John Frohling

John Frohling (1827–1862) was a key figure in development of the Southern California wine industry and was the founder of Anaheim, California, in the mid 19th Century. He was also a member of the Los Angeles, California, Common Council, the governing body of that city.

Frohling was born in 1827 in Prussia.

He was a professional flutist who was in a San Francisco band "that later became famous as the Germania Society."

In Anaheim's first wedding, November, 1859, Frohling was married to Amelie Hammes, the daughter of Philips Hammes, "in her parents' not-quite-finished new home." He was 31 and she, also born in Prussia, was 22.

He died in 1862.

In 1852, Frohling and Charles Kohler planted 3,000 vines of wine grapes in the Los Angeles area. "The firm of Frohling and Kohler was so successful that they began looking for a steady sources of grapes for their wine making.

Frohling was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council on May 4, 1857, for a term that ended on May 10, 1858.

Anaheim was born in 1857, when 50 German-American families from the San Francisco area paid $750 each to invest in the Los Angeles Vineyard Society. Founders John Frohling and Charles Kohler hired George Hansen, Los Angeles County's assistant surveyor, to purchase and lay out the new wine-making colony.

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