THE STENGER FAMILY | A Story of Entrepreneurial History In Naperville Dating Back to 1848

STENGER FAMILY CELEBRATES SEVEN GENERATIONS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL HISTORY IN NAPERVILLE, SEE ARTIFACTS AT OKTOBERFEST

A Naperville family seven generations deep exemplifies the city’s entrepreneurial history.

Peter Stenger arrived in Naperville in 1848, and the family has thrived in the city ever since –

first as founders and owners of the Stenger Brewery that flourished for decades, and now as

wealth advisors for a financial service company.

“When you look at Naperville, it’s the epitome of the American Dream unfolding,” said Ron

Stenger, a financial services professional in Oak Brook, IL. “I’ve been blessed to work in a city

that is great expression of the American Dream. Naperville has transformed from an agrarian

city, to one dominated by a quarry, to a brewing community, then a furniture town, and now

it’s led by high-tech businesses. And the values that defined us back then are still defining us

today, and it’s what’s helped Naperville thrive.”

The 10th annual Oktoberfest will take place Oct. 4-5 at Naper Settlement, where a handful of

the original Stenger Brewery artifacts – including the brewery’s headstone – remain. The event

will honor the 50th anniversary of the Naperville Heritage Society, and families like the Stengers,

who have lived in Naperville since 1850 and are seven generations embedded into the

community.

“We take our legacy and our family’s enduring ties to our city very seriously,” Ron Stenger said.

“We feel a special obligation not just to honor the past, but to protect Naperville’s future.”

The Stenger Brewery’s most famous employee was a 22-year-old immigrant named Adolph

Coors, who was hired in 1869 by Peter Stenger’s son, John, and worked at the brewery for

about three years before heading west to start the Coors Brewery in 1873 in Colorado. Ron

Stenger said Coors left for one of two reasons: To earn a promotion at the Stenger Brewery, he

needed to marry a Stenger; or Coors fell in love with one of the Stengers and was rejected.

“He came in as a penny-less worker and when he left, he was the highest-paid person at the

brewery,” Ron Stenger said of Coors.

The Stenger Brewery survived until the late 1800s, and the building eventually housed a

mushroom factory before it was demolished in 1956. But Naperville has a downtown mural

featuring a picture of the brewery, and the Stenger family has a street – Stenger

Commemorative Parkway -- in the city in their honor.

Ron Stenger named his son, Nicholas, after John Stenger’s brother, Nicholas, who co-ran the

brewery. Now Nicholas, 24, is a financial advisor at Ron’s company, and the father-son have

next-door offices with a sliding glass window in between so they can easily communicate. Ron

Stenger’s office is filled with odes to the past, including ties to his family’s history to Naperville.

“Our family’s story is a story of humble entrepreneurship,” said Nicholas Stenger, who

represents the seventh generation of his family to hail from Naperville. “And it all goes back to

the community that we live in and surround ourselves with.”

Ron Stenger said his roots have been key to the growth of his financial firm and his family

values have shaped his life. Ron Stenger volunteers at a food pantry in Naperville, at the Hesed

House in Aurora, helps victims of domestic violence, supports numerous schools, participates in

walks to benefit Alzheimer’s patients and speaks to offenders at a prison in Joliet.

“We live in this frantic digital world where humanity seems harder and harder to find, but we

should celebrate a time when all these small-town values thrived,” he said.

And a key to that is making sure his family’s legacy – he restored the original gravestones of his

distant Naperville relatives -- continues to prosper.

“My great-great grandfather Nicholas and his brother John were true pioneers and

entrepreneurs in their own right,” he said. “They would marvel at how the entrepreneurial

spirit of the Stengers has continued to make a mark in the community that they loved. And that

makes me feel good.”

For more information on the 10th annual Oktoberfest, visit

https://www.napersettlement.org/237/Oktoberfest

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