Simeon Hotz was born on February 18, 1819, in Fützen, Germany which is in the southern region of Germany close to the Swiss border. He was part of the 48er’s in Germany which where a group who supported the revolution in Europe and wanted a more democratic government and unification of the German peoples. Simeon Hotz was a part of Brentano’s Army and was given a high rank when one of the officials had left to do something else. Simeon Hotz came to the United States in 1850 because of the revolution in Germany, and he also had the opportunity to gain American citizenship as well as like the democracy system in the United States. Like many Germans at the time Simeon Hotz came to New York City, but he ended up going to Rochester, New York then moved to just south of Memphis, Tennessee. He then moved to Holly Springs, Mississippi, which isn’t far from Memphis, and then he finally settled in Iowa City in 1857 for the rest of his life. During these years of travelling, he worked as a shoemaker since that is what he was trained as and worked as in Germany.

In 1852 Simeon Hotz married Barbara (Becker) William who was from Bavaria, but they met each other in the United States. Barbara was a widow as she was married to George Williams before he died. She had four children with him and then she and Simeon Hotz had 7 children together. Their names were Caroline, Anna, Ella, Julia, Elizabetha, and George, the seventh kid didn’t live very long, so their name is unknown to us.

Simeon Hotz and his family were members at St. Mary’s Church, and Simeon was even a founding member of the church. He was heavily involved in the church community and was even apart of the St. Joseph’s society. Simeon Hotz was also a prominent man in the Iowa City

community as he was also heavily involved in politics and was a very present and generous man. He aligned himself with the Democratic party. He was described as someone who would always give money to those in need, especially since he had acquired a lot of wealth from owning a brewery.

In 1857 Simeon Hotz joined in a partnership with Louis Englert in his brewery and ended up making his own beer. In 1868 Hotz and his son in law Anton Geiger built the Union Brewery on the corner of Linn and Market St, and they opened for business in 1869. The Brew Master of the brewery was Conrad Graf who ended up marrying Simeon Hotz’s daughter Anna. Although the brewery was called Union Brewery it was commonly known as Hotz & Geiger. Hotz & Geiger was an important place for the Iowa City community and was the biggest brewery. Hotz and Geiger expanded the brewery several times to the point that Hotz almost owned the entire street.

Simeon Hotz died in 1881 from injuries due to a house fire. Simeon Hotz is buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery. After his death Barbara Hotz continued to manage the brewery for 2 years and the Conrad Graf bought the brewery and ran it until his death in 1893. His sons then ran the brewery and once prohibition was on the horizon, they started to switch to a soft drink company, but this didn’t work out financially, so the brewery officially closed in 1917.