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]

HISTORY OF DETROIT

1117

Mr. Schroeter throughout his career in Detroit has always been
known as a progressive citizen, supporting the best ideals of civic life,
but has never taken active part in politics, being a Republican voter.
He is a member of the Harmonie Society of Detroit.
In August, 1877, he was married in Detroit to Miss Anna Werner.
Her birthplace was Silesia, Germany, and she came to this country in
1874, with her mother and one brother, Herman Werner. Her father
died in Germany in 1873. Three children were born to Mr. Schroeter
and wife: Hugo, the eldest, has for some years been associated with his
father in the conduct of the extensive business, and is also secretary
of the Detroit Floral Club. He married Miss Aurellia Russell, of Detroit, and' they have one son, Russell, three years old. Miss Clara, the
only daughter, lives at home. Bruno, Jr., was graduated in the spring
of 1911 from the engineering department of the University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor.
GUSTAVE H. TAEPKE. One of the most thoroughly authoritative representatives of the art of floriculture in the Michigan metropolis and
one whose training for his chosen vocation has been of the highest order,
Gustave H. Taepke holds precedence as one of the leading factors in
this line of enterprise in the city that has been the field of his well
directed endeavors for nearly forty years. His success has been of
unequivocal order and has been gained through close application, progressive policies and fair dealing, so that his reputation stands as his
most valuable business asset. He is well known and held in unqualified
esteem in Detroit, and no citizen exemplifies more distinctive civic
loyalty. His standing in the community is such as to render most
consonant a brief review of his career in connection with this historical
work, one of whose leading functions is to accord such recognition to
those who stand representative in their various spheres of endeavor.
Like many another who has exemplified the maximum of success in
connection with floriculture in America, Mr. Taepke is a native of the
great empire of Germany. He was born in the picturesque province
of Pomerania, Prussia, on the 13th of June, 1854, and is a son of
Carl Taepke and Johanna Steinke, both of whom were members of old
and sterling families of that section of the German empire. The father
devoted the major part of his active career to farming and he continued
to reside in his native land until 1873, when he came with his family
to the United States and established his home in Detroit, where Gustave
H., of this review, had located in the preceding year. Here the honored
father continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1896, and
here the venerable mother still remains, she being eighty-seven years
of age at the time of this writing, in 1911. Carl and Johanna Taepke
became the parents of seven sons and three daughters, and Gustave H.
was the first born, Herman is a resident of Detroit, as was also Carl,
who died in December, 1910; Albert also resides in this city; Henry
established a home in Spokane, Washington, where he died in 1907;
and the other surviving children, Edward, Mrs. Minnie Schunck, Mrs.
Augusta Blatt and Mrs. Ida Lenx, all reside in Detroit. The father
was a zealous member of the German Lutheran church, as is also his
widow, and the children have all clung to the religious faith in which
they were carefully reared.
Gustave H. Taepke secured his early educational training in the
excellent schools of his native place, where he was afforded the advantages also of the Botanical Garden College, in which he gained scientific
and practical knowledge which has proved of inestimable value to him
in his chosen field of enterprise. At the age of seventeen years he severed the gracious home ties and went to the city of Berlin, where he was