Valentin Blatz
{{Short description|German-American brewer and banker}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Valentin Blatz
| image = ValBlatz1877.png
| alt =
| caption = 1877 portrait
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1826|10|01}}
| birth_place = Miltenberg, Bavaria
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1894|05|26|1826|10|01}}
| death_place = St. Paul, Minnesota
| nationality =
| other_names =
| signature = Signature of Valentin Blatz (1826–1894).png
| occupation = Brewer
| known_for = Blatz beer
}}
Valentin Blatz (October 1, 1826 – May 26, 1894) was a German-American brewer and banker.[https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/historic-beer-birthday-valentin-blatz/ Historic Beer Birthday: Valentin Blatz]
Biography
Valentin Blatz was born in Miltenberg, Kingdom of Bavaria,Brenda Magee. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kxE7BAAAQBAJ&dq=blatz+miltenberg&pg=PA53 Brewing in Milwaukee]. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014, p. 53. and worked at his father's brewery in his youth. In August 1848, he immigrated to America, and by 1849 had moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Blatz established a brewery next to Johann Braun's City Brewery in 1850 and merged both breweries upon Braun's death in 1852. He also married Braun's widow.
The brewery produced Milwaukee's first individually bottled beer in 1874. It incorporated as the Valentin Blatz Brewing Company in 1889 and by the 1900s was the city's third largest brewer.
He was active in many organizations such as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Blatz was a freemason and member of Aurora Lodge No.30 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.{{cite book |url=http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/10,000_famous_freemasons/Volume_1_A_to_D.htm |last=Denslow |first=William R. |title=10,000 Famous Freemasons |year=1957 |publisher=Missouri Lodge of Research |location=Columbia, Missouri, USA}} ([http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/10,000_famous_freemasons/Volume_1_A_to_D.htm digital document by phoenixmasonry: vol. 1])
Blatz died in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 26, 1894, while returning home to Milwaukee from a trip to California.{{cite news |title=Valentin Blatz Dead |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RIRQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=diAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1515%2C4700666 |newspaper=Milwaukee Journal |page=2 |date=May 28, 1894 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130411-011557/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RIRQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=diAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1515,4700666 |archive-date=2013-04-11 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 22, 2013 |via=Google News Archive}} He was survived by a wife, three sons, and two daughters. He is buried in a massive family mausoleum at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.
Gallery
File:ValBlatzResidence1886.png|Valentin Blatz home (1886 engraving)
File:BlatzBrewery1886.png|Blatz brewery (1886 engraving)
File:Blatztomb.jpg|Mausoleum in Forest Home Cemetery
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
- {{cite book |last=Haller |first=Charles R. |title=German-American Business Biographies: High Finance and Big Business |publisher=Money Tree Imprints |location=Asheville, NC |page=116 }}
- {{cite book |title=The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-made Men; Wisconsin Volume |url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesbiogwi00amer |access-date=February 22, 2013 |year=1877 |publisher=American Biographical Publishing Company |location=Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati |pages=[https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesbiogwi00amer/page/670 670]–673}}
- {{cite book |title=Industrial History of Milwaukee, the Commercial, Manufacturing and Railway Metropolis of the North-west |url= https://archive.org/details/industrialhistor00milw |access-date=February 22, 2013 |year=1886 |publisher=E.E. Barton |pages=[https://archive.org/details/industrialhistor00milw/page/103 103]–105}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blatz, Valentin}}
Category:Bavarian emigrants to the United States
Category:American drink industry businesspeople
Category:People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
Category:Businesspeople from Milwaukee