John Frohling (1827–1862) was a key figure, along with Charles Kohler, in development of the Northern and Southern California wine industry and was the founder of
Anaheim, California
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...
, in the mid 19th Century. He was also a member of the
Los Angeles, California, Common Council, the governing body of that city.
Personal
Frohling was born in 1827 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 ...
.
[Los Angeles Marriages, 1851-1870]
[Mary Praetzellis, Allan Bramlette, Dell Upton and Adrian Praetzellis, ''Cultural Resources of Jack London State Historic Park,'' Sonoma State University, January 1987, reprinted 2007]
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He was a professional flutist
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with Reed (instrument), reeds, a fl ...
who was in a San Francisco band "that later became famous as the Germania Society."[Anaheim history, ''Orange County Register''](_blank)
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In Anaheim's first wedding, November, 1859, Frohling was married to Amelie Hammes, the daughter of Philips Hammes, "in her parents' not-quite-finished new home." He was 31 and she, also born in Prussia, was 22.[.
While Frohling was in Southern California,
Charles Kohler opened Kohler &
Frohling Wines in San Francisco in 1854.They established the first commercial winery in California. {Reference USPTO Registration # 3142150
Today, Bert Sandman, the great-great-grandson of Charles Kohler, are once again producing wines at Treasure Island Wines, Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA. ]
AnaheimColony.com
He died in 1862.[Friis, ''John Frohling: Vintner and City Founder'' (1976), cited at "A History of Wine in America," UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004]
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Los Angeles
Frohling was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council
The Los Angeles Common Council was the predecessor of the Los Angeles, California, City Council. It was formed in 1850 under state law, when the city had only 1,610 residents, and it existed until 1889, when the city had about 50,400 residents and ...
on May 4, 1857, for a term that ended on May 10, 1858.
Founding Anaheim
As the story goes, in 1853, "inspired by some delicious Los Angeles grapes at a picnic lunch," John Frohling, Charles Kohler, and a German musician named Beutler decided to enter the wine business, despite having "never even seen a vineyard."
Eventually, the firm became known as ''Kohler & Frohling'', with just John and Charles involved in the company. Together, the two entrepreneurs successfully founded one of the West's most influential wineries of its time. Their San Francisco wineries were so popular that they eventually resolved to acquire more land: "As soon as the two German musicians rohling and Kohlerbegan to sell their wine successfully, they saw that they needed a larger supply of grapes than Los Angeles yet afforded; they also saw that the empty spaces of Los Angeles County might be quickly and cheaply developed into vineyards. The catch was to find people willing to do the work; the answer was the German population of San Francisco, a population that Kohler and Frohling, of course, already knew and understood. There was a considerable colony there by 1857, all of them drawn by the Gold Rush."
And so, Anaheim was born in 1857, when 50 German-American families from the San Francisco area were convinced to invest $750 each to invest into the newly formed Los Angeles Vineyard Society (the name given to the venture by Frohling and Kohler). Founders Frohling and Kohler hired George Hansen, Los Angeles County's assistant surveyor, to purchase and lay out the new wine-making colony.
References
Further reading
Judi Gerber, "Laying the Foundation: How Los Angeles Became the Commercial Wine Capital of America," ''Los Angeles Agriculture,'' February 26, 2011
Victor W. Geraci, "Fermenting a Twenty-First Century California Wine Industry," ''Agricultural History,'' Autumn 2004, pages 438–465
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frohling, John
1827 births
1862 deaths
American flautists
American winemakers
People from Anaheim, California
19th-century American musicians
Prussian emigrants to the United States
19th-century American businesspeople