Features

[SEPT. 5, 2002]  Johnson Brothers Liquor Company, new wholesale wine and liquor distributor on North Kickapoo, expects to employ 35 or 36 people in Lincoln.

Most are already in place. These include one temporary and three permanent office workers, five drivers and 12 sales representatives. Another driver has been hired but is not yet on the job. General manager Tim Anderson’s administrative staff includes sales manager Bryan Fox, office manager Crystel Huff and warehouse manager Alan Roach. The organizational chart also lists two district managers, a chain manager who will deal with corporate chains, and an assistant warehouse manager.

Anderson said Johnson Brothers employees are what set the company apart from other wine and liquor distributors. "We try to hire the best and keep upgrading them," he explained.

[Photos by Lynn Shearer-Spellman]

The Lincoln facility supplies wine and spirits to grocery and convenience stores, package stores, bars, and restaurants in an 80-mile-wide belt across central Illinois. The area ranges from Danville on the east to Quincy on the west and from Peoria on the north to Springfield on the south.

The local facility opened its doors on July 29. At present most of the stock is wine. By Oct. 1 other spirits, including vodka, whiskey and rum, will also be offered.

Headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., Johnson Brothers has 40 distributors across the country who supply to areas ranging from the Dakotas to Florida, from Rhode Island to Las Vegas and on all the islands of Hawaii. The company boasts annual sales of approximately $700 million. Ninety percent of the distributors, including Lincoln, sell primarily Gallo products.

[Logo provided by Johnson Brothers]

Lynn Johnson founded the company in 1953. At first he sold mostly whiskey. After a few years of operation, as Anderson tells the story, Johnson took a trip to California. There he heard commercials for Gallo wine, located the corporate headquarters, described his business and announced, "I want to sell your product." That was the beginning of a long-term relationship between the two companies. "Gallo was what made Johnson Brothers big," Anderson affirmed. "As Gallo grew, Lynn grew." For a time, Lynn Johnson’s brother was a co-owner, and now his sons Michael and Todd have entered the family business.

So far all the stock at the Lincoln facility is made by Gallo, which offers over 40 brands of wines, brandy, vermouth and other alcoholic products. However, most of the labels in the warehouse do not say Gallo. For example, Boone, Peter Vella, and Bartles and Jaymes are among the brand names. The variety is intentional, Anderson explained. Different labels target different market segments.

Gallo competes in every price range of wine and in several forms, including box wines. Currently, Anderson said, Gallo is first or second in every dollar segment in the United States. In sales it is first in the local distribution area, the country and the world. Nationwide one-quarter of wine products sold are Gallo products.

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Anderson worked for Gallo for 15 years. Heading the Lincoln operation is his first assignment for Johnson Brothers. He, his wife, Nancy, and their three children plan to move from Wisconsin to the local area.

He said Johnson Brothers chose Lincoln for the distributorship because of its central location in the region to be served, its easy access to Interstate 55 and the availability of the former PPG plant on North Kickapoo. The company has a three-year lease there on 27,000 square feet of warehouse and garage space as well as several thousand square feet in offices. "It’s a nice building," Anderson affirmed, and it required little renovation. He also praised townspeople with whom he has dealt for being friendly and supportive.

Anderson said Gallo products were formerly supplied by Mueller Distributing Co. of Springfield. When Southern Wine and Spirits recently purchased Mueller, Gallo was without an area home. Then began the search which ended in leasing the Lincoln plant.

Plans are to keep about 15 days’ inventory on hand. The distribution center receives Gallo orders the day after placing them and delivers to customers within one to two days. Although deliveries began Aug. 1, Johnson Brothers is still in the process of making arrangements with customers. Stores have receiving times, Anderson explained, and bigger companies must enter a new supplier into their computer systems. Sales representatives will not contact most bars until September or October, when more types of spirits will be in stock.

When distribution routines are firmly in place, other products besides Gallo will be added. Johnson Brothers itself imports and manufactures, or rectifies, some wine and liquor products. These may eventually be distributed locally.

Anderson’s card lists beers and waters among the Johnson Brothers products, but neither is currently in the product mix. They could be added if there were a business reason to do so, he explained.

Though shipments have begun, many details still need to be ironed out at the Johnson Brothers distribution center on North Kickapoo. For example, except for a small sign in the receiving area, the business is not marked by exterior signs. However, an American flag waves proudly over the entrance. "The first thing we got was the flag," Anderson explained. "Everything else came after that."

[Lynn Shearer Spellman]

[AUG. 12, 2002]  As of July, Governor Oglesby Street in Elkhart is home to a new bakery and an adjoining archaeological museum.

The Bluestem Bake Shop, owned by Cynthia Hinton of Athens, offers a variety of pastries as well as sandwiches, soup and a garden salad. It is open 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday.

Hours for the Under the Prairie Frontier Archaeological Museum are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. Run by Hinton’s husband, Robert Mazrim, it is next door to the bakery, in the 100 block of Elkhart’s main drag, directly across from the war memorial.

[Photos by Lynn Shearer-Spellman]
[Cynthia Hinton offers a tray of cookies.]

The sandwich menu at Bluestem Bake Shop includes ham and cheddar as well as either chicken salad or turkey and cheese on a croissant. During the summer there is a veggie sandwich with light cream cheese. Soups change from day to day. Three varieties are cream of mushroom with asparagus, Illinois sweet corn soup and chicken dinner, which Hinton says contains "all the fixings for a chicken dinner" — chicken, green beans and potatoes.

The pastry cabinet showcases such treats as raspberry Danish, chocolate chip pecan muffins and a French doughnut that looks like a muffin but has the texture of a cake doughnut. There are several varieties of cookies, including macadamia nut. One unusual offering is Abraham Lincoln’s favorite cake, vanilla almond with a seven-minute frosting.

Hinton bakes the pastries daily from scratch. She says she focuses on "comfort cooking."

Volunteers Vi Lanum and Tasha Dawson assist Hinton.

Both the bakery and museum are located in the Stahl building. Mazrim said the building was structurally sound and needed only remodeling. In the process the owners uncovered the tin ceiling and wood floor, as well as some exposed brick at the top of one wall in the bakeshop. The bakery is painted a soft olive green and features five wooden tables with assorted chairs.

The Bluestem Bake Shop takes its name from a prairie grass which once flourished in central Illinois. The name meshes with the focus of the museum, which interprets everyday Midwestern life during the late 1700s and early 1800s. Displays of pre-Civil War artifacts as well as publications on Illinois heritage for sale in the bakeshop also announce this focus. Entry to the museum is along one wall of the bakery.

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The museum is operated by the Sangamo Archaeological Center, which has offices, an archaeological laboratory and curatorial facility in the building. Mazrim, who directs the museum, is also a consultant to the state on historical archaeological projects. He possesses educational credentials in both anthropology and archaeology and has been active in the field for almost 15 years.

The well-lighted and clearly explained museum displays present pottery, utensils, tools, glassware, weapons and other artifacts of the pre-Civil War era. Some Native American tools and artifacts are also exhibited. Special displays highlight artifacts uncovered in digs on Elkhart Hill and in Sangamo Town, south of New Salem, which was abandoned about 1840.

[The exterior of the archaeological museum on
Governor Oglesby Street in Elkhart.]

Mazrim defines the museum as the "archaeological equivalent of New Salem." No artifacts actually come from New Salem, but because the two focus on the same period, the 1830s, he sees it as the most important tie to nearby tourism. "I hope to see enhanced activity in Logan County by the next tourist season," he said.

Elkhart was chosen as the museum site because it has easy access to I-55 and is relevant to the frontier period, being situated on the northern edge of the 1,500-square-mile Sangamo Country and along an early travel route. In addition, Mazrim said he liked the Elkhart downtown area, which is still alive and active.

Edwards’ Trace, a 300-year-old trail between the Great Lakes fur trading posts and the settlements along the Mississippi near St. Louis, crossed Elkhart Hill. Mazrim said the trail climbed the hill because the surrounding flat land was swampy. The hill also provided a lookout point.

Besides maintaining the museum, the Sangamo Archaeological Center will issue a series of publications and provide educational programs. Mazrim said one of the earliest bulletins will describe what is known about Edwards’ Trace. Educational programs will interpret material culture, or objects from everyday life, and will depend on what projects are asked for and funded.

Entry to the museum costs $3 for adults. Children under 6 visit free.

[Lynn Shearer Spellman]

Announcements

The Chamber Report

The chamber of commerce is a catalyst for community progress, bringing business and professional people together to work for the common good of Lincoln and Logan County.

Bobbi Abbott, Executive Director

Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce

303 S. Kickapoo St.

Lincoln, IL 62656

(217) 735-2385

chamber@lincolnillinois.com
www.lincolnillinois.com

Honors & Awards

Main Street Corner News

[AUG. 13, 2002]  Two local business owners have been elected to fill vacancies on the Main Street Lincoln board of directors.

[Main Street Lincoln press release]

Main Street Lincoln

Cindy McLaughlin, program manager

303 S. Kickapoo

Lincoln, IL 62656

Phone: (217) 732-2929

Fax: (217) 735-9205

E-mail: manager@mainstreetlincoln.com

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