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I was born in 1838 and my family lived in the German wine country near the city of Bad Schwalbach. My father was a wealthy businessman and had twenty-two children. In 1857, at the age of eighteen, I came to St. Louis. In St. Louis, I began working as a shipping clerk in a storage house that held the ingredients for making beer. Two years later, in 1859, he started his own brewery supply business. In 1861, I married Eberhard Anheuser's daughter, Lilly. It was a double wedding since my brother, Ulrich, married another of Anheuser's daughters, Anna. During the Civil War, I served in the Union Army.
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After the Civil War, I joined my father-in-law at his beer company. In 1876 the company came up with our first trademark brand, Budweiser, and then years later, the brewery was renamed Anheuser-Busch. The beer company expanded to different places in the country. I was named president after Eberhard Anheuser's death in 1880. Anheuser is also buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery. Lilly and I had thirteen children, though three of my daughters died at birth. Tragically, my oldest son, Edward, died of peritonitis while serving at the Kemper Military School in Booneville, Missouri. Another son, Adolphus Busch Jr., a vice president of the company, died of a perforated appendix. |
In 1907 on Christmas Eve, I suffered a severe attack of pneumonia which evolved into dropsy. By May 1913, my condition had gotten worse and I suffered from a heart condition. I couldn't walk without help and used a wheel chair. In June, I traveled back to Germany to view my German estate, Villa Lilly, near the Rhine. My wife, children, and business associate, Carl Conrad, were at my side when I died on October 10, 1913. My body was placed in a mausoleum in Bellefontaine Cemetery.
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