Henry Schuster was born in Prussia. In 1847, at the age of 12, Henry emigrated with his family to America. They settled for a time around Milwaukee, Wisconsin where Henry soon took up work as a blacksmith. In 1861 he married Josephine Henrietta Hohler, another Prussian emigree. A year later Schuster and his wife with infant son Henry Junior in tow, headed west to the recently plotted town of Rochester, Minnesota. Here Henry obtained a job working in Jacob Joest's Union Brewery. By 1868 he had purchased the controlling share in the firm. The two ran the brewery as a partnership until Schuster bought out Joest's remaining stake in or around 1870. The very next year the brewery, now dubbed the Schuster Brewing Co., burned to the ground. Undaunted, Henry rebuilt. The brewery soon resumed it's dominance in the region as the largest such concern between LaCrosse and New Ulm. Henry Schuster died on August 12th 1885 at age 49 years. The brewery, now run by his children, would continue to slake the thirst of southeastern Minnesotans for another three decades.