Frederick A. Schroeder

Frederick A. Schroeder (March 9, 1833 – December 1, 1899) was an American industrialist and politician of German descent. He served as mayor of Brooklyn before the city joined New York and later became a New York state senator.

Schroeder is remembered for standing up against the powerful political machine in Brooklyn. He worked hard to make city government fairer and more efficient for everyone. His efforts helped improve how the city was run 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. From 1841, Frederick went to a school called Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Trier, where another famous person, Karl Marx, had studied earlier. Frederick did not do very well in school and left in 1848. That same year, his mother passed away. In 1849, Frederick, his father, and his two sisters moved away from Trier to live in the United States, likely because of big changes happening in their country known as the revolution of 1848. They arrived in the U.S. on May 10, 1849, and made their home 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 soon opened his own tobacco business in 1852. In 1863, he partnered with Isidore M. Bon, and together they ran a company called "Schroeder & Bon."

In 1867, the company changed from making cigars to 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, another case involved issues of 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 hard to make the city’s money matters better and stood up against a powerful group called the "Brooklyn ring" led by Hugh McLaughlin from the Democratic party. He even 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 a new set of rules for Brooklyn’s city management, making the mayor’s job stronger and changing how city departments were led. 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 passed away in 1899 in New York from a sickness called pneumonia. He caught this illness while attending the funeral of his daughter Mary Jane. His wife, Mary Jane, and several of their children were still living when he died. He was laid to rest at Green-Wood Cemetery. Some important people, including a former business partner and a civil war veteran, honored him during his funeral.