Franz Wilhelm Platz was born in Württemberg, Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1868 at age 20 and settled in Burlington, Iowa. There he married Miss Mary Barbara Koch. In 1887 at age 39 he moved west to Schuyler, Nebraska where he partnered in a brewery business. Franz Wilhelm Platz had his hands in two breweries in Nebraska for a time in the 1890s, this one in Schuyler, and another in Grant. He passed the Schuyler business to his son William in 1900. The Grant firm went to his son Paul P. Platz in 1903. Platz died on September 8, 1901 at age 53 years.