History of Detroit, a chronicle of its progress, its industries, its institutions, and the people of the fair City of the straits, / by Paul Leake ... [Vol. 3]

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HISTORY OF DETROIT

welfare of his home city. He was a member and liberal supporter of
the Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, of which his widow is an
earnest and zealous member. In the time honored Masonic fraternity
Mr. Brown completed the circle of both the York and Scottish rites,
in which latter he attained to the thirty-second degree, besides which
he was identified with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the
Mystic Shrine. After establishing his home in Detroit he became
affiliated with Fairbanks Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and he
took much interest in its affairs. Mr. Brown was a great lover of
home, and in the precincts of the same he found his maximum solace
and satisfaction, his domestic relations having been of ideal character.
For many years the demands of his business caused him to travel extensively, and thus he found the attractions of his home the greater when
he was permitted to be within its gracious confines. In 1890 he and
his family removed into the beautiful home still occupied by Mrs.
Brown, at the corner of Cass and Alexandrine avenues, and this has
become known as a center of most gracious hospitality, its chatelaine
being a popular factor in connection with the best social activities of
the city. This residence was erected by Mr. Brown and is one of the
fine homes which lend prestige to Detroit as a city of homes.
On the 24th of October, 1866, was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Brown to Miss Jane Elizabeth Miltenberger, who was born at Franklin,
Warren county, Ohio, a daughter of Thomas and Mary Jane Miltenberger, who were of stanch German lineage and both of whom continued
to reside in the old Buckeye state until their death. Mr. and Mrs.
Brown became the parents of three children, of whom two died in
infancy. Mary Jane, the surviving child, is now the wife of John
Henry James, a representative business man of Detroit, and they have
one daughter, Jane Elizabeth, named in honor of her maternal grandmother.
BRUNO SCHROETER. The extensive greenhouses at Elmwood avenue
and Hendricks street and the well known retail florist shop at 56 Broadway represent the sustained business enterprise of a Detroit citizen
throughout his active career. To construct the business and to keep
it going up to date for year after year and the stress of modern coinpetition is an achievement more worthy of admiration than some of
the quick successes which receive more conspicuous attention.
Bruno Schroeter, the proprietor of these greenhouses, has been a
resident of Detroit forty years, and the entire time he has been identified with his present business. He is a native of Prussia, Germany,
born in the province of Saxony, July 27, 1841, a son of Gottfried and
Emilie Schroeter, both of whom lived and died in the Fatherland. Up
to the age of sixteen he attended the German schools and obtained a
good practical training. Then leaving school he began learning the
floral business and was engaged in that line in Germany until 1872,
when he came direct to Detroit, being then a young man about thirty
years old. For the first six months he was in the employ of William
Adair, who conducted a greenhouse on Jefferson and Adair streets.
Having in this time sufficiently familiarized himself with conditions
and possessing all the ability needed for the business, he established his
own business at the corner of Elmwood avenue and Champlain street. For
twenty-two years that location in the minds of thousands of Detroit
citizens was identified with this floral business. He then moved to his
present location at the corner of Elmwood avenue and Hendricks street.
In 1893 he opened a retail branch of his general establishment, this
down-town store having since been at 56 Broadway, at the corner of
Wilcox.