John Joseph Schuessler was born in Gottsdorf, Baden, Germany. He was a cooper by trade. At age 21 Schussler struck out for America and settled in the German community of Milwaukee. In 1846 he partnered with John Braun to start the City Brewery. When Schuessler left the partnership later that year he was replaced by a young Valentin Blatz. A few months later Schuessler moved to the south side of town and partnered with Franz Neukirch to form another brewery. That union was short-lived, abandoned in favor of another: Marriage. In 1847 Schuessler married Francisca "Fanny" Neukirch, member of another German brewing family. The couple rode by team to Oshkosh to start a lager beer brewery on the shores of Lake Winnebago (where Franklin and Bowen streets intersect today). With business partner John Freund they established the first "Oshkosh Brewery". The brewery, though well advertised, lasted only a couple of years. By 1953 Schussler had gone back to his old cooperage profession, but in 1860 the call of the kettle once again beckoned and he moved his family to Fond Du Lac to work in his brother-in-law Jacob Frey's Brewery. Then at age 53, he founded a new Brewery in Fond Du Lac. The West Hill Brewery would turn out to be his most successful venture. In 1876 he was selling 1000 barrels a year and he would continue doing a similar amount of business for the next two dozen years. Schuessler retired from the business in 1890 and turned the operations over to his sons. The brewery folded in 1892. John Joseph Schuessler died on July 7, 1904.

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