"In 1870 Friedrich and Heinrich Schmidt sold their grocery store and bought Peter Herancourt's 'Box' Brewery at Central Avenue and Kindel Street. They paid $1500. The Schmidts brewed the so-called 'common beer' and ale. in 1871 the brothers sold $2916.71 in beer. Heinrich left the partnership in 1875. Shortly thereafter Friedrich Schmidt and his new partner Henry Adam bought George Bach's brewery on McMicken Avenue. In December of that year, Adam sold his share to Louis Prell and the company became Schmidt and Prell. In September, 1876, Prell died, and his widow sold her share to Schmidt. A month later Heinrich rejoined his brother as an equal partner. The company was called Schmidt and Brother.
Heinrich Schmidt died in 1891. Friedrich Schmidt then formed a stock company on April 1, 1891 under the name Schmidt Brothers Brewing Company. He was president; August Forn, vice-president; Jacob Frey, secretary and treasurer. The brewery advertisement boasted that 'Crown Beer had a reputation second to none in the city.'
When Friedrich died in 1898, his widow took over the leadership of the company. When she died in 1905, Gerhardt Schmidt and George Lampe bought the brewery. They called it the Crown Brewery.
in 1906 Meyer Silverglade left the Ohio Brewery and became the vice-president and controlling stock holder of the Crown Brewery. George Lampe was president.
By 1915 the brewery produced 'Happy Days' beer. During Prohibition after 1919 the brewery tried to survive by making a near beer called 'Tang', but the business closed before 1933." Cincinnati Breweries, Second Edition, Robert J. Wimberg (1997)
