printer, newspaperman, politician, b. Zweibrflcken, Bavarian Palatinate, Germany. A successful printer in Germany, Schoeffler migrated to the U.S. in 1842, worked at his trade in New York City and various other eastern cities, and in 1844 moved to Wisconsin, settling in Milwaukee. There he brought out the first number of the Wiskonsin-Banner (Sept. 7, 1844), the first German newspaper published in Wisconsin. In 1847, it became a semiweekly, and in 1850 a daily. Upon the death of Frederick Fratney (q.v.), editor of the Volksfreund, in 1855, Schoefiler merged that paper with the Banner under the title of Banner and Valksfreund. Schoeffler edited it until his retirement in 1874, when the paper was taken over by a stock company. A Democrat, he was a delegate to the second state constitutional convention (1847-1848), and, as the only German delegate in the convention, was influential in securing liberal suffrage qualifications and equal property rights for the foreign-born. Schoeffler held various local offices in Milwaukee, including that of school commissioner (1845) and register of deeds for Milwaukee County (1850-1851). Although opposed to slavery, he remained loyal to the Democratic party, supporting presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, but after the outbreak of the Civil War upheld the Union cause. For many years one of the most prominent leaders in the Milwaukee German-American community, Schoeffler died shortly after relinquishing control of his newspaper. R. A. Koss, Milwaukee (Milwaukee, 1871); M. M. Quaife, Attainment of Statehood [Madison, 1928]; WPA field notes.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
