Henry Paulson's Colorful Ancestry

Henry Paulson, the Secretary of the Treasury, has an interesting family tree, with several Chicago lines. These branches are populated by doctors, architects, Montgomery Ward presidents, coopers, and Norwegians.

Paulson’s mother’s maiden name might be familiar to long-time residents of Chicago. Her paternal grandfather, Carl Gallauer, was the founder of Zum Rothern Stern, later the Red Star Inn, a popular German restaurant located on North Clark from 1899 to 1970.

Through his mother’s other line, her maternal side, Paulson is a descendant of Ernst Schmidt, German intellectual, Civil War surgeon, and the first coroner of Cook County. Called the “Red Doctor” not just because of his red hair, Schmidt was a lifelong socialist. As detailed in Der Rothe Doktor Von Chicago, Schmidt was a staunch defender of the laboring poor who led the defense committee for the anarchist organizers of the 1886 Haymarket riot.

Completely unconnected to that event, one of the rocks thrown by the Weathermen during the riot at the 1968 Democratic convention smashed through the window of the Red Star Inn.