Image Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society
Haley Gagliano
Have you ever heard of spruce beer?
Spruce beer is flavored with the buds, needles or essence of spruce trees.
The beverage created from evergreen needles has a resinous, piney flavor — which is an acquired taste. It can be alcoholic or non-alcoholic, and it has been around for centuries. In the 18th century, the British navy depended on it to prevent scurvy, and American colonists, surrounded by evergreen forests, were fond of it as well.
Charles Chatfield of La Crosse founded a bottling company in 1885, where this glass bottle was filled.
Consumers used to buy their soda, drink it and return the empty glass bottle to the company that owned it. From there it would be washed and rebottled with a new drink. Because of this, the glass was thicker and higher quality than glass bottles we think of today, and the bottles all proclaimed the name of the company that owned them in embossed glass. Chatfield, along with H. Griswold, were the manufacturers of spruce beer along with cider, mineral water and other beverages.
Chatfield was born on Sept. 24, 1838, in Albany, New York. He was a Civil War veteran who was well known for being versatile. He worked several different jobs aside from being a soldier and traveled around the country before settling in La Crosse in 1865.
In 1856, Chatfield journeyed to Michigan and operated as a lumberman for three years. After this, he traveled to Illinois, where he eventually enlisted in the Army on Sept. 25, 1861.
Chatfield moved to La Crosse in 1865 and stayed for the remainder of his life. While he found a home to settle down in, Chatfield remained a busy man and constantly found new ways to occupy his time and pay the bills.
He worked as a carpenter in La Crosse from 1873 to 1881. In 1881, Chatfield established his reputation as a manufacturer where he began producing all types of carbonated drinks, and eventually became a spruce beer manufacturer.
Chatfield had a lingering illness his last two years and died on March 12, 1903, at his home.
This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on November 16, 2019.
