Today is the birthday of Simeon ‘Simon’ Hotz (February 18, 1819-November 6, 1881). He was born in Fützen, Germany, near the Swiss border in the southern part of the country. He was originally trained as a cobbler, or shoemaker, and when he emigrated the U.S. in the late 1840s, that was the work he continued to do. After marrying a widower, Barbara Williams, in Iowa City, he bought into a grocery store, where he continued to work as a cobbler, but eventually the grocery added a brewery, which Hotz launched with Louis Englert, but later involved his his son-in-law, Anton Geiger, which then became known as the Hotz & Geiger Brewery,” but traded under the name Union Brewery.
This biography of Hotz is fronm the University of Iowa:
Simeon Hotz was born on February 18, 1819, in Fützen, Germany which is in the southern region of Germany close to the Swiss border. He was part of the 48er’s in Germany which where a group who supported the revolution in Europe and wanted a more democratic government and unification of the German peoples. Simeon Hotz was a part of Brentano’s Army and was given a high rank when one of the officials had left to do something else. Simeon Hotz came to the United States in 1850 because of the revolution in Germany, and he also had the opportunity to gain American citizenship as well as like the democracy system in the United States. Like many Germans at the time Simeon Hotz came to New York City, but he ended up going to Rochester, New York then moved to just south of Memphis, Tennessee. He then moved to Holly Springs, Mississippi, which isn’t far from Memphis, and then he finally settled in Iowa City in 1857 for the rest of his life. During these years of travelling, he worked as a shoemaker since that is what he was trained as and worked as in Germany.
In 1852 Simeon Hotz married Barbara (Becker) William who was from Bavaria, but they met each other in the United States. Barbara was a widow as she was married to George Williams before he died. She had four children with him and then she and Simeon Hotz had 7 children together. Their names were Caroline, Anna, Ella, Julia, Elizabetha, and George, the seventh kid didn’t live very long, so their name is unknown to us.
Simeon Hotz and his family were members at St. Mary’s Church, and Simeon was even a founding member of the church. He was heavily involved in the church community and was even apart of the St. Joseph’s society. Simeon Hotz was also a prominent man in the Iowa City
community as he was also heavily involved in politics and was a very present and generous man. He aligned himself with the Democratic party. He was described as someone who would always give money to those in need, especially since he had acquired a lot of wealth from owning a brewery.
In 1857 Simeon Hotz joined in a partnership with Louis Englert in his brewery and ended up making his own beer. In 1868 Hotz and his son in law Anton Geiger built the Union Brewery on the corner of Linn and Market St, and they opened for business in 1869. The Brew Master of the brewery was Conrad Graf who ended up marrying Simeon Hotz’s daughter Anna. Although the brewery was called Union Brewery it was commonly known as Hotz & Geiger. Hotz & Geiger was an important place for the Iowa City community and was the biggest brewery. Hotz and Geiger expanded the brewery several times to the point that Hotz almost owned the entire street.
Simeon Hotz died in 1881 from injuries due to a house fire. Simeon Hotz is buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery. After his death Barbara Hotz continued to manage the brewery for 2 years and the Conrad Graf bought the brewery and ran it until his death in 1893. His sons then ran the brewery and once prohibition was on the horizon, they started to switch to a soft drink company, but this didn’t work out financially, so the brewery officially closed in 1917.
Here, Tavern Trove picks up the story:
In 1864 Hotz took on his son-in-law, Antone Geiger, in the brewery. The brewery was renamed the Union, and the two continued in partnership until Geiger died in 1876. At this point Hotz leased his brewery to brewers Joseph Schultze and Conrad Graff, another son-in-law to Hotz. Eventually Simeon Hotz was drawn back into brewing business and he took over management of his old firm in 1878. By this time he had grown the brewery into one of the largest in Iowa.
About this time Hotz was involved in a railroad accident in which he received severe burns. This was compounded by further burns caused by a mishap while making salve for his previous injuries. Holz’s health declined from this point and he died at age 62 on November 6th of 1881.
From that day the brewery Simeon Hotz founded was run by his wife Barbara, who was administatrix of the estate. In 1885 Conrad Graf purchased the Union and ran the brewery until Iowa state Prohibition finally got around to closing it down in 1888.
On May 3rd 1893 Iowa’s Mulct Law went into effect and Conrd Graf reopened the brewery on a small scale. When Graf died in 1894 the brewery became managed by his widow who soon brought in Chris Senner to do the oversee the brew house. Senner eventually married the widow Graf and at this point her sons took over brewery operations. The family switched over to the manufacturing of soft drinks during the Prohibition years, but the firm closed upon repeal in 1933 and never reopened.
