Today is the birthday of Captain Wilhelm ‘William’ Bierbauer (February 16, 1826-November 30, 1893). He was born in Einselthum, Donnersbergkreis, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany into a family of brewers and had five brothers. The family moved to upstate New York when he was 23, in 1849, where his brother Charles opened a brewery. Wilhelm, who later called himself William, along with his brother Jacob, moved to Mankato, Minnesota and opened their own brewery in 1856, called William & Jacob Bierbauer, trading under the name City Brewery. By 1863, William appears to be going it alone. They brewery was closed by prohibition, reopened afterwards as the Mankato Brewing Co. and eventually closed in 1966.
This biography is from Mankato: It’s First Fifty Years, published in 1902:
BIERBAUER, Capt William, was born in Einseltburn, Bavaria, February 26, 1826. He was well educated and served a term in the German army. He became involved in the German Revolution of 1848 with Carl Schurz, and others, and was forced to leave his native country, and landed in New York in 1849. He soon became interested in the brewery business, first at Seneca Falls, and subsequently at Milwaukee, with Philip Best. In 1856, he came to Mankato, and with his brother Jacob, established a brewery, which grew to be a large and prosperous plant. At first he occupied a small frame building erected in 1858 on North Front street, but in 1873 removed to the present site. William Bierbauer was a patriotic citizen, and when the Indian outbreak of 1862 occurred, he promptly raised a Company, of which he was made captain, and went to the relief of New Ulm, where he rendered valiant service. He was a gentleman of fine presence, good judgment and with a high sense of honor.
In 1858, he was married to Miss Louisa Dornberg, daughter of Dr A G Dornberg, of this city. To this marriage, there were born seven children, six of whom are now living, viz: Albert, Bruno, Rudolph, William, Addie and Ella. Capt Bierbauer died in this city universally respected and lamented November 30, 1893, and is buried in Glenwood cemetery.
The Bierbauer brewery in 1888.
And this obituary of Bierbauer was published in the Saint Paul Globe:
This is a biography of him from Tavern Trove:
Captain Wilhelm “William” Bierbauer was born to a family of brewers in Einselthum, Pfalz, Bavaria. He and his five brothers, Charles, Louis, Jacob, Henry, and Simon, emigrated to America in 1849. They settled in Oneida County New York, where they likely worked in Charles’s brewery on the West End of Utica.
After living in New York for five years, William and Jacob moved to Mankato Minnesota. In 1856 they established the first brewery in Blue Earth County. In 1863 Jacob left the partnership to deal in grain, and later malt. The brewery continued with William as sole proprietor for another 31 years, until his death on March 1st, 1896.
Upon his death the Mankato Brewery was run by his estate, then in 1903 his wife Louisa assumed control. The firm not only survived these tumultuous times but thrived. It even survived National Prohibition for thirteen years. Brewing operations resumed in 1933 after repeal. In 1951 the company was purchased by the Cold Spring Brewery, who ran it for a few years as a branch before shutting it down for good in 1954.
