Today is the birthday of Heinrich Ludwig “Henry” Hartman (April 25, 1824-August 3, 1870). He was born in Kirchheim am Neckar, Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. There’s very little definitive information I could find on him. By the 1850s, he had moved to the United States, settling in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. In 1856, he opened a brewery called the Hartman Brewery, which he operated until 1870, when he died at age 46, leaving his wife, Pauline Elizabeth Loelke along with three sons and a daughter (plus he also had another son, but who died before him, in 1864).

After his death, the brewery was sold to John Yost, Jr., eventually becoming known as the Lebanon Valley Brewing Co., but closed for good in 1959. A new brewery has opened recently, the Lebanon Valley Craft Brewery, carrying on their legacy.