John Greenway, founder of the Greenway Brewing Company of Syracuse, was born in Warwickshire, England.   His parents Thomas and Hannah (Padbury) Greenway were poor and had married uncommonly late.  The family decided to come to the new world for the promise of a better life for their children.  They emigrated to America in around 1836 and settled in Syracuse, New York.  In 1837 Hannah died suddenly at age 44 leaving Thomas at age 50 a widow to take care of three young boys alone. 

Around this time John, and later his brother George, began working in Nelson and Henry Elijah Brewster's. brewery on Catherine Street in Syracuse.  The Greenway brothers gradually rose through the ranks and by 1862 had displaced the Brewsters as controling partners in the firm.  The brothers operated the brewery together until George's death in 1865.

By this time the brewery was a massive five story structure.  The Brewsters, now in their fifties, were still helping John guide the brewery.  The company was thriving amid the post-war depression of Onandagua County.  In response John Greenway staged a feast on January 1st, 1870 to ring in a new and hopefully better American decade.  An estimated 20,000 people jammed Clinton Square for the barbeque.  It was an all-day party featuring four courses of food brought in by the wagonload and music in several bandstands.  The weather was uncommonly warm.  Attendees remarked that it felt like a day in April.  The event so thoroughly enlivened the Syracusians it became legendary, and was recalled fondly for decades in the local newspapers. 

The Brewster brothers' retirement in the 1870s did not hinder the Greenway Brewery's growth and success.  When John Greenway died on the 28th of May 1887 his company was just hitting its stride.  The firm continued until 1920, when it was closed down by Prohibition.  It reopened on repeal day, 1933 and operated until 1952, all the while bearing the esteemed Onandagua family name Greenway.

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