Edward Breitung
Edward Breitung | |
---|---|
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 11th district | |
In office March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1885 | |
Preceded by | District established |
Succeeded by | Seth C. Moffatt |
Personal details | |
Born | Schalkau, Saxe-Meiningen | November 10, 1831
Died | March 3, 1887 Eastman, Georgia, U.S. | (aged 55)
Political party | Republican |
Edward Breitung (November 10, 1831 – March 3, 1887) was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives from 1883 to 1885.
Early life and career
Breitung, the son of John M. Breitung, a
In 1849, after the
After this, he ran the Pioneer Blast Furnace in Negaunee, with Israel Case, under a four-year contract. Subsequently he engaged exclusively in iron-mining operations in 1864, explored for iron deposits in Marquette and Menominee Counties, locating several profitable mines from 1864 to 1867. He later became interested iron mining in Minnesota, and in gold and silver mining in Colorado.
On November 28, 1870, Edward married Mary Paulin, who was originally from Belgium, Wisconsin. Mary had been working as a chambermaid at a boarding house in Republic (Smith's Mine), Michigan, where Edward owned the Republic Mine.
Edward and Mary's first child was Edward Jr., born on November 1, 1871, in Negaunee. Their second child, William, was born c. March 1874 in Negaunee, but became sick soon thereafter. Edward did not make it back from his Lansing duties before William's death, on August 26 of the same year, from cholera.
Congress
Breitung was a member of the
Death
Breitung died in Eastman, Georgia before he was able to move into a winter house he had built. This was also before construction was due to begin on his new house in Marquette, Michigan. He is interred in the Breitung Mausoleum at Park Cemetery in Marquette.
Edward Breitung's widow married into the Samuel R. Kaufman family of Marquette, marrying Samuel's son Nathan Kaufman. Mary had in fact placed Nathan in effective charge of several Breitung businesses while Edward was away in Congress.
Breitung's son, Edward N. Breitung Jr., continued his father's successful mining enterprises in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and much further afield. Edward Jr. also married into the Kaufman family, wedding Nathan's sister Charlotte. Despite his father's political career, Edward Jr.'s loyalties were compromised with the outbreak of World War I. He attempted to profit through the questionable purchase of an impounded German ship. Later, his nephew, and others working in the Breitung New York office, served time for involvement in plots to bomb American factories and merchant ships.
Edward Jr. and Charlotte had one child: Juliet. Although Charlotte was grooming Juliet for New York's high society, she eloped with their Marquette neighbor's gardener, Max. Edward Jr. "gracefully" offered Max a chance to prove himself in a Breitung mine in New Mexico, where over the course of two months he faced nine life-threatening events. Coming back to New York, Max was attacked twice in the same evening, and left for dead.
References
- ^ Upham, Warren (1920). Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance. Minnesota Historical Society. p. 478.
2. Nyquist, Michael S., Honorable Edward N. Breitung and Son Edward and Granddaughter Juliet, Amazon Books, 2023
External links
- American biographical history of eminent and self-made men ... Michigan volume. Cincinnati, Western biographical publishing co., 1878.
- Biographical record; this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of Houghton, Baraga and Marquette Counties, Michigan ... Chicago, Biographical Publishing Co.,1903.
- United States Congress. "Edward Breitung (id: B000795)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Nyquist, Michael S., Honorable Edward N. Breitung and Son Edward and Granddaughter Juliet, Amazon Books, 2023