1. Robert Portner was an American grocer-turned-brewer who supplied beer to Union troops during the American Civil War.
19 Facts About Robert Portner
1. 2.
Robert Portner was born in Rahden, Westphalia, Prussia, on March 20,1837, and migrated to the United States in 1853.
3.
Robert Portner spent eight years in New York and tried his hand at many professions, including baker, tobacconist, and saloon-keeper.
4.
In 1861, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Robert Portner traveled south to Alexandria, Virginia, where he bought a grocery store with his friend Frederick Recker.
5.
Recker kept the grocery store and Robert Portner focused on expanding the brewery.
6.
Robert Portner learned the brewing process and eventually brewed enough to require storage cellars.
7.
Robert Portner was in debt at the time and asked for extensions on his loans.
8.
The brewery continued to grow and Robert Portner was able to pay off his debts.
9.
Robert Portner patented a system for chilling lager as well as an ice-making machine that improved the quality of his beer.
10.
Robert Portner eventually had fifty refrigerated train cars used to ship his product.
11.
In 1883, Robert Portner had his brewery incorporated and sold shares of stock to his most successful employees.
12.
In 1869, Robert Portner was visited by Christian Mathis and Peter Valaer with an invitation to join Peter's brother Jacob as a partner in his brewery and winter garden in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
13.
Robert Portner visited Valaer's business, and though he was interested he knew he could not extract himself from his brewery in Alexandria.
14.
Robert and Anna Portner would go on to have 13 children.
15.
In 1883, Robert Portner bought Mathis' estate in Manassas, Virginia, Virginia.
16.
Robert Portner managed to turn miles of battle-scarred earth and scraggly cornfields into lush pastures for his stock and horse farms, successfully establish a dairy farm at Liberia, and considerably expand Mathis' original orchards and vineyards.
17.
Annaburg featured a 300-acre fenced in deer park where Robert Portner often held deer and quail hunting parties.
18.
Robert Portner had the house moved and, working with prominent Washington, DC architect Gustav Friebus, Portner designed a new home that would combine elements of his favorite European mansions.
19.
Robert Portner took multiple trips to Europe to recuperate, none of which helped long term.