Frederick Layton

Frederick Layton (May 18, 1827 – August 16, 1919) was an English-American businessman, philanthropist and art collector. He immigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin Territory, with his father in 1843, when the city was still a pioneer village. He played a major role in the creation of Milwaukee’s meat packing industry and established a trans-Atlantic business exporting his meat products to Great Britain. During his lifetime, he made 99 trips across the Atlantic pursuing business interests and collecting fine art in London and the other capitals of Europe. Throughout his life, he consistently donated his money to support local charities and Milwaukee’s art community. In 1888, he built the Layton Art Gallery on the corner of Mason and Jefferson Streets in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of the nation’s earliest single-patron public art galleries. By creating an endowment for the Gallery, and with donations from the Gallery Trustees and friends, Layton was personally able to purchase over 200 works of art for the Gallery before dying at the age of 92. Though the original building of the Layton Art Gallery no longer exists, many of Mr. Layton's purchases comprise the founding, core collection of early European and American art at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Layton Art Collection Board of Trustees still supports and maintains the historic collection in collaboration with Milwaukee Art Museum staff and volunteers.

Layton was born in Little Wilbraham, a village in Cambridgeshire, England, the only son of Mary and John Layton. The family moved to Great Wilbraham in 1836, where Frederick’s father established a small country butcher shop and taught his son the trade.

In 1842, father and son immigrated to the United States. They spent the winter in Buffalo, New York before arriving in Wisconsin in 1843. Mary Layton rejoined the family and immigrated to Milwaukee in 1847.

Father and son established their first home in Wisconsin as farmers in the town of Raymond in Racine County, Wisconsin. After two years, they returned to the butcher trade and opened the J&F Layton Meat Market in Milwaukee on East Water Street in 1845.

In 1849, John and Frederick purchased farmland near what is now Forest Home Cemetery and built a three-story brick building, constructed for the purpose of a home as well as a hotel for paying guests traveling the Janesville-Milwaukee Plank Road. The Layton Hotel was a popular choice for farmers transporting wheat: “the roads were in such frightful condition that farmers and other travelers welcomed the opportunity to stay overnight, waiting for daylight to continue their journey.”

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