4 daughters join 5th-generation owner

Traditional Amber Lager helps ensure Schuylkill County tradition will survive

From the Pottsville Republican

The personal message on the side of a can of Traditional Amber Lager is the customer's link to a 168-year-old legacy.

The D.G. Yuengling & Son Brewery has never left the hands of the Yuengling family since it was started in 1829.

That legacy, now expanding into a sixth generation of involvement, began when David G. Yuengling came to Baltimore from Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1827, moving to Pottsville and opening his brewery two years later across North Centre Street from where City Hall is today.

Besides running a brewery, David Yuengling had a family and kept active in commercial and municipal affairs.

He and his wife, Elizabeth Betz, had three sons and seven daughters.

David was the first president of the Pottsville Gas Co., a director of the Pottsville Water Company and a vestryman at the German Lutheran Church.

A Democrat, he influenced local and county politics, dying in 1877.

Frederick G. -- the son in today's corporate name --- took over.

Frederick managed the family brewery until 1871 when he went to Europe to explore brewing processes. When he returned, he worked at Berger & Engel Brewing Co. in Philadelphia to gain more knowledge of the business.

Like his father, Frederick kept active in local organizations: president of the Pottsville Gas Co.; vice president of the Schuylkill Electric Railway Co.; a member of Schuylkill Real Estate, Title Insurance and Trust Co.; and a director at the SafeDeposit Bank and Pottsville Water Co.

Frederick and his wife, Minna Dorhman, had two children. He died in 1899 and his youngest child, Frank D. Yuengling, succeeded him at the brewery.

Frank came home from Princeton University to take charge of the brewery. He was married to Augusta C. Roseberry and, like his father and grandfather, was active in the community.

He was a member of the Pottsville Lodge No. 207, Elks and Masonic Lodge, U.S. Brewers Association, Pottsville Club, Pottsville Commercial Club and Good Intent Fire Company. He was a director of the Pennsylvania National Bank and Union Hall association.

Frank and Augusta lived at the Tudor-Jacobean style mansion at 1440 Mahantongo St., now home to the Schuylkill County Council for the Arts.

They had four sons and a daughter, two of which shared a partnership in the brewery.

F. Dorhman and Richard L. Yuengling ran operations, and Richard took over after his brother died.

Another son, Frederick, ran the Yuengling Ice Cream plant.

Richard married Marge Hood, now deceased. They had two children, Patricia and Richard L. Jr.

Richard Jr. is the current president of Yuengling Brewery and is often found working among the company's 75 employees in the bottle house or operating a forklift full of boxes.

He has four daughters: Jennifer, Deborah, Wendy and Sheryl.

A graduate of Bucknell University and the eldest Yuengling daughter, Jennifer works at the brewery, learning all of the operating aspects.

Deborah, a Moravian College graduate, works in the office with marketing and sales.

Wendy just graduated from Lehigh University, and Sheryl will begin her college career at the University of Alabama.