Schoephoerster, John F.

MOEHLMANN, MARKS, KOENECKE, RODER, KLINKER, BARBKNECHT

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 12/4/2009 at 12:16:24

The pioneer history of Bremer county would be incomplete were there failure to make mention of John F. Schoephoerster, who settled here in 1868 and was prominently identified with agricultural interests of Sumner township until he retired from active life in 1903. He was born in Wesphalia, Germany, December 4, 1838 and he spent his boyhood in his native country. When he was twenty-one he emigrated to America, landing in this country after an ocean voyage of forty-two days. He went immediately to Sauk county, Wisconsin, and there worked on a farm for some time, later, purchasing land there, where he resided in all seven years. In 1868 he came to Bremer county and bought forty acres of land in Sumner township. This was equipped with a little log shanty and fenced with rails but with characteristic energy Mr. Schoephoerster applied himself to the work of improvement and development. The years brought him constantly increasing success, for he was industrious, frugal and enterprising and he eventually became one of the prosperous and progressive farmers of this locality. After making his first purchase he bought two other forty acre tracts and he erected good buildings upon his premises, carrying on general farming and stock-raising until the fall of 1903, when he retired and moved to Sumner, erecting a comfortable home in the northern part of the city.

Mr. Schoephoerster has been twice married and has one child by his first union, which occurred in Wisconsin. His present wife was in her maidenhood Miss Mary Louisa Moehlmann. She was born in Westphalia, Germany, November 9, 1841, and came to America with her mother and brothers, landing in Sauk county, on the same day on which her future husband arrived. She has one son by her former marriage, Fred, who wedded Miss Marks, of Bremer county. They now reside at Canby, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Schoephoerster became the parents of twelve children: Mary, the wife of John Koenecke, of Lisbon, North Dakota; Carrie, the wife of August Roder, of Bremer county; Henry, who married Gertrude Klinker, of Clinton; Charles, who married Emma Barbknecht, of Canby, Minnesota; Edward, a mail carrier in the same city; Sophia, who lives in Dubuque, Iowa, Edwin, twin to Sophia, who died at the age of one year; Alvin, a resident of Canby, Minnesota; Emma, who lives in Dubuque, William, who died at the age of seventeen; Herman, who passed away at the age of eleven; and Joseph Benjamin, who died at the age of twenty-one.

Mr. Schoephoerster has always given his political allegiance to the democratic party and has held a number of township offices besides serving for six years as a member of the county board of supervisors. He was one of the organizers of the Evangelical Lutheran church of this neighborhood and is a devout member. One of his characteristic traits is aptly illustrated in the following incident. The day upon which he landed at Mesama, Sauk county, Wisconsin, was the day of Abraham Lincoln's first election. Mr. Schoephoerster was approached by a man who asked him to vote the republican ticket. He replied that while he was old enough to vote he had just come from the old country and did not believe that he had the right of franchise. The man, however, told him that his vote would be perfectly legitimate and Mr. schoephoertster was about to comply with his wishes when an old gray-haird man close by told the young emigrant that he could not vote and that the man was asking him to do something for which he could be sent to the penitentiary. Mr. Schoephoerster learned that the man who had attempted to make him do wrong was a republican and has voted the democratic ticket since that time. He is one of the early settlers in Bremer county and has witnessed a great deal of the development and growth of the locality, bearing an active and honorable part in the work of advancement and winning an individual success which places him today among the substantial and representative men of the community.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol II 1914