Adolph Coors

Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Sr.
Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Sr.
Born	Template:Birth date; Barmen, Rhenish Prussia
Died	June 5, 1929 (aged 82); Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, brewer
Known for	Founder of Adolph Coors Company

Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Sr. (February 4, 1847 – June 5, 1929) was a German-American entrepreneur and brewer who established the Adolph Coors Company in Golden, Colorado in 1873.

Early life

Adolph Hermann Joseph Kuhrs was born on February 4, 1847, in Barmen, Rhenish Prussia. At the age of 13, he began an apprenticeship at a book and stationery shop before undertaking a three-year brewing apprenticeship at Heinrich Wenker’s Kronen Brewery located in Dortmund. Orphaned in 1862, he completed his training and subsequently gained experience working at breweries in Kassel, Berlin, and Uelzen.

In early 1868, Coors arrived in the United States as a stowaway, disembarking in Chicago on May 30. His family name was changed from "Kuhrs" to "Coors." Initially employed as a laborer and brewer, he later worked as a fireman on steam engines and took apprenticeships in bricklaying and stone cutting. By August 1869, he had advanced to foreman at John Stenger's brewery in Naperville, Illinois.

After resigning in January 1872, Coors relocated to Denver by April of the same year. Following a brief period working as a gardener, by May 1, 1872, he acquired a partnership—and soon after full ownership—in John Staderman's bottling business. This enterprise specialized in bottled beer, ale, porter, cider, wines, and seltzer water.

Golden Brewery

On November 14, 1873, Coors teamed up with Denver confectioner Jacob Schueler to purchase the defunct Golden City Tannery site. They transformed the facility into what became known as the Golden Brewery. Brewing operations commenced by February 1874 with sales beginning in April. In 1880, Coors bought out Schueler's share and renamed the establishment Adolph Coors Golden Brewery. When Colorado instituted Prohibition laws in 1916, the brewery adapted by producing malted milk instead. Additionally, the company manufactured porcelain and ceramic goods using clay sourced locally; this segment eventually evolved into the separate entity CoorsTek.

Immediate family

Adolph Coors married Louisa Webber on April 12, 1879; she was the daughter of a Denver and Rio Grande Railroad superintendent of maintenance. Together they had six children—three sons and three daughters—though two passed away during infancy. Their offspring were Louise (known as Lulu), Augusta (Gussie), Adolph Coors Jr., Bertha, Grover C. Coors, and Herman Frederick Coors.

All three daughters attended Denver's Wolcott School for Girls. Louise wed Henry F. Kugeler at the Coors Mansion; Augusta married Herbert E. Collbran there in 1905. Collbran played an important role in managing Korean government railways during the period when Coors beer began exporting to Korea in 1908.

The sons—Adolph Jr., Grover, and Herman—graduated from Cornell University before joining various family businesses. Adolph Jr. married Alice May Kistler; Grover married Gertrude at the family mansion. Bertha was an accomplished equestrienne and safari hunter who married Harold S. Munroe in 1911; they later relocated to Mexico to pursue gold-mining operations. Herman married Dorothea Clara Morse in 1916 and initially oversaw the family’s porcelain manufacturing before founding H.F. Coors China Company in Inglewood, California in 1926. He remarried Janet Ferrin in 1942.

Siblings

Adolph Coors had at least two siblings: a sister and a younger brother named William Kuhrs, who was born in Dortmund, Germany in 1849. William emigrated to the United States in 1870 and changed the spelling of his last name to Coors. Initially, he worked as a cabinetmaker in Chicago before joining Adolph's brewery in Golden during the mid-1870s, where he remained employed for the rest of his life. In 1881, William married Mary, Louisa's sister, and relocated to Denver in 1891 to manage Coors' business interests there. The couple had three daughters, among them Mattie and Helena. William Coors passed away on December 30, 1923, and was fondly remembered as "a genial, accommodating man" with numerous friends in both Golden and Denver. His daughters later married William J. Gilbert and Charles Nitschke.

Death

Adolph Coors died on June 5, 1929, after either falling or reportedly taking his own life by jumping from the sixth-floor window of the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach, Virginia.