Phillip Henry Fuhrmann was born in Frankenthal, Rhenish Bavaria. He was an excellent student and he was soon hired by one of the largest machine factories in Germany.  Fuhrmann's skills did not disappoint his new employer.  They advanced him to private secretary to the general manager while Fuhrmann was still a teenager. Through this experience Fuhrmann gained a solid business education and acquired an excellent knowledge of machinery.

In the early 1880s Fuhrmann emigrated to America and took a home (perhaps with friends or relatives since he was still not yet twenty) in DuBois, Pennsylvania. There he found work selling Kaier's Beer and Whiskey to thirsty loggers.

Philip Fuhrmann must have impressed Kaier greatly because in 1884 (at age 21) he was offered a position as his assistant manager in Kaier's manufactory in Mahanoy City. The next seven years saw great expansion in the Kaier Company, for which Mr. Fuhrmann was largely credited. Subsequently in 1891 he was rewarded with a partnership in the firm.

However in 1895 Fuhrmann and Kaier had a falling out. Fuhrman had returned from vacationing in Germany to find the brewhouse had been "mismanaged". Fuhrman sued the company and Kaier settled by buying out Fuhrmann's partnership and outstanding stock.

Fuhrmann left Mahanoy City and moved 40 miles west to Coal Township where he had a stake in Martin Markle's Eagle Run Brewery. On March 2nd, 1895 Fuhrmann purchased the brewery outright. The brewery was a small, wood-frame structure and, true to character, Fuhrmann pushed it to its limits. Or, more accurately, past its limits, as during the summer of 1895 the refrigerating machinery failed and the building literally collapsed around it.

Fuhrmann's character, however, had another quality: Tenacity. Within a year he rebuilt a new, modern brewery and had cultivated enough business that it needed to be run at full capacity. It was possibly this crisis that necessitated a new investor as the next year Max Schmidt joined the firm as partner. The Fuhrmann & Schmidt brewery continued to thrive until Prohibition, then it returned after repeal to operate until 1975.

Phillip Henry Fuhrmann died on the 17th of January, 1949. He was 85 years old.

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