Geörg Ziegelmaier was born in Württemberg, Germany.  He was a trained baker and miller, and came to America on the 2nd of July, 1854.

He became a farmer in New Hartford, Connecticut, then opened a milling business after the first harvest.  In 1856 he established a farm in Crawford County, Wisconsin, but moved away after only one season.  History next finds Ziegelmaier forty miles to the west, in McGregor, Iowa, a port city on the Mississippi River.  He stayed long enough there to get married, to Mary Koss, and have two children.

In 1857 he moved his family back to Wisconsin to the town of Boscobel, where he opened a brewery and bakery shop.  The brewery burned soon after, and he returned once again to McGregor.  He came back to Boscobel in 1866 where he purchased the old brewery property and rebuilt it.  He ran the brewhouse until 1884, when he sold it to William Bruer.

By 1890 Ziegelmaier had relocated to Milwaukee.  The next decade saw him follow several of his children, now numbering an even dozen, to Washington state.  Geörg died there on December 27th, 1908.  He was 76 years old.