Bremen is sometimes called “Mint City”, as it was known at one time as the mint capital of the world. We have a substantial amount of information about the local mint industry in our digital archives and some interesting exhibits on it as well.

In the 1900s, the Leman brothers came to Bremen from Wyatt and began to persuade farmers to grow peppermint and spearmint as they did. In the 1920s, Morris Brown & Sons of Bremen turned to processing mint oil as well. The mint was dried in windrows in the field and distilled in a mint still on the farm, then brought to Leman or Brown for refining.

In 1928, it was estimated that 90% of the nation’s peppermint was grown within 50 miles of South Bend, with the list topped by Noble, St Joe, and Marshall counties. By 1940, Bremen refined half of all the world’s peppermint and spearmint oil. The oil was so valuable, it was kept in vaults. Even in the 1970s, a single barrel was worth $6,000.

Leman Bros Essential Oils moved their operations to Bremen and, in 1958 built a new building on N Center St. That building did the final processing of the distilled oil. It was in the 1940s that a fungus blew in to northern Indiana and wrecked the mint crops. Field after field succumbed, and by the 1970s, Michiana was producing just 25% of the world’s mint oil.

Today, it’s smaller still, but the N Center St plant still refines mint oil, now in the hands of Lebermuth & Co Essential Oils, the heirs of the Brown company. Some mint is still grown east of Bremen, but most is grown in Washington state and Japan.

1950s - Mint Still