inventor manufacturer statesman
Charles Adolph was born on February 28, 1842 in Neuss, near Dusseldorf, Germany, the eldest child of John Nikolaus and Wilhelmina (Langenbach) Schieren.
His father was a business man and a moving spirit in the political revolution of 1848, the failure of which necessitated his fleeing from Germany with his family. In 1856 he brought them to the United States. Young Schieren was then fourteen years old.
Schieren had received a good common school education in Germany.
Upon his arrival in the United States Schieren was engaged with his father in conducting a tobacco store in Brooklyn. In 1864, however, he obtained a position in the leatherbelting establishment of Philip F. Passquay, New York City, and by his diligence and industry soon mastered the details of this business, particularly the manufacture of leather belting, so that when his employer died in 1865 he was able to conduct the business alone.
In 1868 he founded his own leather-belting manufactory in New York. For the succeeding fourteen years he conducted his ever growing business alone; in 1882 he took in a partner and the firm name was changed to Charles A. Schieren & Company but, while there were changes in partnership at various times thereafter, Schieren himself directed the affairs of the business to the day of his death. With the coming of high-speed electric dynamos and motors in the late 1880's the existing types of leather belting proved unsatisfactory, and Schieren devoted much time and experiment to developing suitable belting.
During 1887 and 1888 he secured eight patents. One of these, a so-called "electric belt, " perforated and coated with a composition, was the only belt in its day to withstand the terrific strain of high-speed electrical machinery. Another was a leather link belt composed of small leather links strung on steel pins and ingeniously joined together.
Because of his qualities as a business man he was elected mayor of Brooklyn in 1893. The construction of the Williamsburg Bridge was planned during his administration and many parks were laid out, including the Narrows Shore Drive along the harbor.
In 1898 he was appointed by President McKinley chairman of the Cuban relief committee and treasurer of the national Red Cross; he was a member of the commerce commission appointed by Governor Black to consider the enlargement of the Erie Canal; he served on the Ambrose Channel commission; and he was a member of the greater New York charter commission appointed by Governor Theodore Roosevelt.
He died in 1915.
Charles Adolph Schieren secured a lot patents for the newer forms of belting and for machines to manufacture them. Later he was elected a mayor of Brooklyn and during his term of two years succeeded in bringing the city out of bankruptcy. Besides, he was a founder of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, founder and vice-president of the Hide & Leather National Bank, and a trustee in a number of banks and insurance companies.
Schieren was a very public-spirited man.
In 1865 Schieren married Mary Louise Bramm of Brooklyn and at the time of his death was survived by his widow, who lived but twenty-four hours longer, and four children.
