John Frederick Betz was born in Württemberg, Germany. His family emigrated to America in the early 1830s and they settled in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where his father became an innkeeper in Pottsville.

In 1841, when John was 10 years old, his sister Elizabeth Betz married David Gottleib Yuengling Sr., the founder of the Yuengling Brewery. The union of these families in the small mountain town perhaps inspired John to go into the brewery business too.

In 1853 John moved to New York City where he established the Eagle Brewery on West 44th Street. It was the first of many breweries in which he would have a hand during the course of his life. He ran the Eagle Brewery until 1864, when it was seized by the government for operating without a license. In 1866 he, John A. Beyer and Yuengling's son David G. Yuengling Jr. headed to the former Confederacy and established the James River Steam Brewery in Richmond, Virginia. After two years Betz left the partnership and returned north. In Philadelphia he purchased Frederick Gaul's brewery on 421 New Market & Callowhill in 1869. The next year the brewery was lost to a fire.  Betz, unperturbed, rebuilt a modern plant.

In 1876 Betz then partnered in another brewery on 140/150 East 58th Street, New York, a firm which he ran until 1884. At around this time he also began pursuing the malting business. In 1897 he called in a very large debt that his brother-in-law and former partner David G. Yuengling, Jr. had accrued.

Yuengling's brewery on 128th Street, NYC was in deep trouble.  It was $800,000 in debt with Betz's malt company being the largest creditor. Betz demanded the company reorganized with himself put in charge. Yuengling was forced to retire. By 1900 there were two breweries controlled by the Betz family, one in New York and one in Philadelphia. Both made it to Prohibition. John Frederick Betz died on the 16th of January, 1908. He was 76 years of age. The Philadelphia brewery reopened after Prohibition as John F. Betz & Son, Incorporated. It closed in 1939.

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