Schroeder Name in D.C. Music History

In 1840 Christian Schroeder, his wife, Dorathea Miller Schroeder, and their son, August, landed at Baltimore from Germany after three months at sea in a sail ship. August was born at Hanover, Germany, in 1836. The family came from Baltimore to Washington a few days after entering the United States and went to live on a farm near Four Corners, this side of Burnt Mills, on the Colesville road in Montgomery County, Md.

Christian was a musician and from his youth had been a German military bandsman. Soon after making a home near Four Corners, Christian enlisted in the Marine Band and moved to Washington, with his wife and son renting the house on the southeast corner of Tenth and G streets southeast. The house stands.

Christian served several enlistments in the Band -- I believe three of four years each and part of a fourth -- and died May 28, 1854. His grave is in Congressional Cemetery. His widow Dorathea, lived until 1884, and the Rambler has seen a sear certificate giving her a little pension as widow of Christian Schroeder of the Marine Band, "who died of disease contracted in line of duty." The Rambler has looked at issues of the Evening Star, May 27-30, 1854, but they do not hold an account of Christian Schroeder's death. No significance is in that because newspapers did not gather news so well then as now.