Franz Heinrich Hagemeister was born in Detmold, Prussia. He emigrated to America at age 23 in 1849. He was poor and unskilled but found his way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he became in the employ of meat merchant Jacob Nunemaker. When Hagemeister felt sufficiently trained he moved north with a friend to Green Bay Wisconsin and the two opened their own butcher business there. However his partner proved dishonest and skipped town taking every business asset but $23. Young Hagemeister, undiscouraged, took what was left and reinvested it in stock, which he sold on foot as he could no longer afford a cart. Eventually he rebuilt the business himself to even more success.

On one business trip to buy stock, he met a young woman, singing to herself as she walked along through the woods. Hagemeister was able to make the young lady's acquaintance, she proving to be Miss Barbara Martin, and it was not long before they were wed.

In 1866 Hagemeister and three junior partners started the Union Brewery in Preble Township (Now a neighborhood in Green Bay), Wisconsin. Despite Hagemeister having no brewing experience the firm grew steadily during its first four years. Then the Panic of 1873 struck and there was a rush for cash. the under-partners unloaded their shares to a willing principal and from then on Hagemeister ran the business as a sole proprietor.

Franz Heinrich Hagemeister died on the 18th of November, 1892 at the age of 65 years. His brewery continued on until National Prohibition shut it down in 1920

Henry Frank Hagemeister was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His father, Franz Heinrich Hagemeister was the founder of the Union Brewery in that city. He put the younger Hagemeister to work at an early age, and perhaps because Franz lacked guidance and opportunity himself as a child, he gave much of both to his own.

When Henry was 27 years old his father brought him in as a partner, and when the elder Hagemeister died in 1892 the son was well appointed to guide the business into the next century. The brewery continued to grow over the next two decades until National Prohibition shut down the manufacture of all alcoholic beverages on January 16th 1920. The firm limped along for a few years as the Hagemeister Food Products Company. They sold ice cream, carbonated soft drinks and de-alcoholized beer. An effort to resurrect the brewery after Repeal as the Valley Brewing & Refrigerating Co. was unsuccessful. Henry Frank Hagemeister died on June 28, 1915.

The too-big-to-fail Jay Cooke & Company bank declares bankruptcy and sets off a rapid chain reaction of bank runs and failures in what would become known as The Panic of 1873.  Over 18,000 American businesses would fail in the economic Depression that followed.

The Hagemeister Brewing Co. began selling Cameo Cereal Beverage.