Carl Zabel

Carl Albert Maximilian Zabel (March 19, 1837^[1] - ?) was an American merchant and manufacturer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who spent one term as an independent member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.^[2]

Background

Zabel was born March 19, 1837, in Magdeburg, Saxony, in the Kingdom of Prussia. He immigrated to New York City in 1851, and moved to Milwaukee in 1856. He described himself as "having received a collegiate education", became a merchant and manufacturer, and retired from active business before ever holding public office.

Public office

Zabel became commissioner of Milwaukee Public Schools in May 1881; and was elected to the Assembly for 1882 for the 6th Milwaukee County Assembly district (the 6th and 13th Wards of the City of Milwaukee) with 790 votes, unseating incumbent Republican Henry Herzer, who polled 675 votes. He was assigned to the standing committee on the assessment and collection of taxes.^[3]

In February 1882, he introduced a bill in the Assembly which called for any land grants to defunct railroads to revert to the state, rather than being transferred to the successors to those railroads. Zabel told a Milwaukee Sentinel reporter that he was not at all sanguine about the bill's passage, "in view of the fact that all, or nearly all, of the members of the Legislature have their complimentary railroad passes in their pockets" and thus felt obligated to the railroad corporations.^[4]

He was not a candidate for re-election for 1883, and was succeeded by Democrat Frederick Scheiber.

References

^ "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971". FamilySearch. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
^ Cannon, A. Peter, ed. Members of the Wisconsin Legislature: 1848 – 1999. State of Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau Informational Bulletin 99-1, September 1999; p. 125 Archived December 9, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
^ Heg, J. E., ed. The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin 1882 Madison, 1882; pp. 553, 572
^ "The Land-Grant Bill; Mr. Zabel's Bill Introduced Merely as a Matter of Course - Influencing Legislation" Milwaukee Daily Sentinel February 6, 1882; p. 31, col. F

[1] "Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971". FamilySearch. Retrieved 26 January 2019.

[2] Cannon, A. Peter, ed. Members of the Wisconsin Legislature: 1848 – 1999. State of Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau Informational Bulletin 99-1, September 1999; p. 125 Archived December 9, 2006, at the Wayback Machine

[3] Heg, J. E., ed. The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin 1882 Madison, 1882; pp. 553, 572

[4] "The Land-Grant Bill; Mr. Zabel's Bill Introduced Merely as a Matter of Course - Influencing Legislation" Milwaukee Daily Sentinel February 6, 1882; p. 31, col. F

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