Frederick Pabst

Johann Gottlieb Friedrich "Frederick" Pabst (March 28, 1836 – January 1, 1904) was a German-American ship's captain and brewer and the namesake of the Pabst Brewing Company. Pabst was born in Prussia and emigrated to the United States with his parents when he was 12. He became a ship's captain and married Maria Best, daughter of a small brewery owner, Jacob Best. After a shipping accident, Pabst bought into his father-in-law's brewery company, learned the business, increased output, and helped the brewery to go public, after which he became president of the company in 1873. The company's name was later changed to the Pabst Brewing Company. Pabst also developed a popular resort north of Milwaukee, built the 14-story Pabst Building in downtown Milwaukee, helped organize the Wisconsin National Bank, and built Milwaukee's Pabst Theater.

Biography

Early life Pabst was born on March 28, 1836, in the village of Nikolausrieth, in the Province of Saxony, in the Kingdom of Prussia. Friedrich was the second child of Gottlieb Pabst, a local farmer, and his wife, Johanna Friederike.

In 1848, he immigrated with his parents to the United States, settling first in Milwaukee, and then Chicago. The following year, his mother died in a cholera epidemic. In Chicago, Frederick and his father had to eke out a living; for a while they worked as waiters and busboys.

Pabst built a 14-story Pabst Building in downtown Milwaukee and also helped organize the Wisconsin National Bank, in 1893. Pabst purchased the old Nunnemacher Grand Opera House, located opposite the Milwaukee City Hall, in 1890, and turned it into the Das Neue Deutsche Stadt-Theater (The New German City Theater), but it was destroyed in a fire. Pabst ordered it rebuilt at once and the newly named Pabst Theater opened in 1895. It still is in use today.

The Pabst Mansion along Wisconsin Avenue is a well-known Milwaukee tourist attraction and was the Pabst family home from 1892 to 1908.

Personal life

Pabst was married in 1862 and had 10 children. Five survived to adulthood: Elizabeth (von Ernst, 1865–1891), Gustave (1866–1943), Marie (Goodrich, 1868–1947), Frederick Jr. (1869–1958), and Emma (Nunnemacher, 1871–1943). The Pabsts also adopted Elizabeth's daughter, Elsbeth, after Elizabeth died unexpectedly in 1891.

He had two stock farms, one in Wauwatosa and one in Calhoun for raising Percheron horses. The original stock had been imported by him from France.

Pabst was affiliated with Aurora Masonic Lodge No. 30.

Pabst is buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee. He died of a heart attack on January 1, 1904 In Wisconsin at age 65.