Francis Joseph Dewes (April 8, 1845 – December 21, 1922) was a Chicago brewer and millionaire. Born in
Losheim, near Trier in
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
on April 8, 1845,
he was the son of Peter Dewes, a brewer and member of the German parliament. Francis Dewes emigrated to the United States of America in 1868 and settled in Chicago. There he found employment as a bookkeeper for established brewing companies such as Rehm and Bartholomae and the
Busch and Brand Brewing Company. After rising through the ranks, he founded his own successful brewing firm—F. J. Dewes Brewery Company—in 1881, which would become City Brewing Company in 1898. Shortly thereafter Dewes took over the presidency at the Standard Brewery.
In 1896,
Adolph Cudell
Adolph Cudell (1850 – August 18, 1910) was an architect practicing in Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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and
Arthur Hercz
Arthur Hercz (June 12, 1866 – February 3, 1941) was a Hungarian American architect and artistic director active in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Biography
Educated at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Hercz arrived i ...
built a German baroque mansion for him at 503 West Wrightwood Avenue in Lincoln Park, Chicago, that became the
Chicago landmark
Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, archite ...
Francis J. Dewes House. His brother
Carl Dewes had the house next door at number 509 built in a similar style.
Francis Dewes also donated the ten-foot-tall
statue of Alexander von Humboldt, which was sculpted by
Felix Gorling, that stands in
Humboldt Park.
He died in Chicago on December 21, 1922.
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References
1845 births
1922 deaths
19th-century American businesspeople
Prussian emigrants to the United States
Businesspeople in brewing
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