Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 29, 2018 12:11:34 GMT -5
6-Foot Bronze Angel Stolen from Cemetery
MILWAUKEE – Police are asking for the public’s help in recovering a 6-foot bronze angel stolen from Forest Home Cemetery. The statue and a pair of 3-by-6-foot bronze gates were taken from the cemetery at 2405 W. Forest Home Avenue between Aug. 18 and Monday.
The lovely angel, holding a tablet bearing the inscription: “I am the Resurrection and the life: He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die,” has stood watch over the Schroeder family for decades. The patriarch of the family, John Schroeder (1827-1908), a native of Hanover, Germany, came to Milwaukee in 1846 and started the John Schroeder Lumber Company in 1866, the largest in Wisconsin at the time.
Forest Home Avenue is the final resting place of more than 100,000 souls, including two of three of the founding fathers of Milwaukee: George H. Walker and Byron Kilbourn. The grounds consist close to 200 acres the topography remains original to its condition when Indians lived on the land.
The stolen gates have a diamond pattern design and an attempt was made to steal the Fitch family’s bronze angel. The stolen objects and vandalism is estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars. St. Adalbert’s Catholic Church and the Basilica of St. Josaphat, both in close proximity to Forest Home Cemetery, also have experienced recent thefts.
The public is urged to report any information about the Schroeder angel to investigators at (414) 935-7221.
Several notable Milwaukee families have landmark angel statues cast in bronze overseeing their burial plots. One of the most famous, the Chapman family angel, is within a few yards of the stolen Schroeder angel.
Sources: The Milwaukee Independent, August 29, 2018, and Jesse Garza, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, August 28, 2018.
