Julius Hermann "James" Griesenbeck was born in Materborn Gutersloh, Germany. At age 22, in 1852, he and his family emigrated to America through the port of Galveston. They settled in Comal County Texas, where James met and married his wife Emaline in 1853. He invested all his money building a brewery on the side of a hill in Waco, Texas. It failed, and in early 1877 he left his family and brewery and rented a room in McPherson's Saloon in Denison, Texas. On February 28, 1877 Julius Hermann Griesenbeck shot himself in the head with his Navy six pistol. He left his wife and twelve children.