Search results

Title: Bill Jones
Description: Williams 'Bill' Jones discusses his father, Parker Jones’s, career at the Chr. Heurich Brewing Co. from the 1930s - 1950s, and life beyond. Discusses working in the brewery’s ice house, on delivery trucks, recollections of Christian Heurich using firecrackers to keep workers on task, mentions some of Parker’s co-workers, Parker’s work as comptroller of the brewery, and his later career and involvement in church. Also discusses Bill’s youth in the D.C. suburbs, military career, and later life., William “Bill” Jones was born in 1960 and grew up in District Heights, Maryland, where he lives now. He served in the U.S. Air Force and remained in the reserves when he ended his active duty career. He attended Washington College where he studied history and political science, and eventually went to law school and later earned a master’s in history at the University of New Hampshire. He returned to Maryland when his parents began to age and worked in the intelligence community as a lawyer. Bill’s father Parker was born in 1914 and grew up on a farm in Centennial, West Virginia, on the border of Virginia. He came to Washington during the Great Depression to earn a living and make something of himself off the farm. Parker worked his way up in the brewery, working in the ice plant while he went to school, and eventually becoming the brewery’s comptroller and closing out the account books and finances of the brewery when it closed. He soon found work at the Mechanics’ Union where he was their chief accountant.

Title: Chris Squier
Description: Chris Squier discusses Jacobsen and Heurich family history and legacies, Chris’s experiences growing up in New Jersey and visiting his family in Washington, D.C., his college years, his career in the beer industry, his interpretation of the American Dream means and how it is changing. Chris shares memories of his grandfather Charles J. Jacobsen, a career Air Force officer, and stories of his great-grandfather Christian F. Jacobsen, who had a long and successful career as a banker at Metropolitan Bank in Washington, D.C. Also discussion about his role as the “keeper” of family history and legacies and his interest in learning more about that history., Christian (Chris) Squier was born in 1965 to Donald Squier and Karla Jacobsen Squier. On his mother Karla’s side, he is descended from Elizabeth Heurich Jacobsen, Christian Heurich’s sister. He grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey and visited his extended family in Washington, D.C. often for holidays. He attended Pfeiffer College in North Carolina, where he played lacrosse. He eventually settled in the Charlotte area where he raised two daughters and built a career as a beer marketer and salesperson at Anheuser-Busch before working as a regional sales manager at Craft Brew Alliance, where he was employed at the time of the oral history interview. Chris is interested in learning more about his family history on the Jacobsen-Heurich side and collects bottles, labels, and other items from the Christian Heurich Brewing Company and the Arlington Bottling Company. During the early – mid twentieth century, the Jacobsen family were important entrepreneurs, bankers, and members of Washington society. At the turn of the twentieth century, they owned the Arlington Bottling Company, which bottled the beer that the Christian Heurich Brewing Company produced. Other Jacobsen family businesses included a laundry business, Ford dealership, hotel, and florist shop in the Willard Hotel.

Title: Jan Evans
Description: Discusses Jan’s childhood and schooling in Washington, D.C., her recollections of the brewery as a male-dominated sphere, her memories of visiting and staying with her grandparents Christian and Amelia Heurich, and her relationship with Amelia in particular. Also discusses memories and stories from her mother, Karla. Includes discussion about German heritage, Christian’s immigration and American Dream story, and the long history of military service in her family., Jan Allison Evans was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 22, 1932 to Karla Heurich and Charles King, who was killed at Normandy during World War II. Her grandparents on her mother’s side were Christian and Amelia Heurich. Jan was an “army brat” who spent time in different places growing up but had strong connections to Washington, D.C., and to her grandparents, especially Amelia. She graduated high school from the Cathedral School while living with her aunt Anita in Washington, as her mother and stepfather were stationed in Japan, where Jan had also lived for a year. While in Japan, she met her future husband, Lt. Benjamin Crabbs Evans Junior, with whom she had two daughters - Karla and Louise. Her engagement to Evans was announced at the annual Christmas Party at the Chr. Heurich Brewing Co. by her uncle, Chris Heurich, Jr. Jan was active in local Republican politics and has served on numerous boards and committees, including the American Red Cross. Jan, along with her cousin Gary Heurich, was largely responsible for establishing the Heurich House Museum. Today she lives at the Fox Hill Residences in Bethesda, Maryland.

Title: Mark Keyser
Description: Mark Keyser discusses his childhood visits to Washington, D.C. and his recollections of his grandfather, Adolph Kaiser, his Aunt Amelia Heurich and visiting her at the Heurich House, and her sisters. He discusses his father Karl Anton Keyser's U.S. Navy service during World War II, along with ancestors on the Dilger side of his family and their service in the Civil War. One Dilger relative was a German operative working in D.C. during World War I. Although Mark does not have strong memories of the brewery itself, he does recall that the brewery's stables that later became a wax museum. Mark also reflects on stories he had heard about Christian Heurich, his generosity, and on his legacy in the family, recognizing that Christian likely provided financial assistance to the Keysers at times., Mark Keyser was born in 1950 in Northampton, Massachusetts to Karl Anton Keyser (1918-1995) and Dorothy M. Borger (1923-2003). He grew up near Amherst in a veterans’ housing project and visited his extended family in Washington, D.C. as a boy. Today Mark lives in Seabrook, New Hampshire, where he was enjoying a career as a substitute teacher until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in February/March 2020. His father Karl was Amelia Louisa Keyser Heurich’s nephew and grew up in Washington, D.C., at 1777 Lanier Place, NW. Karl served as Executive Officer (second in command) in the U.S. Navy in World War II on the U.S.S. Eberle in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres of combat. He stayed in the U.S. Navy Reserve until about 1973. He earned several graduate degrees from Carnegie Mellon University (then the Carnegie Institute of Technology) in Pittsburg and had a long career as a professor of mechanical engineering and material sciences at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst?). Mark’s mother Dorothy had a career as a model in New York City where she crossed paths with actress Tippi Hedren before the war. During the war she worked at Sperry on Long Island as part of the war effort. After she married and the war ended, she concentrated on raising her three children. This interview also includes material about Mark’s grandfather, Adolph G. (“Dolph”) Keyser Sr. (1874-1955). Dolph was an attorney in Washington who Mark remembers had an office on K Street, NW, and who he believes worked for Christian Heurich, primarily handling Heurich’s real estate holdings. Dolph attended law school at Georgetown. Amelia Heurich’s diary records a moment in 1914 when her brother was not promoted to a secretarial/bookkeeping position at the brewery.

Title: Karla Jacobsen Squier
Description: Karla Jacobsen Squier discusses her childhood in Washington, D.C. during World War II, her early life and career in fashion, her later career in Republican politics in New Jersey, her current life and COVID, her Christian faith, and memories of the Jacobsen family., Karla Jacobsen Squier was born in Washington, D.C. in 1931 to Charles J. Jacobsen and Norvelle H. Newton. Her parents divorced when she was a child and her father served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and was frequently stationed out of the city. Her grandfather on her father’s side, Christian F. Jacobsen, was the president of the Metropolitan National Bank in Dupont Circle, and she remembered visiting him there as a child. Her great, great grandmother was Elizabeth Heurich Jacobsen, Christian Heurich’s sister who immigrated to Baltimore and encouraged Christian to join her there. Karla grew up in the Petworth neighborhood during the Depression and World War II, but left the city in 1945 with her mother to move to San Francisco, then back to the Washington area, and finally to New Jersey to finish high school. Karla then attended college and worked in New York City in the fashion industry for a few years before moving back to New Jersey. She married Donald O. Squier and the two had two children, Christian and Dawn, but they divorced and Karla became a single mother. She took her children back to see family in Washington, D.C., often and eventually became involved in New Jersey State politics for the Republican Party – working on campaigns for Governor Thomas Kean, Sr., and eventually leading the New Jersey State Board of Elections. Karla retired from politics in 2002 and moved to North Carolina, where she remains active in local politics and serves the community by working at a foodbank.

SEARCH IN

Search results