Theodore Rudzinski (January 5, 1857 - ?) was an American real estate and

insurance agent Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who spent one term as a People's Party member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from

Milwaukee County Milwaukee County is located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At the 2020 census, the population was 939,489, down from 947,735 in 2010. It is both the most populous and most densely populated county in Wisconsin, and the 45th most populous coun ...

's Fifth Assembly district.

Background

Rudzinski was born in Neumark, Marienwerder, Prussia on January 5, 1857. His family came to Wisconsin in 1859 and settled at Milwaukee on Christmas Eve, 1859. He was educated in St. Mary's parish school in Milwaukee, and graduated from

St. Gall's Academy Marquette University High School (MUHS) is a private, all-male, Jesuit, Roman Catholic school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI), an acc ...

, Milwaukee, and Spencerian Business College of Milwaukee. He became a real estate, insurance and

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

agent, and lived for seven months in Chicago.

Elective office

He served on the Milwaukee Common Council as alderman of the 12th Ward from 1883 to 1836, and was re-elected in April, 1886, for another three-year term. He was elected to the Assembly's Fifth Milwaukee County district (the 5th and 12th Wards of the City of Milwaukee) in 1886 for the session of 1887, with 1,705 votes to 832 votes for Republican D. W. Chipman, 759 votes for incumbent

Daniel Hooker Daniel Darius Hooker (December 22, 1831 – April 26, 1894) was an American molder and tool manufacturer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who served two terms as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. He was elected as a "Democratic Trades Assem ...

(who had served two terms as a labor Trades Assembly member but was now seeking re-election as a Democrat), and 18 votes for Prohibitionist J. Y. Wolf. He was assigned to the standing committee on

public improvements Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...

. Rudzinski did not run for re-election. He was succeeded by Republican Henry Siebers. He remained a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

as of 1889. As of 1900, he was still a Milwaukee alderman, and in 1907 he was named in the lawsuit which claimed that he, his colleagues on the Common Council, Mayor

David S. Rose David Semel Rose (born June 12, 1957) is an American serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He is an investor in startup technology companies and founder of New York Angels, an early-stage technology investment group. He is Managing Partner of ...

and others had made a corrupt deal in 1900 to grant electric railway franchises to The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company.

After the Assembly

In 1897, it was reported that Rudzinski had made arrangements with the Peshtigo Company to buy near Beaver Creek (just south of

Crivitz Crivitz is a town in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated 18 km east of Schwerin. The founder of the town Crivitz, Wisconsin named it after his hometown Crivitz. It has a friendship lin ...

, on which 400 Polish families from Milwaukee, Chicago and Europe were to form a colony."A Polish Colony: Theodore Rudzinski Buys 12,000 Acres of Land for the Purpose" ''Portage Daily Democrat''
September 30, 1897; p. 1, col. 2] By 1901, he was running ads in Polish language newspapers such as ''Dziennik Chicagoski'' and ''Zgoda'' in Chicago and Milwaukee.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudzinski, Theodore 1857 births Year of death unknown Members of the Wisconsin State Assembly Milwaukee Common Council members Wisconsin Laborites People from Kwidzyn County