History At Home: Residents Of Green-Wood

When taking a stroll through Green-Wood, we can’t help but think about the cemetery’s residents. Everyone has a story to tell. What were their stories?

Inspired by an 1893 Daily Eagle article called “Forgotten Names,” we thought it would be interesting to continue learning about some of the neighborhood’s permanent residents, beginning this week with Charles Schieren, whose memorial is located on Fir Avenue between Grape Avenue and Border Avenue.

Charles Schieren was one of the last mayors of the City of Brooklyn, holding office from 1894 through 1895. According to his New York Times obituary, he was born in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1841, but settled in Brooklyn when his family came to the United States in 1856.

After spending several years working for a leather manufacturer, Charles used money from his savings ($1,100) and opened his own leather business in 1868. “Within a comparatively short time,” said the Times, “his house became one of the largest in the trade in the United States.”

Charles passed away on March 10, 1915 from pneumonia. Only a few hours later, his wife, Marie Louise, died from the same illness.

Sculptor Solon Borglum, who Green-Wood notes was a friend of the Schieren family, memorialized the couple with one of the cemetery’s most unique sculptures, Azrael, the Spirit of Death.

“The Azrael figure is concealed in a hooded cloak, her face deeply recessed and only visible to one willing to kneel below the overall 40 inch height of the piece on its granite plinth,” says the Green-Wood website.” Her arms are stretched out to each side with fingertips touching large closed books, symbolizing the ‘fullness of their years.'”

The couple’s headstone reads, “In their lives they were lovely and in their death they were not divided.”

Photo by Christine Duhaime