Today is the birthday of Anton Geiger (February 18, 1833-May 2, 1876). He was born in Nenningen, Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. when he was 21, in 1854. This account is from Tavern Trove: “He eventually settled in Iowa City, Iowa, where he met and married Clara Williams in around 1865.  Miss Williams was the daughter of Barbara Williams, a widow now rewed to Simeon Hotz. Hotz owned a brewery on Linn & Market streets and upon his stepdaughter’s marriage he brought his new son-in-law Geiger into the firm as junior partner.  Together they operated the brewery for eleven years.”

“Anton Geiger died on the 2nd of May, 1876 at just 43 years of age.  His father-in-law Simeon quit the brewery business for a time and leased the firm to his brewmaster. Despite the loss of the heir-apparent, the brewery continued in the family for another forty years, until finally being forced into the soft drink business by Iowa’s prohibition laws.  The company ultimately faded out of existence in 1933.”

And this is about the history of the brewery, published in the Iow City Press Citizen in 1978: