Bulletin Article - September 2007
THE GEORGE F. BAUER COOPERAGE
by Don Wallace
In 1998 I invited the late Albert Bauer into our Museum Cellars to see the cooper's tool collection that his father, Harry Bauer , had left in the cellar in 1963 when he sold this mansion, which we now call Greenfield Hall, to the Historical Society of Haddonfield. Thus began a short series of interviews with “ Bert ” regarding a prime source of our cooper's tool collection about the George F. Bauer Cooperage Works in Brewerytown, Philadelphia .
The second major source of cooper's tools was the Wood Farm (now the “Estate Section” of Haddonfield). Those tools were also collected by Harry Bauer . Without a mark such as “ G.F. Bauer ” or “ J. Wood ” on some of these tools, it is impossible to say from which source those tools came. I have also added a few coopers' tools that were not then represented in the collection for the sake of interest, more completeness, and the subjects of a more thorough research potential.
The founder of the Bauer Cooperage was George F. Bauer , father of Harry Bauer and Bert 's grandfather, in 1900 at 1415 N. 31 St. Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . A very successful enterprise, it became the source of the Bauer family's wealth until the advent of the steel beer keg, after World War II was over, made the wooden beer barrel virtually obsolete by 1950.
Bert made an audible gasp when he saw this collection that his father had left with the house. You see, Bert , too,was a tool collector!As we entered his former home here, Bert wondered aloud about the name “Greenfield Hall,” because the Bauers had always called their mansion “The Boxwoods.” “My mail was addressed only as ‘ Albert Bauer , The Boxwoods, Haddonfield , New Jersey ,'” he exclaimed!
Bert and Mary (Tomlinson) Bauer lived in this home when they were first married. Just this March, 2007, Mary let me borrow eight pictures of the Bauer Cooperage Works that have hung in their sitting room for many years. They were copied professionally by Norm Stuessy , our graphics volunteer, who donated a set for Mary and a set for us which are currently framed and sitting among the tools in the cooper's collection, available for up-close inspection. You can see a cooper's bow saw in the picture of the employees and founder (dated 1907)which now actually hangs above our other tools, and a set of very large dividers used by the cooper to scribe the larger barrel-heads (ours are for smaller barrel-heads). You can also see a view of the drying yards with barrel staves stacked high to air-dry in “ricks” and “beehives.” Another set of these photos is now also in the hands of Carl Bopp, my mentor in tool collecting, who is also researching the Bauer Cooperage with special emphasis on the unusual drawing-bench (schnitzelbank) made by John Veit, plane-maker of Philadelphia. We have several Veit planes in our collection that you should ask to see.
Mary Bauer has also donated a wantage rod to our collection which is imprinted:“COMPLIMENTS OF GEORGE F. BAUER COOPERAGE WORKS, 1415 N. 31 St. Phila , Pa. ” and is in mint condition. This rod was used to measure the remaining contents of a barrel in order to determine how much more beer (or wine) is “wanted” in order to fill the barrel up. In other words, it is a technological dip-stick used to measure the valuable content of these barrels that had to be made to very tight government specifications of plus-or-minus two fluid ounces. You see, the contents were taxed! Perhaps now you can appreciate the skill of the beer-barrel cooper who was the premier cooper in the land. He was the most respected of all the coopers for the accuracy required of his product in a craft that was more art than science.