Johann A. Buerger was born in Germany. He was a brewer, and emigrated to America and settled in Lapeer County Michigan.

In around 1853 he married 16-year-old Anna Mary Schellhas, who had her roots in the German enclave of Frankenmuth, Michigan. The next year she gave birth to a son, William, who took the Schellhas last name. The marriage would produce 8 more children over the next 25 years, all the rest, Buergers.

William left home to pursue his brewing education in around 1872. In 1877 Johann purchased William A. Jackson's brewery in the town of Lapeer. In He ran the brewery until 1891 when a stroke of apoplexy left him helpless. Anna took over management of the business and continued it with success until 1900 when their son John assumed control. He sold the firm the next year to Hollenbeck & Edmunds, who ran it until 1910 as the Lapeer City Brewery. Johann died of his apoplexy on October 19th, 1892 and Anna died in 1909. William Schellhas went on to a long brewing career in Winona, Minnesota.