Deaths on May 2

Eberhard Anheuser, German-American businessman, co-founded Anheuser-Busch (b. 1805)

Eberhard Anheuser (September 27, 1806 – May 2, 1880) was a German American soap and candle maker, as well as the father-in-law of Adolphus Busch, the founder of the Anheuser-Busch Company.

Anheuser grew up in Kreuznach, where his parents operated a vineyard that had been in the family since 1627. He and two of his brothers moved to North America in 1842. He was a major creditor of the Bavarian Brewery Company, a struggling brewery founded in 1853. When the company encountered financial difficulty in 1860, he purchased the minor creditors' interests and took over the company.

Eberhard Anheuser became president and CEO and changed the company name to the Eberhard Anheuser and Company. His daughter Lilly married Adolphus Busch, a brewery supply salesman, in a double wedding with Anna Anheuser (Lilly's older sister) and Ulrich Busch (Adolphus' brother) in 1861. Despite the outbreak of the Civil War, the brewery remained competitive, partially because lager was not banned by the Union Army, while hard liquors were.As Anheuser became older, Adolphus Busch took up more of the company's duties, and the company was renamed Anheuser-Busch in 1879.

Anheuser died in 1880 and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.