Schoentag, Sigmund F. 1873-1957

SCHOENTAG, WOLF, STAPEL, GEISSENDOERFER, LOVELAND, GEHRING, PARMELY, REED, BLOOMER, BRADER

Posted By: S. Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 11/16/2023 at 16:05:06

Sigmund Schoentag, son of Julius and Anna Wolf Schoentag was born at Strawberry Point, Iowa on Sept. 30, 1873, and passed away at the Palmer Memorial Hospital at West Union, on Sept. 21, 1959.

In early infancy he was baptized at the St. Sebald Lutheran Church, and later received his confirmation in the Emanual Lutheran Church in Strawberry Point.

His father died when he was two years old and he lived with his mother in Strawberry Point until his mother was married to John Geissendoerfer, a Lutheran minister. He then move to South Dakota where his step-father served as a missionary among the Indians.

When he was ten years old, his mother gave birth to a second son, John Theodore, but her health failed and she passed away, so he together with his tiny brother and deceased mother were brought back to Strawberry Point, where he made his home with his uncle and aunt, Mr .and Mrs. John Brader during the remainder of his childhood.

When he was in his early teens, he entered Wartburg College and took some training to become a Lutheran minister, thus fulfilling a promise he had made to his dying mother.

Later he became an apprentice carpenter, under Lew Preston in Strawberry Point and became a skilled carpenter and cabinet maker.

On November 15, 1894 he was united in marriage to Carolina Stapel. To this union were born seven children, Anna (Mrs. Lon Loveland, Oelwein); Julis, St. Joseph, Mo.; Harold, Strawberry Point (deceased); Alice (Mrs. Charles Gehring, Elgin); Gertrude (Mrs. Howard Parmely, Lamont); and Esther (Mrs. Loren G. Reed, Sumner).

During the early years of his marriage, he continued working at carpentry, bur due to a lung ailment his Dr. advised him to move West, or on a farm. He chose the latter and bought a farm west of Strawberry Point.

He was a progressive farmer who built up a Holstein dairy herd, developed a mechanical ability and for some years operated a thresher, silo filler and shredder in his community, with the help of his son, Harold.

He was active in community life, vitally interested in politics, and was assessor in Cass Township for more than thirty years.

Having been an orphan, his one desire was to have a family and make a happy life for them. While still a young man, he built a large farm home, constructing the living rooms with folding doors to accommodate the many gatherings of school friends, as well as neighbors.

In 1926 the first sorrow came when death took his second daughter, Alma, and returned again in 1938 to claim the life of his second son, Harold.

As he became advanced in years he sold his farm and moved to Strawberry Point, where after his 70th birthday, he built a modern home for his wife and himself. This was just completed when he awoke one morning to find that death had come quietly during the night to claim his wife.

Soon after he death he sold his new home, and for the remainder of his years, he made his home with his daughters.

Sigmund Schoentag spent a lifetime of devotion to his wife and children, and the ready service he so willingly extended to each one of them cannot be expressed in mere words.

He leaves in passing five children, 22 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren, and a brother, J.T. Geissendoerfer, of Whittier, California.

~The Arlington News, Thursday, October 1, 1959; pg 4

Note: His daughter Alma R. was married to Lloyd C. Bloomer in 1921. She died in Fairbault, MN, in late August 1926, just 2 wks after giving birth.

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~Photo is from an announcement of the Schoentag's 50th Anniversary, in the Telegraph-Herald, November 15, 1944; pg 4

Clayton Obituaries maintained by Sharyl Ferrall.
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