Today is the birthday of Sebastian Didas (June 20, 1812-March 14, 1870). He was born in Tholey, Sankt Wendel, Saarland, Germany. When he was 28 years old, in 1847, he moved to the U.S., settling in Steuben County, New York, which is in the southwestern part of the state and the home of Corning Glass. Before moving from Europe, he married Magdalena Scheier in 1841, and the couple had four sons, three while still in Germany and the youngest in America. In 1860, he started his own brewery in Perkinsville, New York known simply as the Sebastien Didas Brewery. As soon as his sons were old enough, he put them to work in the brewery and after his death, his second son, Nicholas, took over running the brewery and was renamed Nicholas Didas & Co. Nicholas ran the brewery for another dozen years, then retired and became a farmer in 1882.
