Mathias Haffen was born in Bavaria. He came to America at age 18 in 1832, emigrating through the port of New York City.  According to his obituary in the New York Sun, Haffen first spent some time in North Carolina and worked in the Navy Yard.  However they may have meant the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, as North Carolina had no such facility at the time.  In 1835 he returned to New York and worked as a laborer on the Harlem Railroad.  When that job was finished Haffen moved to Newtown Creek, Long Island where he worked on a dairy farm.  In 1840 he went into the milk business for himself.

At around this time he met and married Catherine Hayes, an Irish immigrant in New York.  She was apparently not from a well-to-do family, and lacked the education to sign any more than an "X" on her petition for citizenship.  But by accounts she was Mathias's beloved, and together they had ten children, including John (born 1847) and twins Mathias and Martin (born 1849), who would grow up to inherit his father's business.

Finally in 1856, at the age of 42 Haffen established the Haffen Brewery in the Village of Morrisania (which in 1874 was absorbed into the Bronx).   He ran the firm for fifteen years, after which he turned over the management to his sons, and retired a wealthy man.

Haffen died at the age of 78, on March 10th, 1891.  His sons ran the brewery for another 23 years, then sold out to the mammoth Jacob Ruppert Company.

Mathias Haffen Jr. was born to Catherine and Mathias Haffen. He would go on to be Treasurer of the New York brewery that bears the family name.

John M. Haffen was born. As secretary he is the third generation of Haffens to guide the Brewery into the twentieth century. He is possibly a nephew of the Haffen Brothers.