory lists M. Fisher & Co. at 58 1/2 Market Street and Frank Jones’ stove store a few feet away at 61 Market Street.) Glenn Knoblock suggests that, there may be more to the brewing partnership of Heman Eldredge and M. Fisher than meets the eye. (One son, remember, was named Heman Fisher Eldredge.) There may have been additional connections from the female side of the family, Knoblock notes.
Portsmouth beer historian Russell Hammer agrees. “That was pretty common back then,” Russ told me from his vacation site in North Carolina. “You see a lot of breweries across the country where they married in, they married the owners daughter.”
Every large town had its local craft beer brewer. The mid-to-late 19th century boom in beer sales, Russ Hammer says, came from high-tech manufacturing techniques, an expanding labor force, mass production, refrigeration, and expanded railroad lines.
“Know the real reason they got so rich?” Russ laughs, “There was no income tax.”
Neither Russ Hammer nor Glenn Knoblock remembered ever seeing a picture of the Eldredge patriarch.
As the second largest brewer in the region, the company made the Eldredge family wealthy. Like Frank Jones, its owners vacationed in luxury and style. And like Jones, Heman Eldredge owned race horses. His sons summered in Chatham and built grand mansions.
But unlike stingy Mr. Jones, the Eldredge family was known for their philanthropy. Marcellus purchased land and donated $30,000 for the creation of the Eldredge Public Library in Chatham. Brother Heman Fisher Eldredge donated the books. Chatham officials were reluctant, at first, to accept money from a beer company during the rise of the temperance movement. Mrs. Heman Eldredge, according to local legend, held temperance meetings weekly in a barn that had been shipped to their Chatham property by boat from Portsmouth. In the end, the city relented, and a beautiful granite, brick, oak, and slate library building opened in Chatham in 1896.
Mayor Eldredge
Young Marcellus Eldredge arrived in Portsmouth in 1852 and clerked in his father’s shipping company. He became a clerk in the brewing company in 1858 when his father partnered with M. Fisher. Marcellus advanced to become president and treasurer of the Eldredge Brewery by 1875. Although a key competitor of Frank Jones, Marcellus remained a friend and political ally to Jones. Friends called him “Cel.” Frank Jones became mayor of Portsmouth in 1868, and served in the NH House of Representatives, but failed in his bid to become governor of New Hampshire. Marcellus Eldredge was a state senator in 1876-77 and served as mayor of Portsmouth in 1885-86. Wealthy brewers holding political office, contemporary critics complained, was nothing more than a “rumocracy.”
It was as mayor that Marcellus created a tribute to his father, although the sentiment has long been forgotten. Marcellus purchased a plot of land on Islington Street to honor the late Captain Heman Eldredge with a park. Now known as Goodwin Park, the location was across the street from the Gov. Goodwin Mansion, but the mansion was moved to Strawbery Banke Museum in the 1960s. Eldredge raised funds for the Sailors and Soldiers war memorial that, after a recent costly restoration, still stands in the park today.
After his retirement, Marcellus and his wife summered in Chatham and wintered in Boston. Their demise made the New York Times in March of 1898. Portsmouth’s former mayor expired in Boston after a two week illness. Six hours later his wife, who had been suffering from “an incurable disease,” also passed away. “Mr. Eldredge’s death probably was due to anxiety over his wife’s condition,” the Times reported, “and on the other hand, her decease undoubtedly by grief.”
It wasn’t easy, but I found a picture of both Eldredge sons online. My carte de visite is definitely neither man. My Mr. Eldredge is a man of an earlier era, and very likely a man of the sea.
“If you think you’re right,” a prominent New Hampshire historian once told me, “then stand up and say so. It’s up to the next historian to prove you wrong.”
I’ll pass a copy of this article along to the Eldredge Public Library and the Chatham Historical Society. Their photographic records may quickly overturn my theory. But until then — if only briefly — please let me introduce you to Capt. Heman Eldredge, Portsmouth’s “other” ale tycoon.
(c) J.. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved.
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