Ernst Freidrich Baruth was born in Hamburg Germany. At age 22 he emigrated to America through Ellis Island and made his way across the country to San Francisco. There he went into partnership in a grocery business. The grocery business gradually evolved into a wholesale liquor dealership and then a Bottling agency. In 1895 he teamed up with Otto Schinkel Jr. to form the Anchor Brewery in that city. Baruth died on February 14, 1906. Schinkel died the following January. Their brewery on Pacific Street closed, but was resurrected in 1908 on 18th and Hampshire Streets. The Anchor Steam brewery exists to this day.

Frederick Brekle was born in Wuerttemberg, Germany. After his father Carl Gottlieb "George" died in 1888 he took over operations of his Golden City Brewery in San Francisco. He ran that brewery for only about nine years, at which point he he died in 1897 at age 49 years.