Ferdinand Kowitz was born in Karthaus, Prussia.  He emigrated to America with his parents at age 17 and they settled in Monroe County Wisconsin.  By 1864 he had apparently relocated west to the river town of La Crosse, as he was married there that year to Caroline Florentine Groenke.  He was 22 years old.

The 1870 Census describes him as a brewer living five miles north of town in the village of Onalaska.  He operated the brewery for an undetermied period of time before 1880 when the census shows him brewing in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.  By 1895 he was 53 years old and operating a saloon in Red Wing, Minnesota.

Ferdinand Kowitz died on the 15th of August, 1897.  He was 55 years of age.