Adolph George Bechaud, one of the founders of the Empire Brewery of Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin was born in Dirmstein, Germany.  He was the first child of Mary Josephine and Jean Pierre Bechaud, a farmer of some means.  In 1850 his parents brought him and his five siblings to America and settled in Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin.  Here Jean Pierre purchased some farmland and established a tavern or a German society called Stadt Mainz (c:1857) in the town of Taycheedah.  Later he went into business with Paul Hauser in a brewery.  It is here that Adolph G. Bechaud would learn the brewer's art.

A digression:  During the French Revolution (1789-1799) a General Jean Pierre Béchaud, rose through the ranks from the army of the old Monarchy to a General under Napoleon.  Béchaud's accomplishments were declared so important they earned him an inscription on the Arc De Triomphe in Paris.  While it is unknown if the General is a relative of the Taycheedah brewer, his heroism would have likely been knowledge in the home of his namesake.

So it was that when the Civil War in America broke out, Adolph George Bechaud, who was just turning 21, felt the call of his adopted country and enlisted in the Union Army.  Bechaud, like his possible ancestor, showed heroism and bravery, and by war's end he had risen to the rank of Captain.  After the war Bechaud returned to Taycheedah and worked with his father, who had left the partnership with Paul Hauser to start his own brewery in town.  When the brewery burned down in around 1871, Adolph and his father relocated a few miles west to the town of Fond Du Lac and persuaded the rest of the family to start a brewery there.

The Empire Brewery was built at 601 Main Street in 1871 with brothers Adolph George, Armand Royal, John Bates, and Frank Henry Bechaud and their father John Pierre.  By the time the patriarch died in 1876 the brewery had been relocated to Eleventh west of Hickory.  

On August 11th, 1871 Adolph Bechaud married Elizabeth Kramer.  They had ten children together over the span of twenty years.  This generation of Bechauds would usher the family business into the 20th century.

By the 1880s the Bechaud Bros. Empire Brewery was recognized as the largest breweries in the county.  The structure burned down in January of 1884 and was rebuilt despite having insufficient insurance.  It continued to grow in regional dominance for the next several decades. 

On January 16th 1919 Nebraska ratified the 18th Amendment and National Prohibition was declared to take effect exactly one year later.  In Fond Du Lac, Adolph Bechaud saw his life's work and family business forced into an unnatural end.  Several weeks later he fell ill.  He never recovered, and died on March 5th at the age of 78.  

Under the direction of the next generation of Bechauds the brewery survived through Prohibition and reopened upon repeal in 1933.  But the world was different and competition from the Milwaukee breweries was too fierce, and Bechaud's Brewery closed its doors forever in 1941.

Learn more at the links below

Associated Breweries