Saloon Man:
A German Immigrant Battles the Limits of Liberty,
1870 to 1915
by Robert Mugge
Robert Mugge's second book - Saloon Man: A German Immigrant Battles the Limits of Liberty, 1870 to 1915 - focuses on his great-grandfather, the "original" Robert Mugge who came to America at the age of seventeen; made his way to Tampa, Florida while it was still a settlement; and became a hugely successful businessman. Because his core businesses were alcohol-related at a time of oncoming temperance - and because he hired, partnered with, and supported African Americans during Jim Crow segregation - the "saloon magnate of Tampa" was also controversial.
“Mugge tributes his great-grandfather, a prominent developer of the fledgling city of Tampa, Florida. In 1870, 17-year-old Wilhelm August Robert Mugge, apprentice jeweler and watchmaker, fled Germany immediately after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. He made his way to Henderson, Kentucky, where his cousin Augusta lived. Two years later he moved to the larger city of Terre Haute, Indiana. In October of 1876, Robert…move[d] to Tampa, Florida, a small hamlet with a population of only a few hundred (“Tampa was little more than a settlement”). Restless and ambitious, Robert became involved in a variety of business ventures—he built a bottling plant for his soda business, later converted into a beer distributorship, leading to his position as the saloon kingpin in Tampa. Mugge intertwines Robert’s biography with an extensively detailed history of Tampa’s development. The story describes a complex dance consisting of a man and the historical events of which he was a part, each impacting the other. The narrative is rich in material that should be of interest to aspiring historians. And Mugge introduces a wide variety of unique individuals, the most humorous and captivating being a Russian Nihilist, Dr. Frederick Nicholas Weightnovel, who was said to have escaped from a Siberian prison camp by swimming to safety. An intriguing, challenging read, packed with historical and familial minutia.”
— Kirkus Reviews
|