John Schumacher (Los Angeles pioneer)
John Schumacher (c. 1816–1885) was a German immigrant who became a wealthy Los Angeles landowner and served on the city’s Common Council. He arrived in California in the 1840s and settled in Los Angeles by 1847–1848. In 1849 he found a gold nugget worth $800 at Sutter’s Creek, then returned to Los Angeles and bought a block of land along Spring Street near First and Broadway. In 1882 he built a two-story home on Fort Street.
Schumacher was known for his language skills and often helped neighbors as an interpreter. He married Mary Uhrie in 1855, and they had six children: John, Frank G., F.F., and Carrie; their eldest daughter married Edward A. Preuss. His wife died in 1880 in Merced when she was struck by a train car at the station.
The Schumachers owned one of the first pianos in Los Angeles, shipped from the East, and they had a spring wagon built by local craftsman John Goller. Schumacher ran a grocery store with a small bar and eventually bought nearly the whole block around Spring and First streets and Franklin Alley.
He was famous for selling the first lager beer in Los Angeles, imported from San Francisco, and for a drink called Peach and Honey—a mix with peach brandy that locals drank to help with colds and which was popular with politicians. In the late 1870s he ran a vineyard opposite the city gardens, and earlier he and Jacob Bell raised sheep.
Schumacher was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council on May 7, 1866, and served two terms. He died in Los Angeles on March 2, 1885, at age 69, from apoplexy.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:52 (CET).