“SAMUEL ADOLPH DEAD,” the jarring headline announced. The Daily Capital Journal described in detail the accident that would take the life of the Salem businessman. His friends and colleagues were in a state of shock, to say nothing of his wife and six children. His youngest son, Joseph, had been with him in the cart when the horse was spooked. Joseph was able to jump to safety, but Samuel, being of advanced age, wasn't nimble enough to escape injury. He suffered a broken femur, a broken arm, and a terrible laceration to his head. Doctors were summoned, but Samuel was beyond the reach of their expertise. He was 58 when he died.
Tilmon Ford, a prominent Salem lawyer, and Oregon State Representative was among those deeply saddened by the news. Just two months prior, Mr. Adolph had taken a trip to the World’s Fair in Chicago, where he purchased for his friend Mr. Ford the “finest silk hat to be had in the windy city.” Mr. Ford wasn’t the silk hat type, but he greatly appreciated the thoughtful gift nonetheless. The realization that he would never see his friend again was devastating.
Samuel Adolph, a Jewish man of Polish descent, was born in 1835 in the Province of Posen, Prussia, which is part of the modern state of Poland today. At twenty-two, he came to the United States during a wave of German immigration and enlisted in the U.S. Army in New York.
Described as 5’10” and blonde with hazel eyes, Sam was assigned to the Company of the 10th Infantry Regiment and stationed at Fort Laramie in the Nebraska Territory (now part of Wyoming). In December of 1862, while serving as sergeant under Union Capt. Henry E. Maynadier, he participated in the failed Battle of Fredericksburg offensive, mounted against the Confederacy by General Ambrose Burnside.
After his discharge in 1863, Sam journeyed to Colorado, where prospectors hoped to make their fortunes mining gold at Pike’s Peak. In Denver, he met and married the twenty-two-year-old German girl, Mary Kohlhepp. Mary, her parents, and three siblings had recently traveled overland from Muscatine, Iowa. When the Colorado mining scene failed to meet expectations, the Kohlhepps, with Sam in tow, began their journey to the Boise Basin in the newly organized Idaho Territory.
It was in Boise that Sam would meet and befriend brewer and entrepreneur John Lemp. Mr. Lemp had recently entered the beer brewing business and ran a popular saloon in Boise City. But Sam wasn’t the only member of their party who became close with Mr. Lemp. In 1865, Mary’s sister Catherine Kohlhepp became Mrs. John Lemp and, over time, mother to thirteen Lemp children.

Before long, Sam would go into the brewing business himself, entering a partnership with John Krall, a colorful personality who made his fortune in mining and used it to open several Idaho businesses. It's unclear where and when Sam came by the capital needed to become a partner. Perhaps he had some success at mining, or maybe it was a loan from his new in-laws. I certainly hope to discover the answer one day. In any case, just one year after their arrival in Boise, Sam and Mary Adolph would head West to build their legacy and make Salem, Oregon, their forever home.
In 1866, the now 33-year-old Sam founded the Pacific Brewery. It was the first Salem brewery where he and a partner sold kegs for $1 each. Despite many setbacks, including a fire that burned the Pacific Brewery to the ground, Samuel Adolph would become a highly successful businessman and prominent member of Salem society. He purchased several business blocks in the downtown district, and in 1878, he built a two-and-a-half-story Italian Villa as his family home, which still stands and is listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

One of the “Adolph blocks” has also been commemorated as a historic site in Downtown Salem. It contains three storefronts and is home to the popular Wild Pear restaurant, which prides itself on the building's original tin roof. To this day, you can’t talk beer in Salem without giving a nod to Samuel Adolph.
I can’t help but be amazed by the tenacity of a young man who would leave behind all he knew to make this strange land his home. He found himself smack in the middle of a Civil War, surviving a deadly battle that killed 13,000 of his compatriots and went on to find true love and success in his endeavors. He is the immigrant ancestor of many Adolphs who descend from him and Mary, beginning with his children William, Eva, Lyon, Ida, Sam Jr., and Joseph, who were left to mourn his loss on that 17th day of September in 1893, and he is my 3rd great grandfather, Samuel Adolph.
From The Pages of Daily Capital Journal – July 25, 1898
“Sunday afternoon, an observant scout for this paper saw a splendid lively rig drive up the principal street of the Capital City. Its sole occupant was Hon. Tillman Ford, all dressed in his best and on his head a resplendent silken tile, and thereby hangs a story.
In 1893 the late Sam Adolph, a Salem capitalist, was on a tour of the East and sent Mr. Ford this silk stovepipe hat. The arrival of that hat was an event in Ford's life. He always wears a slouch hat of some kind or other, but this coming from a warm friend and a man he much admired, he prizes it as a treasure and on the anniversary of his friend’s death, he puts it on his head, gets the finest rig in town and goes out to the Cemetery and places a bouquet on Sam Adolph's grave. Not the least of lawyer Ford's eccentricities is to remember his friends.”
Keep your family’s stories alive. Contact me at hello@tristathegenealogist.com or through the contact page on my website, and together, we can ensure that your legacy lives on for generations to come. Don't wait until it's too late.

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