James and Charles Hindle
Portland, 1842-1872
James Hindle was a brickmaker-turned-brewer, born in England ca. 1804. Sometime around 1842, he began brewing at his home at 3 Neal Street, just off Congress (180 Neal by contemporary numbering).
In 1850, James owned real estate valued at $2000; it was worth $5000 a decade later. His son, Charles O. Hindle, a 21-year-old wood carver, still lived with his father in 1860; so too did Robert Ingalls, a 30-year-old farmer who would begin brewing in 1864. James died in 1867. The value of his estate had risen to $9000; his wife, Mahitable, continued to live at 3 Neal with son Charles.
Charles turned to brewing as well, around 1861. He moved his brewhouse from Neal to 115 Brackett in 1865 (today, 271 Brackett), before returning to Neal Street ca. 1870. He stopped brewing around 1872, becoming a clerk; Charles died in 1888.
James and Charles Hindle’s house (and brewhouse) at Neal and Congress Streets, on a map of Portland, Maine in 1871. Note the property of “N. Dow” nearby; Dow was the one-time mayor of Portland and author of the “Maine Law” from Atlas of Cumberland County, Maine (New York City: F.W. Beers & Co., 1871).
Locations are true to 19th-century street addresses, not current numbering.
Sources
Will Anderson, The Great State of Maine Beer Book (Portland: Anderson & Sons’ Publishing Co., 1996), 20.
Portland City Directory, 1847, 1863, and 1871
U.S. Census, 1850, 1860, and 1870