Dorothy Burchnall (1827-1892)

Early Kalamazoo Brewster

Homebrewing currently accounts for more than 1% of total beer production in the United States, rather remarkable for a hobby. But there was a time in America when brewing was a routine domestic task. Housewives were often responsible for making their own beer and ale, right along with other daily duties like preparing and preserving food, baking, and child rearing. Professional female brewers became known as “brewsters.”

Recipes published locally during the summer of 1838 gave instructions for “cheap and agreeable table beer,” made with water, molasses, and yeast. “Spruce Beer” was made by adding spruce berries or needles to the same basic recipe. Some advocated brewing with the shells of green peas, which were said to closely resemble malt. Others added wintergreen and sassafras. A simple recipe for “very excellent” sugar beer called for water, sugar (or treacle), yeast and hops. The brew was “fit for drinking in a week,” but the writer cautioned that “this beer will not keep any length of time.”

Burchnall Brewery

The earliest brewers in Bronson (Kalamazoo) Village were family operations of the do-it-yourself variety and in many cases the women were in charge. One such brewery was located south of the village on the “Kalamazoo and Three Rivers Plank Road” (Lovers Lane) near Portage Creek, just north of where Milham Park is today. The earliest brewers in Bronson (Kalamazoo) Village were family operations of the do-it-yourself variety and in many cases the women were in charge. One such brewery was located south of the village on the “Kalamazoo and Three Rivers Plank Road” (Lovers Lane) near Portage Creek, just north of where Milham Park is today. The spot later became known as the Burchnall Woods, a favorite of local picnickers.

Already brewers by trade, Joseph and Dorothy (Nichols) Burchnall* departed from Liverpool, England, aboard the packet ship “John R. Skiddy” and arrived at the Port of New York on May 3, 1849. By 1858, the Burchnalls had found their way to Kalamazoo via Wisconsin and soon after established a brewery on their nine-acre farm just south of the village. According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, “This establishment was not a large one, in fact, it was a rather enlarged ‘home brew’ outfit, but the excellence of its product was scattered by all who loved beers and ales made in the real old English way.”

*Spelling of the last name varies considerably.

But their output during the 1860s was significant, and by 1865 Dorothy and Joe Burchnall had become the second largest beer producers (by taxable value) in Kalamazoo, averaging up to sixty barrels or more each month. Burchnall’s “Home Brewed Ale,” known around town as “Old Joe’s XX” (double X), was available at Joseph Moore’s Portage Street Grocery and Provision Store, and was “always on draught” at the Messmer & Seiler Billiard Saloon on South Burdick. As society would have it, Joe’s name was on the label, but the operation was clearly under Dorothy’s control.

By the end of the Civil War Joe’s health was failing, and Dorothy had become superintendent of the brewery with Andrew Lewis as her hired hand. After Joe’s death in 1873, Dorothy announced that she intended to remain in control of the operation and offered “to furnish private families with beer in quantities to suit.” Dorothy’s ginger ale was her specialty and could be ordered through special arrangement with Underwood’s Bakery inside Union Hall on Portage Street.

“We call attention to the advertisement of Mrs. Burchnell in to-day’s paper. Mrs. B. proposes to continue the business of her late husband, and is in all respects deserving of patronage.”

—Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph, 29 April 1873

“See notice of Mrs. Birchnell, in today’s paper. The article of Ginger Ale which she manufactures is a very excellent and healthful beverage. Give her a share of your patronage.”

—Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph, 18 May 1874

Plank Road Brewery

In 1876, Dorothy married an Englishman named Robert Walker and continued brewing for at least two more years. They called it the “Plank Road Brewery” for a time with Robert Walker listed as proprietor, but it was Mrs. Dorothy Walker who paid the $52.79 tax bill to the township in 1877 for the “manufacture of malt liquors” under a “Class B” brewer’s license. There was no mention of a commercial brewery on the Burchnall property after that time.

By 1881, Dorothy Walker was listed as a lone resident on her farm, perhaps widowed once again. Dorothy Burchnall (Walker) passed away a widow at the age of 67 in April 1892. A few months later, an accidental fire leveled her house and the old barn that had once served as her brewery.

By the way… if the Burchnall name sounds familiar, it might be because their grandson was Joseph Burchnall “Colonel Joe” Westnedge, Kalamazoo’s beloved World War I hero. Yes indeed, Colonel Joe’s grandmom was a brewster!

Written by Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library Staff, 2011. Revised and edited December 2019.