My 2nd great-grandmother Elisabeth Schmitt had 13 known siblings. One of her younger brothers, Emile, married the daughter of a beer baron in Cincinnati and played an instrumental role in the John Kauffman Brewing Company in the late 19th century.

Although I am not related to John Kauffman, I have been interested in his life since I learned about Emile’s relationship with his father-in-law.

Named Jean at birth, John Kauffman was born in 1830 in Kirviller, Moselle, Lorraine, France 15 kilometers from Hellimer, the town in which Emile was born. John and Emile both spoke French and German, typical of people who lived in the sometimes French/sometimes German districts of Alsace and Lorraine.

When John was a young man, he immigrated to Cincinnati Ohio where an uncle owned a brewery. Fast forward a couple decades and John himself became a mover and a shaker among other successful brewery owners in the Queen City.

It was fascinating to follow John and Emile through the many newspaper reports about their business dealings and social lives.

John Kauffman died in 1886 and is buried at beautiful Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in Cincinnati Ohio with many of the other beer barons of his time.

In 2022, my husband and I enjoyed an historic brewery tour during a visit to Cincinnati, where we saw the underground tunnels where beer was kept cold. I highly recommend taking the tour.

Later we went to Spring Grove to see John’s final resting place. I’d seen photos of John’s large monument on Find A Grave and was awed by the detail. But the photos did not prepare me for the size.

It’s really quite a sight, isn’t it?