Joseph Schlitz (May 15, 1831 – May 7, 1875) was a German-American entrepreneur who made his fortune in the brewing industry.
Biography
Joseph Schlitz was born on May 15, 1831, in Mainz, Hesse-Darmstadt. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1850.
In 1856, he assumed management of the Krug Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1858, when he married George August Krug's widow, Anna Maria Krug (1819-1887), he changed the name of the company to the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. He became more successful after the Great Chicago Fire 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 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 on May 7, 1875. The islands lie west of Cornwall, England. He was returning via New York City and Hamburg, visiting Germany. Aged 43, his body was never recovered. A cenotaph at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee honors him.
Gallery
<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
</gallery>
See also
- Eberhard Anheuser
- Jacob Best
- Valentin Blatz
- Adolphus Busch
- Adolph Coors
- Gottlieb Heileman
- Frederick Miller
- Frederick Pabst
- August Uihlein
Notes
References
Further reading
- Uwe Spiekermann, "Political Revolution, Emigration, and Establishing a Regional Player in Brewing: August Krug and Joseph Schlitz." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 2, edited by William J. Hausman and the German Historical Institute. Last modified September 19, 2016.