John Lincoln Richards was born in Wales.  He emigrated to Wisconsin in 1845, where he was engaged in mining. In 1849 he heard the call of the Gold Rush and came across the plains with the Rough and Ready Company, and helped establish the town of Rough and Ready, in Nevada County, California. In 1850 he returned to Wisconsin via Panama, but came back to California after only three months. He again went to Wisconsin in 1851, and remained until 1853, purchasing goods for California. He then returned to California, and engaged in the businesses of farming and brewing. By 1874 he was in partnership in a brewery with David Binklemann in the town of Grass Valley, a partnership that lasted until 1893.

He was married in 1852 to Elizabeth Mitchell in a union that produced 8 children.  John Lincoln Richards died on the 15th of October, 1896 at the age of 70.

Johann David Binklemann (David Binklemann) was born in Prussia.  He emigrated to America in 1852 landing at the port of New York on September 17th.  The next year he married fellow Prussian emigre Sophia Mader in a union that would produce nine children.

Before 1853 the Binklemann family made their way out west to the gold fields of Nevada County, California and by 1870 David had a well-established brewery in the town of Grass Valley.  By 1874 Binklemann was in partnership with John Richards and their partnership continued until 1893, when Johann David Binklemann died.  Sophia Binklemann continued the brewery until 1901 when she passed the reins over to her sons.  The firm was closed down by National Prohibition in 1920, and never again brewed beer.

Sophia Binklemann (Nee Mäder) was born in Karlsruhe, in the Kingdom of Württemberg.  She and her husband David esatblished a brewery in Grass Valley, California in the 1850s.  When he died in 1893, Sophia took up the reins and ran the brewery until she was 70 years of age, at which time she passed the brewery to the next generation of the Brinklemann family.  Sophia Binklemann died on February 6, 1915 at the age of 85 years.