Gravely Speaking

Charles/Carl Theodore Frederick “C.T.” Melms

Born August 18, 1819 in Prussia

Died February 19, 1869 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

C.T. Melms was born in Prussia and immigrated to the United States in 1843, and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Melms married Maria Neukirch and went into the beer-making business with his new bride’s father, Franz, at the Menomonee Brewery.  They ran brewery together until 1853 when Melms became the sole owner.  By 1860, Melms was the largest beer producer in the Milwaukee and many consider him to be the city’s very first beer baron.

At age 49 Melms had a mishap.  He either sat on or had his hand pierced by a needle.  The wound became infected and on February 19, 1869, Melms died at his home of complications from tetanus.  He was survived by his widow, Maria, and their seven children: Franz, who was the oldest at 19 years old; Carl; Johanna; Elise; Richard; Gustav, and 4-year old Hertha, their youngest.  Within two years, Maria had sold the company her father and husband had built to the Philip Best Brewery Company which eventually became the Pabst Brewery.

Fast forward 194 years to Sunday, August 18, 2013, on the anniversary Melm’s birthday a ceremony was held to replace the tiny cast iron marker that had been placed on C.T. Melm’s grave.   A group of 25 families and organizations donated to have the new marker made and dozens gathered to unveil the new gravestone erected in the Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee to honor Melms.  The slant-faced monument is a polished granite gravestone with an etched image of Melms.

C. T. MELMS

LAGER BREWER

AUG. 18, 1819

FEB. 19, 1869

EARLY MILWAUKEE BEER BARON

To the right of the new gravestone is a bronze plaque:

MARIA MELMS

1828 – 1899

JOHANNA STRESAU

1855 – 1938

ROSALIE KOMMRUSCH

1998 – 1995

Frederick Edward John Miller

November 24, 1824, Riedlingen, Wurttemberg, Germany

May 11, 1888, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Many beers have slogans that are memorable—Schlitz with “The beer that made Milwaukee famous!”  Or Budweiser, “the King of Beers.” St. Pauli’s Girl, “You Never Forget Your First Girl!”  Sapporo, “Drink in the world.”  Hamm’s, “The Land of Sky Blue Waters.”

Beer companies were lucky to have ONE slogan that stuck in drinkers’ minds.  But Miller had several.  Who can forget the sound of a can being opened, then hearing the tag line, “It’s Miller Time!”  Or “If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer.” Or during the introduction of “lite” beers, “Everything you always wanted in a beer.  And less.”  But the one stuck on the label says it all, “The Champagne of Bottled Beers.”

The founder of the Miller Brewing company was a German-born brewer named Friedrich Eduard Johannes Müller —anglicized his name became Frederick Edward John Miller.  Miller was born in Riedlingen, a small city in southwest Germany.  Miller learned the brewing trade from his uncle.  In 1854, Miller moved with his wife, Josephine, and their son, Joseph.  The family moved to Milwaukee and Miller founded his iconic brewing company at the Plank Road Brewery which had been built by Jacob Best.  Miller proved to be a brewer of uncompromising quality which was a hallmark of the beer he brewed.

Only five years after the Miller family settled in Milwaukee, Josephine died.  None of their six children lived to adulthood which haunted him for the rest of his life.  Frederick did remarry.  He and his second wife, Lisette, had several children die in infancy and five children who lived to adulthood—Ernst, Emil, Frederick II, Clara, and Elise.

In 1888, Miller died of cancer.  His sons took over the business.  Frederick Miller is buried in the Calvary Cemetery at Milwaukee.  His gravestone is a tall ornamented light gray granite obelisk that rests on an ornate plinth with three bases.

Jacob Best

May 1, 1786 – Jan. 26, 1861

Wife

Eva Maria Schmidt

Apr. 29, 1790 – Sept. 1867

Son

Lorenz

Oct. 20, 1826 – Dec. 29, 1853

1844

Jacob Best Brewing Company Founded

1889

Name Changed to Pabst Brewing Company

Jacob & Eva Best’s Granddaughter Maria Best Married Captain Frederick Pabst

Also Buried Here

Jacob Muth

Eva Best

Philip Schmidt

Eight Infant children

The first gravestone on the beer baron trail that winds through the Forest Home Cemetery at Milwaukee is the Jacob and Eva Maria Best gravestone.  The large black granite polished slab is a monument to the Best Family but also to the Best Brewing Company which is depicted on the face of the stone, along with a portrait of its founder, Jacob Best.

Like some other notable German immigrants to Milwaukee, Jacob Best of Darmstadt, was a brewer.  He settled in the city in 1840.  Best, with his wife and four sons, established his brewery in 1844 which he named the Empire Brewery.  The small brewery produced lager beer, whiskey, and vinegar.  The demand for lager beer, a beer fermented in low temperatures using very particular yeasts, is characterized by its “crisp” and “clean” taste.  His beer was a hit and so was his brewery.  Jacob Best retired from the brewery in 1859 and turned the business over to his son, Philip, who renamed the business after himself.  As the gravestone proudly proclaims, the brewery originally founded by Jacob Best became the Pabst Brewing Company in 1889 when the Best and Pabst families became intertwined through the marriage of Jacob and Eva Maria’s granddaughter Maria to Captain Frederick Pabst.

A bronze plaque at the base of the gravestone lists the names of the donors who helped pay for the erection of monument in the cemetery.  The Best and Pabst families and foundations associated with their families are well represented but also another brewing company of note, the MillerCoors Brewing Company, as well as, the Museum of Beer and Brewing are on the list of donors.

Joseph Schlitz

Born: May 15, 1831

Lost at Sea: May 7, 1875

Joseph Schlitz was born in Mainz, Germany.  He immigrated to the United States in 1850 and settled in Milwaukee.  He was hired on at the Krug Brewery as a bookkeeper by August Krug. Krug died from a fall in 1856.  Two years later, Joseph Schlitz and Krug’s widow, Anna Maria, were married. Schlitz invested his savings in the Krug Brewery and changed the name to the Schlitz Brewing Company.  Schlitz began expanding his business, setting up distribution points around the country made easier by the use of the railway.  The beer was a hit.

Joseph Schlitz was on his way to visit his German homeland, when the ship, the SS Schiller, he was on hit a rock while in thick fog and sank off the coast of Cornwall, England.  He and 340 people on board the ship died—his body was never recovered.  The company did not change hands until Anna Maria Schlitz died in 1887, when her nephews, the Uihlein brothers, acquired full ownership.

Schlitz beer became the number one selling beer in America in 1902 and vied for the title throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century.  The beer became known as the “The beer that made Milwaukee famous!”  The company had an ad campaign that claimed, “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.”

A large and elaborate cenotaph honors Joseph Schlitz in the Forest Home Cemetery at Milwaukee.  The large gray granite monument is topped with a statue of a woman looking upwards with one hand reaching toward the sky. The statue is atop several ornamental layers that rests upon a gothic-inspired design with a pointed arch and four columns.  This middle structure is on top of the plinth that has a bas-relief carving of a ship, presumably the SS Schiller.  Above the sculpture is a banner that reads, “LOST MAY 7, 1875” memorializing the date the ship sank.

His widow, Anna Maria Hartig Krug Schlitz and many family members are buried in the large family plot surrounding the cenotaph.