Kilian Kress was born in Grossentuder, Hesse, Germany.  He was a common laborer when he sailed from Bremen on the 24th of May, 1852.  He landed in the port of Baltimore on the 21st of July and within a week had made a new home in Wheeling, Virginia.

On August 10, 1862 Kress married Rosalia "Rosa" Scheibelhuth in a union that would produce eight children.  In around 1866 he became a driver for the Eagle Brewery (I suspect he had previously employed there as an untitled laborer).  In 1869 he was brought in to the firm as a partner with George Kinghorn and John L. Brown.

Kress was 11 years Kinghorn's senior and leadership naturally gravitated towards the oldest partner, even though he had almost no brew-house experience.  Brown soon dropped out of the firm,and Kinghorn followed him in 1876, selling Kress his share in the firm for a mere $5.

Kinghorn stayed on as brewmaster for another year, and Kress soon found two new brewers in John J. Kenney and Christian Blum.

On the 19th of June, 1886 Kress's wife Rosa died.  On October 15th 1887, at age 57, Kress followed her into the great beyond.

The brewery was sold the next year and purchased by long-time lessees Kenney and Blum.  Kenney's Ale had already earned the brewmaster a solid reputation and the firm was able to ride that success for another 13 years, finally closing in 1900.

The building still stands, occupied by the Mountain Aire Heating & Air Conditioning Company.

George Kinghorn was born in Carrington, Scotland, the son of John and Christian (née Stoddard).  John was a brewer, and George learned the trade with his father's guidance.  George was nine years old when his father and uncle Abraham decided to emigrate to America.  They and their wives and children arrived at the Port of New Orleans aboard the ship the Envoy on December 27th, 1851.

They made their way up the Mississippi River and settled in St. Clair County, Illinois in the town of Millstadt.  Abraham was a coal miner and was keen to work in the underground mines in the area.  John worked the mines during this time as well.  The family were progressives and the following generation of Kinghorns in St. Clair County would organize unions of miners during the 1870s.

At some time in the 1860s John and Christian Kinghorn took their family east to the city of Wheeling, the capital of the breakaway and defiantly progressive new state of West Virginia.  Both John and George secured positions in John Reid & Co's Eagle Brewery.  In around 1865 George married a 23 year old Pennsylvania Dutch woman named Indiana E. Hall.

On September 25th, 1866 John Kinghorn died suddenly while working on the brewery floor. George continued on in the Eagle, gaining more and more seniority.  In January of 1868 he and and John L. Brown leased the brewery from John Reid.  Eventually Kinghorn was able to purchase a half-stake in the firm.  The next year the two brought in a third partner named Kilian Kress and the firm was renamed Kinghorn & Co.

Kress was a long-time employee who had worked up from laborer to teamster.  He was eleven years older than George, and gradually experience and age drew leadership focus from the controlling partners.  Kinghorn was just 31 yet decided to change his focus to public service.  He ran for, and was elected to the Wheeling City Council in 1874.

On November 14, 1876 Kilian Kress purchased half of the Eagle Brewery from Hannibal and Amanda B. Forbes for $950.  Kinghorn sold his half of the brewery to Kress on December 8th for $5, with probably the caveat that Klinghorn retain some sort of control and a guaranteed wage (speculation).  On January 1st of 1877 official notice of Kinghorn's transition from brewery owner to employee brewmaster made its debut in the Wheeling Daily Register.

But working for Kress didn't suit Kinghorn any more than partnering with him, and within the year, Kinghorn had left for good.  In the fall of 1878 Kinghorn joined with Alfred E. Smith in his ale brewery on Market Street.  This partnership lasted until February of 1880.

George Kinghorn died at the age of 41 years, on the 26th of February, 1885.  His grave marker at the Peninsula Cemetery is just a little square stone, all but invisible among the grass.

John Joseph Kenney was born in Wheeling, West Virginia and he was educated at St. Vincent's Academy.  He began working in the nail mills at the age of fourteen and about 10 years later entered the retail liquor trade.

In 1884 he went into the brewery business, partnering with Christian Blum to lease Killian Kress's Brewery on Market Street and Seventh.  When Kress died in 1887 Kenney purchased the firm from his estate.

Kenney's Ale already had an excellent reputation and wide distribution in what was then the middle west.  The Kress Brewery became known as the Kenney's Ale Brewery.  He ran for City Councilman and won in 1894 and at that began his disengagement from the brewing business.  The brewery finally closed in 1901.

Kenny and his wife Mary moved 60 miles northeast to Pittsburgh where at age 50 he was a night watchman.  He died there on November 19th, 1907 at 53 years of age.

George Kinghorn, John L. Brown and Killian Kress Dissolve theor partnership in the Eagle Brewery.

Kilian Kress is brought in as a partner in the Eagle Brewery of Wheeling, West Virginia.

19 year old Ed Kress, son of Eagle Brewery owner Kilian Kress, was violently disrobed by brewery machinery, but otherwise unharmed.

As reported by the Wheeling West Virginia Daily Register.