Early visits (c1991) to the Milwaukee Library and its collection of City Directories led me to believe that Frederick Schmidt may have been involved with more than one of these properties. Since I initially thought that the sign was painted on the side of the third building I assumed that the second building was his residence and the third his place of business. Not so.
The discovery of the information on Wilhelm Jaeger, his father-in-law, in 2019, has motivated a revisitation of this image with the following findings:
- The rightmost home is 473 7th St, and the couple sitting on the porch are almost certainly Wilhelm Jaeger and his wife Henriette. Leaning against the roof support may be their daughter, Emilie Stehwien, who was boarding with her parents.
- The center house is 475 7th St, and sitting in front of baby Louise and her mother (Wilhelm Jaeger's eldest daughter) is Tillie Schmidt (future wife of Otto Pohl). Standing to their left are Herman and Richard Schmidt, who both followed into their father's painting business. The man behind Frederick has yet to be identified, but may be Hermann Jaeger, who was working as a painter.
- The sign is not painted on the side of the third building, but is instead flanked on both ends by the address 875 and mounted between two posts - one inside the fence and one outside.
- The street on the extreme right is probably either Cherry or Vliet, but I am working to confirm. I suspect it is Vliet and that the houses are on the east side of 7th facing west. (In Milwaukee, houses on north and east have odd numbers.)
A very complete set of city directories has survived for Milwaukee and they have been indexed on Ancestry.com, so I was able to search for all occupants of these homes during the period 1858-1918. I found no record of any occupants to these homes prior to 1866. I can only assume that 477 and 473 were build just prior to 1866 and first occupied in 1866. The home at 475 has no occupant before Frederick on 1870, and may have been constructed by him.
Prior to 1866 Frederick moved several times. In 1865 he was at 709 7th St. In 1865 Wilhelm Jaeger was "on 8th St, between Cherry and Vliet". (Perhaps in one of the houses behind those featured in our image?)
The following table documents the occupants of these three structures as reported in Milwaukee City Directories:
| 1866 | 477 | Frederick Schmidt | 1867 | 477 | F Schmidt | 1868 | 477 | Frederick Schmidt |
| 475 | (no occupant found) | 475 | (no occupant found) | 475 | (no occupant found) | |||
| 473 | Wilhelm Jaeger Charles Reusch |
473 | William Jaeger John Stebwiar John Rtaven |
473 | William Jaeger John Stehwien John Stebbin |
|||
| 1869 | 477 | (no occupant found) | 1870 | 477 | (no familiar residents from 1870 onwards) |
1871 | 477 | |
| 475 | (no occupant found) | 475 | Friedrich Schmidt | 475 | Frederick Schmidt | |||
| 473 | Wilhelm Jaeger Hermann Jaeger William Steege Mrs Holly Stebbins |
473 | William Jaeger August Jaeger |
473 | William Jaeger Frederick Neitzel |
|||
| 1872 | 475 | Ered Schmidt | 1873 | 475 | (no occupant found) | 1874 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt |
| 473 | Wilhelm Jaeger Frederick Gehrke |
473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | William Jaeger (died 1874) Christelo Stello |
|||
| 1875 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt | 1876 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt | 1877 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt Hermann Schmidt |
| 473 | August Stark Chesnut Koenig |
473 | Henriette Jaeger August Stanke Herman Stanke |
473 | Henrietta Jaeger (died 1878) Wilhelmine Stanke |
|||
| 1878 | 475 | Fred Schmidt Herman Schmidt |
1879 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt | 1880 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt |
| 473 | Wilhelmine Stanke | 473 | Louis Knipp | 473 | (no occupant found) | |||
| 1881 | 475 | Fred Schmidt Herman Schmidt Herman Lembke |
1882 | 475 | Fred Schmidt Richard Schmidt |
1883 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt |
| 473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | (no occupant found) | |||
| 1884 | 475 | Fred Schmidt | 1885 | 475 | Fred Schmidt Richard Schmidt |
1886 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt |
| 473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | Oswald H Ulbricht | 473 | (no occupant found) | |||
| 1887 | 475 | James P Nelson | 1888 | 475 | Otto H Pohl | 1889 | 475 | Otto H Pohl |
| 473 | Frederick Schmidt Richard Schmidt |
473 | Richard Schmidt | 473 | Richard Schmidt | |||
| 1890 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt Otto H Pohl |
1891 | 475 | Otto H Pohl Richard C Pohl |
1892 | 475 | Fred Schmidt Otto H Pohl |
| 473 | Frederick Schmidt Richard Schmidt |
473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | Frederick Schmidt | |||
| 1893 | 475 | Broe Schmidt Otto H Pohl |
1894 | 475 | Otto H Pohl | 1895 | 475 | Otto H Pohl |
| 473 | Frederick Schmidt | 473 | J William Paula Schmidt Alma Schmidt |
473 | Fred Schmidt Paula Schmidt Alma Schmidt John Baumann Albert J Baumann Henry J Baumann Jr Oscar Beckmann |
|||
| 1896 | 475 | Otto H Pohl | 1897 | 475 | Otto H Pohl | 1898 | 475 | Otto H Pohl |
| 473 | Frederick Schmidt Paula Schmidt Lizzie Schmidt John Baumann Oscar Beckmann |
473 | Frederick Schmidt Pauline Schmidt Alma Schmidt |
473 | Frederick Schmidt Paulina Schmidt Alma Schmidt John Baumann |
|||
| 1899 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt Pauline Schmidt Alma Schmidt Otto Pohl |
1900 | 475 | Frederick Schmidt | 1901 | 475 | (no occupant found) |
| 473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | Joseph Broch John Baumann Z John Z Henry |
473 | (no occupant found) | |||
| 1902 | 475 | (no occupant found) | 1903 | 475 | J Frederick Schmidt Pauline Schmidt |
1904 | 475 | Fred J Schmidt (died 1906) |
| 473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | (no occupant found) | |||
| 1905 | 475 | (no occupant found) | 1906 | 475 | (no occupant found) | 1907 | 475 | Otto Pohl 2 Otto C F Pohl Jr |
| 473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | (no occupant found) | 473 | (no occupant found) | |||
| No recognizible occupants after 1907 | ||||||||