Today is a good day to remember Charles Herold, the man who founded the Aetna Brewery in Hartford Connecticut. His actual birthdate in 1835 is lost to history but lets celebrate it today. He was born in Saxony, Germany and came to America with his wife Emilie (née Koenig) in the late 1840s. He started a Steam Brewery at 110 Albany Avenue in Hartford Connecticut in 1858. Herald sold that firm 8 years later to Paul Link and established a new brewery on Bellevue Street which he named the Harold Capitol Brewery. He ran that brewery for nearly 30 years, until his death on January 17th, 1892. By this time the Charles Herold name had such a reputation that the brewery continued in his name for several more years, despite his having no children in management. In fact William W. Frick, the manager who finally changed the brewery name to the Columbia in 1896, was shortly afterwards deposed in part because of this decision.

John B. Nierendorf, future vice-president of the Aetna Brewing Co. of Hartford, Connecticut was born in Bonna Germany