Joseph Schlitz (May 15, 1831 – May 7, 1875) was a

German-American German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

entrepreneur who made his fortune in the

brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...

industry.

Biography

Joseph Schlitz was born on May 15, 1831, in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, Hesse-Darmstadt. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1850. In 1856, he assumed management of the Krug Brewery in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. In 1858, when he married George August Krug's widow, Anna Maria Krug, he changed the name of the company to the

Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company is an United States, American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was once the largest producer of beer in the United States. Its namesake beer, Schlitz (), was known as "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" ...

. He became more successful after the

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago, Illinois during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left mor ...

of 1871. Many of Chicago's breweries that had burned never reopened. Schlitz established a distribution point there and acquired a large part of the Chicago market. Schlitz was a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

and was affiliated with Aurora Lodge No. 30. Schlitz perished with 334 others in the wreck of the SS ''Schiller'' in thick fog off the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the Great Britain, British mainla ...

on May 7, 1875. The islands lie west of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England. He was returning via New York City and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, visiting Germany. Aged 43, his body was never recovered. A

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee honors him.

Gallery

File:Schlitztomb 01.jpg, Cenotaph of Joseph Schlitz in Forest Home Cemetery File:Schlitztomb 02.jpg, Memorial on the cenotaph of Joseph Schlitz File:Joseph Schlitz.jpg, Cenotaph in Forest Home Cemetery

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlitz, Joseph 1831 births 1875 deaths American drink industry businesspeople Hessian emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from Milwaukee Deaths due to shipwreck at sea American brewers 19th-century American businesspeople Burials at Forest Home Cemetery

Biography

Gallery

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links