George A. Bohrer, pioneer brewer of Lafayette Indiana, was born in Gersbach, Bavaria.  His family emigrated to America in 1830 and in September of that year George's father died at their new found home of Bloomington, Illinois.  George. at the age of ten, was probably orphaned at this point as there is no record of his mother Sophia after 1819, and no record of her at all in America.  

Bohrer and his four siblings persisted on the farm their father had established in Bloomington and it became an apt training ground for the resourcefulness and risk-taking that was critical for the success he enjoyed in business for the rest of his life.  

Bohrer left the family farm in the 1840s and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.  He married Caroline M. Newman there in 1849.  He was first engaged in the shoe business, then he became grocer.  It was in the latter occupation he made the acquaintance of John H. Newman, who owned a brewery in La Fayette, Indiana.  In 1872 Bohrer purchased a partnership in Newman's Brewery and the two ran the firm together until 1888, when Bohrer became sole proprietor.  Under Bohrer's leadership the brewery thrived and continued to grow until his death at age 79 on January 2nd, 1899.  By this point his sons were in charge and they ran the brewery under their father's name until 1918, when the forces of Prohibition shut the brewery for good.

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Associated Breweries