Theodore Fritz (August 27, 1851 - December 19, 1922) was a grocer and local politician from

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

who served as a member of the Wisconsin State Senate from 1887-1888. He was born August 27, 1851 in Falkenburg, Prussia, and moved to Milwaukee with his family in 1856. He attended

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and

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in Milwaukee, and became a grocer.

Public office

In May of 1882, Fritz was elected to the

Milwaukee Common Council The municipal government of the U.S. city of Milwaukee, located in the state of Wisconsin, consists of a mayor and common council. Traditionally supporting liberal politicians and movements, this community has consistently proved to be a strongho ...

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for the Sixth Ward to succeed Henry Smith, who had just resigned to become city

comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

. He would serve four more years on the Common Council. He became a member of the state executive committee of the Wisconsin People's Party, sometimes called the Labor Party (of which he'd been a founding member when in 1884 it was organized as a fusion of the Greenback Party and

Anti-Monopoly Party The Anti-Monopoly Party was a short-lived American political party. The party nominated Benjamin F. Butler for President of the United States in 1884, as did the Greenback Party, which ultimately supplanted the organization. Organizational hi ...

), and was elected to the Wisconsin Senate from the

5th district District 5, 5 District or 5th District may refer to: Europe * District 5 (Zürich) * District 5, Düsseldorf * V District, Turku * Districts of Malta#District 5, District 5, an electoral district of Malta * Districts of Malta#District 5 2, Distric ...

(the 1st, 6th, 9th, 10 and 13th Wards of the City of Milwaukee, and the

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of Granville,

and Wauwatosa) in 1886 on the People's Party ticket, with 5,612 votes to 4,322 for Republican Fred. G. Isenring, 2,939 for

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Garrett Dunck, and 52 for Prohibitionist F. W. Wallace. He was assigned to the standing committee on

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s. Fritz was described in 1887 as, "smaller than the average of men; has light hair and beard, and blue eyes, and is modest in his dress. He has not had much to say so far, but has expressed his convictions by his votes." The Senate was redistricted, putting Fritz into the

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, and in 1888 he lost to the 4th District incumbent Republican

John J. Kempf John J. Kempf (May 4, 1857??) was an American shoemaker, businessman, and politician. He was the 14th and 16th state treasurer of Wisconsin—he was removed from office by the governor in 1904 during his first term and then won election to re ...

, with 5,262 votes for Kempf; 3,631 for Democrat August Rebhahn; and 1,301 for Fritz. In 1892, he was the Populist nominee for Wisconsin's 4th Congressional District, losing to Democratic incumbent John L. Mitchell, who polled 19,616 votes to 18,294 for

Theobald Otjen Theobald Otjen (October 27, 1851 – April 11, 1924) was a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin. Theobald was born to German immigrants John Conrad and Dorothea (Schreiner) Otjen, in west China township in St. Clair County, Michigan and attend ...

, and 829 for Fritz. In 1900, he was the Populist nominee for Mayor of Milwaukee against corrupt incumbent David Stuart Rose.

Heritage and private life

Fritz's son, Oscar M. Fritz, would become Chief Justice of the

Wisconsin Supreme Court The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in Wisconsin. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over original actions, appeals from lower courts, and regulation or administration of the practice of law in Wisconsin. Location The Wi ...

. He died in his son's home on December 19, 1922.Associated Press. "Aged Settler of Milwaukee Dies" ''The Oshkosh Northwestern'' December 20, 1922; p. 14, col. 4
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fritz, Theodore 1851 births 1922 deaths 19th-century American politicians American grocers Politicians from Milwaukee Prussian emigrants to the United States Wisconsin city council members Wisconsin Greenbacks Wisconsin Laborites Wisconsin Populists Wisconsin state senators