Frederick A. Schroeder

Early Life

Frederick A. Schroeder was born on March 9, 1833. He was of German descent.

Career

Schroeder became the mayor of Brooklyn before it joined New York City. He later served as a New York state senator.

Legacy

Schroeder is known for opposing the powerful political machine in Brooklyn. He worked to make city government fairer and more efficient. His efforts helped improve the city during his time.

Youth in Prussia

Frederick A. Schroeder was born in Trier, in the Kingdom of Prussia. His father, Michael Schroeder, was a merchant and later became a surveyor.

In 1841, Frederick started school at Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Trier. Another famous person, Karl Marx, had gone to this school before him. Frederick did not do very well and left school in 1848. That same year, his mother passed away.

In 1849, Frederick, his father, and his two sisters moved from Trier to the United States. This move happened because of big changes in their country, called the revolution of 1848. They arrived in the U.S. on May 10, 1849, and settled in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Frederick’s oldest brother stayed in Germany at first but joined the family a few years later.

Economic success

Frederick A. Schroeder learned to work with cigars before coming to America. He started by rolling cigars for money and then opened his own tobacco business in 1852. In 1863, he partnered with Isidore M. Bon, and they ran a company called "Schroeder & Bon."

In 1867, the company stopped making cigars and started importing tobacco leaves. They introduced a new type of tobacco called shade tobacco, which was very important at the time. When Bon retired in 1893, Schroeder’s son Edwin and his son-in-law Frank Arguimbau joined the company.

Schroeder’s success in tobacco helped him start other projects. He helped develop the area of Shelter Island and built a summer home there. In 1867, he helped start Germania Savings Bank and was its president until he passed away.

The company’s success led to some big legal cases in the US Supreme Court. In 1894, the court decided a case about customs duties on tobacco. Later, in 1905, there was another case about federal law with Frank Arguimbau, who was a partner in the company.

Political career

Frederick A. Schroeder was elected to serve the city of Brooklyn in 1871 by the Republican party. He worked to improve the city’s money matters and stood up against a powerful group called the "Brooklyn ring" led by Hugh McLaughlin from the Democratic party. He took some unfair officials to court to return money they had wrongly kept.

Later, Schroeder became mayor of Brooklyn in 1875 and kept fighting for fair government. During his time, important projects like Ocean Parkway started, and the first part of the Brooklyn Bridge was built.

Schroeder also served in the New York State Senate, where he helped create new rules for Brooklyn’s city management. He also worked on laws to control how much debt cities could have.

Even though others asked him to run for more jobs later, Schroeder decided not to. One reason he gave was that some parts of the Republican Party had ideas that he thought would push away voters from German backgrounds.

Death

Frederick A. Schroeder died in 1899 in New York from a sickness called pneumonia. He got this illness while at the funeral of his daughter Mary Jane. His wife, Mary Jane, and some of their children were still alive when he died. He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery. Some important people honored him at his funeral.