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 protect ...

from

Milwaukee 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 ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

who spent one term as a People's Party member of the

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Assembly is controlled by the Republican ...

from

Milwaukee County Milwaukee County () is a county 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, containing about 1 ...

's Fifth Assembly district.

Background

Rudzinski was born in

Neumark The Neumark (), also known as the New March () or as East Brandenburg (), was a region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its successors located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945 except some villages o ...

Marienwerder Kwidzyn (; ; Latin: ''Quedin''; Old Prussian: ''Kwēdina'') is a town in northern Poland on the Liwa River. With a population of 36,731, it is the capital of Kwidzyn County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Geography Kwidzyn is located on the L ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

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 A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The wor ...

in Milwaukee, and graduated from St. Gall's Academy, Milwaukee, and

Spencerian Business College Spencerian Business College is the name of various business schools established in the 19th century by Platt R. Spencer, his son Robert C. Spencer, or by Enos Spencer (whose relation to the other two Spencers is unclear), sometimes in association ...

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. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

agent, and lived for seven months in

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Elective office

He served on the

Milwaukee Common Council The municipal government of the U.S. city of Milwaukee, located in the state of Wisconsin, consists of a mayor and common council. Traditionally supporting progressive politicians and movements, this community has consistently proved to be a stro ...

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

of the 12th

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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 (who had served two terms as a labor Trades Assembly member but was now seeking re-election as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

), and 18 votes for

Prohibitionist Prohibitionism is a legal philosophy and political theory often used in lobbying which holds that citizens will abstain from actions if the actions are typed as unlawful (i.e. prohibited) and the prohibitions are enforced by law enforcement.C Canty ...

J. Y. Wolf. He was assigned to the

standing committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

on public improvements. Rudzinski did not run for re-election. He was succeeded by Republican Henry Siebers. He remained a justice of the peace 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 and others had made a corrupt deal in 1900 to grant

electric railway Railway electrification is the use of electric power for the propulsion of rail transport. Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), electric multiple units ( passenger cars with their own ...

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The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company , also referred to as the Milwaukee Interurban Lines or TMER&L, is a defunct railroad that operated in and around Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was the largest electric railway and electric utility syst ...

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 li ...

, on which 400

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

families from Milwaukee,

and

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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 Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

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 19th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature