Schneider, John 1931-1922

SCHNEIDER, REUTER, WINTER

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, Volunteer (email)
Date: 9/7/2012 at 14:33:13

LeMars Globe-Post
January 4, 1923

OLDEST PLYMOUTH COUNTY MAN DEAD
JOHN SCHNEIDER NEARLY 92 YEARS OLD
Came Here Early and Stayed Late—Owned Large Land Holdings

John Schneider, the oldest living pioneer of Plymouth County, as well as one
of the county’s most extensive land owners, died this week at his home near
Wren Junction at the age of over 91 years. Funeral services were held at
the Floyd Valley church and interment made in the Graceland Park Cemetery at
Sioux City.

John Schneider was born in Germany, but has been a resident of this country
since shortly after attaining his majority. He was born on Sept. 29, 1831,
son of Dietrich and Elizabeth (Reuter) Schneider, natives of Germany, the
former a son of Philip Schneider, a farmer and a veteran of the war with
Russia in 1813, and the latter a daughter of John Reuter.

Dietrich Schneider was born in 1800, died on May 2, 1840, leaving a widow
and six children. On May 8, 1853, the widow Schneider and her children left
their native land with a view to establishing themselves a new home in this
country, and landed at New York on Sept. 1, of that year. For a year or
two, thereafter, they were located near the city of Albany, the capital of
the state of New York, and then came west, locating in Ogle county,
Illinois, where they made their home on a farm. A year later John
Schneider, the eldest son, came to this state, locating at Dubuque, whence,
on March 16, 1856, he and three other young men of German birth started to
walk out to this part of the state, with a view to entering homesteads.
They arrived in this section without serious mishap and John Schneider
pre-empted a tract of 167 acres in what afterward became section 4 of
Hungerford township, Plymouth County, though neither the county nor the
township had been organized at that time. On July 3 of that same year, he
was joined there by his mother and the other children, Philip, Mary, Daniel,
Jacob and Henry and the family establishing its home out here on the
treeless plain, among the very first settlers in this part of the state.
The widow Schneider and the other members of the family drove through from
Ogle county, Illinois, and were five weeks in making the trip. Philip
Schneider, the only other one of the brothers at that time of age, also took
advantage of the pre-emption act and the other brothers, when they reached
their majority, took advantage of the homestead act and thus the family
presently became very well established as landowners.

John Schneider, as one of the real pioneers of the county, took an active
part in the work of organization when a civic order began to be established
hereabout and during the early years held various county and township
offices, including a service of four terms as county commissioner. During
the Civil War he was drafted for service from this state, but his affairs at
that time were in such a state that he found it more advantageous to send a
substitute in his stead. As the years passed, Mr. Schneider continued to
add to his land holdings until now he is the owner of 1172 acres in this
county. He was still living on the farm he pre-empted back in 1856. A
little more than a mile north of the village of Hinton, where he for many
years has had a very comfortable home, but for the past twenty-one years has
been living retired from the active labors of the farm, his son, Philip,
being the active manager of the place. In addition to his extensive land
interests, Mr. Schneider also fro many years took an active part in the
general commercial and industrial affairs of his home community and was one
of the organizers of the Farmers Insurance Company of Plymouth County. He
also owns stock in the Farmers Elevator company of Hinton and in other ways
has aided in developing the general interests of the county.

On July 15, 1859, John Schneider was united in marriage to Katherine Winter,
who was born in 1832, and who died on April 30, 1909. To that union four
children were born, namely, Philip, who married Virginia Koenig and for
years has been manager of his father’s old home place; Anna, deceased;
Frederick, who is unmarried; and Martha, who married George Koenig, also of
Hungerford township. Mr. Schneider was a life-long member of the
Evangelical Church and helped to organize the congregation of that
denomination in his neighborhood many years ago. His mother, the courageous
pioneer mother who came out here to a practically uninhabited region with
her children in the days of the beginning of settlement here about, and who
lived to be past 80 years of age, was one of the organizers of that church
and for many years one of the most influential workers in the same.