Patrolman John Schroeder | Cincinnati Police Department

Age:     42
Served: 15 years
June 1, 1886 to August 17, 1901

OFFICER

John was born March 8, 1858, the fifth of six children born to Friedrich Heinrich and Margarethe Friedricke (Finke) Schroeder; both of whom immigrated to the United States from near Hanover, Germany in 1846.  During 1868, when John was ten years old, his father joined the Cincinnati Police Department as a Patrolman.  He continued in that capacity until 1874; at which time he would have been 53.

John married Augusta Stitzel in 1882.  Over the next ten years, they had five children, four boys and one girl, and lived in several homes in Mt. Auburn, on Mansfield, Ringgold, Beckett, and Milton Streets.  Harry, Anna, Leonard, and Charles were born in 1883, 1885, 1887, and 1889, respectively.  George was born in 1892.  Sadly, their only daughter, Anna, died November 20, 1897 of acute endocarditis.

Significant corruption and partisan hiring, promotions, demotions, and dismissals existed within the Department in the mid-19^th century.  One response to these circumstances was to eliminate the Cincinnati Police Department altogether and build a new, non-partisan department.  So, on March 31, 1886, the entire Department was fired and on April 1, 1886, a Police Commission began hiring new officers.

John and his brother, Frederick, on May 15, 1886, less than seven weeks after the new hiring was started, were nominated for positions of Patrolman – and both were approved on May 21, 1886.  By 1888, Patrolman John Schroeder was assigned to the 8^th District in Corryville.  Frederick was an officer in the Hammon Street Station downtown.  All evidence seems to indicate that John spent all fifteen years out of the Corryville stationhouse and was involved in a number of “newspaper-worthy” arrests.

<Read the full story>