Buckeye Stories

Stories of "Buckeye" from the people who remember....

John Vetter

I was raised in Toledo, Ohio than moved out of the area. I remember as a mere child watching Bucky drive the goat down Cherry Street. He would hand out the strip comics "by Lank" have one in the collection, in fact I have an entire wall with Buckeye breweriana.
I would occasionally stop at the brewery on the way home from work visit with Al Braun, Brewmaster and Desmond Waters Chemist.

This would have been about 1959. My father had his retirement party at the brewery in 1955.

Born and raised in Toledo, I have crowns going
back to Prohibition times. Actually there was
  not a great variety of crowns as most of the sales
  were in Ohio and for the most part they used tax paid
crowns. I have 45-50 different, many to include
slight variations: 4 Green Seals, one a "Munich

Type"; About 18 Blue or red Tax Paid w & w/o
  Bucky etc. 4 White w/ Large Bucky, One W/ "Munich

Type" 4
  Michigan Tax Paid; Beer and Ale West Virginia

one Florida; 2 Sparkling Dry Design crown; Holiday
  Special; 9 plastic backed design Buckeye
SparklingDry, draft twist etc. 3 Meister Brau;2 Old
  Timersand one G/B. Probably a few others.

John goes by the name"CrownKing"as you can see by the many Buckeye crowns he has in his collection below....

More Memories

Dad 1940

Pointing to Bucky on roadside ad.

Having lived in Toledo, Ohio most of my life, and my dad first working at Lubecks than Buckeye for some 30 plus years give me some insight and the need to preserve the history of the old breweries in Toledo.

Dad worked in the bottling department, and as a kid I remember going to Buckeye and smelling the brewing of the beer in those large vats. Seeing the bottles being filled and capped and inspected at that time with the human eye with a bright light as the bottles past by to make sure their were no short filled ones.

My dad tell the story of Bucky a 4 ft. 5 in. living trademark of the Buckeye Brewery company and Billy the goat that pulled him around in a red cart promoting Buckeye Beer through out the city. He said in the evening he could hear the clippity clop of Billy hooves coming back to the brewery each night and it is said that Bucky didn't even have to show Billy the way back, he could fine it on his own.

Bucky and Bonnie billed as husband and wife( they were never married in real life) he at 4ft. 5in. and she at 3ft. 6in. drove around in their specially-built midget size truck. Going from bar to bar and event to event promoting buckeye beer.