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The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

MUELLER, JACOB - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

MUELLER, JACOB (9 Mar. 1822-31 Aug. 1905) was a German emigre who became a civic leader in Cleveland's German-American community, active in local, state, and national politics. He was elected lieutenant governor of Ohio serving 1 term, 1872-74. Born in Alsenz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, the son of manufacturer, Wilhelm Muller and Anna Elisabetha (Geib) Muller, Mueller received a common-school education, studied law and worked as a lawyer after 1845. He was active in the Revolution of 1848 and served as a civil commissioner under the revolutionary government; when that government was overturned in 1849, he fled to the U.S. where he joined his 2 brothers in Cleveland in Sept. 1849. He studied law and English in the law offices of Geo. Willey and J.E. Carey. After being admitted to the bar in 1854, he practiced in partnership with Benjamin R. Beavis and Louis Ritter which dissolved in 1859. Mueller then established the German Insurance Co. and served as its director and secretary until 1869, when he resigned to travel in Europe.

Mueller became active in politics and in the civic affairs of the local German-American community in the 1850s. Along with Louis Ritter, he formed a stock company in 1852 to establish a new German newspaper, Waechter am Erie, and was later an editor of WAECHTER UND ANZEIGER. He served on the CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL in 1857-58 as the representative from the 6th ward, and in addition to his election as lieutenant governor in 1871, he was elected as a representative from Cuyahoga County to the 1873-74 state constitutional convention. He was a delegate to the Free-Soil party's national convention in 1885 and to the Republican national conventions in 1860 and 1872. In 1873 he broke with the Republican party; joining the Democrats, he attended that party's national convention in 1876. In 1885, Pres. Grover Cleveland appointed him consul-general at Frankfurt am Main; he served there for 6 years.

Mueller was married twice. His first wife, Charlotte Finger, died in 1858. He married Laura Schmidt in 1860; she died in 1886. Mueller died in Cleveland and was buried in WOODLAND CEMETERY. He was survived by 4 daughters: Emma (Mrs. Frank Cudell) from his first marriage; and Minna (Mrs. Odo Portmann), Paulina (Mrs. Jean Baptiste Hepp), and Elsie (Mrs. Richard Writh) from his second marriage.


Mueller, Jacob. The Memoirs of a '48er (1896).

Last Modified: 21 Jul 1997 11:37:03 AM

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