Friderich Christian "Fritz" Knepper was born in Prussia.  He emigrated to America and settled in Iowa where he met and married Margaret Hagge.  In the late 1850s Knepper along with Henry Shiley and Illinois hotelier Joseph Emerick started an Ale and Porter brewery (!) in Davenport Iowa.  He was attached to this brewery in one way or another until age 28, in 1873, when he headed for the big city of Chicago.  There he opened a tavern and operated it for about a dozen years. He returned to Iowa and purchased some land in Marengo County.  Fritz Knepper died there on January 21, 1901 at the age of 75 years.

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Associated Breweries