John Hauenstein Sr. was born in Aubsesz, Oberfranken, Bavaria.  He was the oldest of Kaspar and Catherina Hauenstein's 5 children.  After his general education John apprenticed, then worked as a cooper in his hometown.  During the 1840s  economic and political troubles made life difficult and even dangerous for some working class Germans and in 1851 the entire family emigrated to America.  They stayed in Cleveland, Ohio for a few months before finding better opportunities in Cincinnati.   In 1854 Both Kaspar and Catherina died in a cholera epidemic in that city.  John now aged 23 and saddled with the responsibilities of bread-winner left his brothers and sisters in Cincinnati and moved 580 miles due north to take a lucrative opportunity on the Soo Canal.  After three winters working and saving on the Great Lakes John returned to Cincinnati, gathered his siblings, and re-settled them in the newly-founded German colony of New Ulm, in Minnesota.  He and his brother Weigand opened a cooper shop there, and operated it together for the next 5 years.

In August 23, 1862 Dakota Indians besieged the town of New Ulm and John was one of the only half-dozen or so men with rifles.  The Native tribe killed between 400 and 800 in the assault.  John and his brother survived but John was emboldened to fight, and enlisted in the Minnesota Mountain Rangers the very next month.  In 1864 John partnered with Andreas Betz to erect a small brewery in New Ulm.  In 1867 Betz sold his stake to John C. Toberer.  Toberer left the firm in 1872 and from then on Hauenstein ran the brewery as sole proprietor.  Despite strong competition from fellow New Ulmsman August Schell, Hauenstein grew his brewery into one of the largest between St. Louis and Minneapolis.

John married Henriette Fritsche on April 20, 1862 and together they had seven children, the last having passed in infancy.  John Hauenstein died on the 15th of April, 1914 at 82 years of age.  His brewery, now staffed with a new generation of Hauensteins, continued on through Prohibition and the rationing of the second World War.   The Hauenstein brewery was finally sold in 1965 to the Grain Belt Brewery of Minneapolis.  The factory closed down when its new owner closed down on January 1st, 1970.