admin PHILIP G. SCHAEFER, President of the Lake View Brewing Company, is one of the foremost brewers of the State and a highly esteemed citizen of Buffalo. Mr. Schaefer is of German extraction, his father, Alois Schaefer, having been born in Württemberg in 1836. Coming to America as a young man, he learned the brewing business, and in 1868 established the Schaefer Brewery in Buffalo. The business founded by Alois Schaefer was successfully conducted by him till 1885, the year of the incorporation of the present company, when lie retired from the active management. Alois Schaefer married Mary R. Whitman, a daughter of Joseph Whitman of Buffalo. Their children were: Philip G., Mary G, Clara C. (Mrs. Frederick A. Heron), and Madelaine, the latter now deceased.
Philip G. Schaefer was born in Buffalo May 29, 1862. After attending the parochial schools he entered Canisius College, from which he graduated in 1876, later taking a course at Bryant & Stratton’s Business College. He first entered business as bookkeeper and collector for the Schaefer Brewery, continuing till 1885, when the Lake View Brewing Company was incorporated, with Mr. Schaefer as General Manager. The company succeeded to the business of the old Schaefer Brewery and was conducted with marked success and a great increase of patronage. Philip G. Schaefer remained general manager and acting executive head of the concern till April 1, 1906, when he became President of the Company, which position he now holds. In the different places of trust and responsibility which he has filled, Mr. Schaefer has proved himself a large-minded and capable business man. The industry of which he is now the head is rapidly nearing its half-century anniversary. The output of the Lake View Brewing Company is estimated at 40,000 barrels per year. Mr. Schaefer has a thorough practical knowledge of the details of the business, and he has also a comprehensive understanding of it in its relation to the general trade. His management has been signalized by conscientious methods, by progressiveness in the matter of equipment and machinery, and by insistence that the manufactured product be of the best and purest quality attainable by science.
Mr. Schaefer belongs to the Brewers Association, and is one of the trustees of that body. He is also a member of the C. B. L. and the C. M. B. A.
November 3, 1885, Mr. Schaefer married Hattie C. Ritt of Buffalo, daughter of M. Leo Ritt (a former well-known insurance man and at one time Lieut. -Colonel of the 65th Regiment) and of Mary R. German. Mr. and Mrs. Schaefer have one daughter, Emma P. Schaefer, born September 3, 1886.
SOURCE: Memorial and Family History of Erie County New York; Volume I