Jacob and David Lutz bought a brewery near this location in 1880. After it burned in 1891, the building in the picture was built as a replacement and was known in Grand Rapids as the "Lutz Brewery." David Lutz also operated a cigar factory in the old courthouse building next door. In 1904 the company was reorganized as the Grand Rapids Brewing Company. The company went bankrupt in 1922 after prohibition went into effect.

Henry Sampson Sr. bought the building at 1251 North First Street (the corner of First and Oliver Streets) on the east side of Wisconsin Rapids He operated a canning company with his son Henry Sampson Jr. in the building. Originally named the Grand Rapids Canning Company, it was later changed to the Sampson Canning Company. The canning company was served by a spur off the Green Bay & Western RR, just west of the roundhouse.

In 1929 GB&W subsidiary Western Refrigerator Lines added a fleet of wood sided refrigerator cars to their roster. Fifty of the WRX 11000-11999 reefers carried "Sampson Canning Company" billboard lettering. The billboard era ended in July 1934 when the Interstate Commerce Commission ruled that cars could no longer be painted with the lessee's name any larger than 12 inches. After January 1937 billboard reefers would no longer be accepted for interchange between railroads. Apparently some of the WRX "Sampson Canning Company" cars kept their billboard lettering beyond that date, in violation of the ICC ruling.

The building still stands in Wisconsin Rapids. I am unsure of when Sampson Canning went out of business.