Samuel Wainwright was born in Pennsylvania, the son of Prominent brewer Joseph Wainwright. From a young age he and his brother Ellis apprenticed in his father's Pittsburgh Brewery where they learned the art of brewing of ale and beer in the English method.

In 1831, at age 22, Ellis ventured westward with the intention of establishing one of the first breweries in St. Louis Missouri. Samuel joined him around 1840 and eventually the two ran the Fulton Street Brewery until Ellis's death in 1849.

At age 27, Samuel Wainwright became controlling partner the firm and he ran it heroically. The brewery thrived despite being in the same town already crowded with big brewing firms and dozens of smaller ones.

Wainwright's vision was aggressive and expansive. In 1857 Samuel abandoned the Fulton Brewery and purchased the more modern brewery built in 1854 by George Busch (older brother of Adolphus). The new brewery also indicated a change in direction for Wainwright. He started focusing more on Lager Beer, which was considered the new thing in the 1850s. The change paid off. By 1857 the Wainwright brewery led the city in sales and continued to grow from there. Samuel Wainwright died at the top of his game on October 19th, 1874. He was just 52 years of age.

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