Edward Breitung

Breitung, the son of John M. Breitung, a Lutheran minister, was born in the city of Schalkau in the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, Germany (now in Sonneberg District, Thuringia). He attended the College of Mining in Meiningen, then one of the celebrated schools in Germany for scientific and classical studies.

In 1849, after the revolution in Germany, he immigrated to the United States and settled in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. He moved to Detroit in 1851 and became a clerk in a mercantile house. He moved to Marquette and engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1859, when he went to Negaunee. Here he was also engaged in the mercantile business; however, his store burnt in 1860.

After this, he ran the Pioneer Blast Furnace in Negaunee, with Israel Case, under a four-year contract. Subsequently, he engaged exclusively in iron-mining operations in 1864, explored for iron deposits in Marquette and Menominee Counties, locating several profitable mines from 1864 to 1867. He later became interested iron mining in Minnesota, and in gold and silver mining in Colorado.

On November 28, 1870, Edward married Mary Paulin, who was originally from Belgium, Wisconsin. Mary had been working as a chambermaid at a boarding house in Republic (Smith's Mine), Michigan, where Edward owned the Republic Mine.

Edward and Mary's first child was Edward Jr., born on November 1, 1871, in Negaunee. Their second child, William, was born c. March 1874 in Negaunee, but became sick soon thereafter. Edward did not make it back from his Lansing duties before William's death, on August 26 of the same year, from cholera.

Breitung was a member of the Michigan State House of Representatives in 1873 and 1874 and a member of the Michigan State Senate in 1877 and 1878. He served as mayor of Negaunee in 1879, 1880, and 1882.

He was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives from Michigan's 11th congressional district for the Forty-eighth Congress, serving from March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1885. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1884.

Breitung died in Eastman, Georgia before he was able to move into a winter house he had built. This was also before construction was due to begin on his new house in Marquette, Michigan. He is interred in the Breitung Mausoleum at Park Cemetery in Marquette.