Joseph Schlitz

{{Infobox person

| name = Joseph Schlitz

| image = Joseph schlitz.jpg

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| birth_date = May 15, 1831

| birth_place = Mainz, Hesse-Darmstadt (now Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany)

| death_date = May 7, 1875 (aged 43)

| death_place = at sea, near Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, England

| resting_place = Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.

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| known_for = Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company

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| occupation = Businessman

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| spouse = Anna Maria Krug (m. 1858)

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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.{{efn|Not to be confused with the later Krug Brewery that was located in Omaha, Nebraska.}} In 1858, when he married George August Krug's widow, Anna Maria Krug,{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-milwaukee-news-legal-notices/125465247/ |title=Legal Notices |newspaper=The Daily Milwaukee News |page=7 |date=October 4, 1868 |accessdate=May 28, 2023 |via=newspapers.com}} 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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AUo2AQAAMAAJ&q=valentin+blatz+freemasons&pg=RA1-PA234 |last=Grand Lodge of Wisconsin |title=Proceedings of the Most Worshipful Grandlodge at its 31st Grand Annual Communication |year=1875 |publisher=Burdick & Armitage Printers |location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA}}

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 {{convert|26|mile|km}} 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.