Archives West Finding Aid

The Zoller Hop Company was located in Independence, Oregon, the “Hop Capital of the World’ during the first half of the 20th century. The company was later owned by Donal MacCarthy and the name was changed to “D.P. MacCarthy & Son.”

The Zoller family brewery supply business was headquartered in New York City. Charles (the father) was President and Director, while Christian (the son) was Vice-President and Vice-Director. The “Charles Zoller Company” distributed brewing supplies and machinery, including a washing equipment, a hop-separating machine, the Krausen apparatus, brushes and brooms, cleaning liquids, valves and rings, bottles and caps, as well as yeast, hops, rice, and malt.

In addition to owning a supply business, the Zollers were also involved directly in the hop farming business. In 1906, they purchased a farm and equipment from Henry Ottenheimer in Independence, Oregon, naming it the Zoller Hop Company. With this farm and their existing supply business, they became successful brokers for the sale of Willamette Valley hops to breweries throughout the United States (Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, Indiana, Ohio). Charles Zoller was President, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Charles L. McNary was Vice-President, and D.P. MacCarthy was Manager and Secretary. Christian H. (C.H. in company records) worked in New York with his father, but was actively involved in gathering information and providing operational assistance to MacCarthy.

Charles A. Zoller was born in Germany in 1852, moved to New Jersey in 1872, and married Anna Schmidt 1883; Anna was the daughter of Christian Schmidt, who owned a large and successful brewery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Zoller lived in Manhattan with his wife, two daughters (Matilda, Anglia), and two sons (Christian, Charles). Zoller established a business in brewers’ technical materials and supplies in New York City in 1879. He was a pioneer in the United States brewing industry and was instrumental in introducing improvements in brewing machines from companies outside the U.S. He was one of the organizers of the Manufacturers and Dealers League of the City and State of New York and was an ardent opponent of national Prohibition. He died in July 1929 and the nationwide industry periodical the American Brewer carried his obituary notice.

Christian H. Zoller was born in 1884 in New York, worked with his father in the family brewing supply, and then moved to Philadelphia in 1919 to work with his uncle at the C. Schmidt & Sons Brewing Co. He worked as a sales manager from 1919 to 1934 and took over as president of the company in 1945. He was responsible for major modernization of the brewery, the biggest sales expansion in the company’s history, and the acquisition of the Valley Forge brewery. He held this position until his death in 1958, when Carl E. von Czoernig (great-grandson of Christian Schmidt) took over the business.

Donal P. MacCarthy was born January 26, 1873, in South Africa, and was educated in England. He spent his early years in a stock broker's office and at 20 went to Canada to work as a crewman on a cattle boat. He later worked on a large cattle ranch in Canada. MacCarthy arrived in the Willamette Valley on Thanksgiving Day in 1894 and settled in Woodburn. He worked in the woods in the Silverton area, and subsequently purchased a farm at Mulino and another in the Waldo Hills. In the early 1900s he partnered with Jack Carmichael and they opened a hop-buying company; he later opened his own business in Salem. In 1907, he purchased a 180-acre farm near Independence (Fir Grove Hopyard) and over the next several years added three more farms, including the Zoller property in 1918. In 1936, he formed a partnership with his son, Eugene D. MacCarthy, and their land holding totaled approximately 600 acres at the time of MacCarthy’s death in April 1954. In his obituary, MacCarthy was noted as being "probably the oldest hop grower in Oregon." He was an active member of the community; he was a member of several farm and livestock organizations, and a lifetime member of the Salem Lodge of Elks.