Schoeneman, Frank B. 1869-1959

SCHOENEMAN, BARTON

Posted By: Mary Lou Verburg (email)
Date: 1/6/2014 at 10:57:32

Funeral services for Frank B. Schoeneman, 89, pioneer businessman of Hawarden who died at the hospital here Saturday morning, were held at the Associated Church at 11 o'clock Monday morning, Rev. William S. Sebring officiating. Assisting at the services was Rev. John Thorns of Battle Creek, Ia. a former minister here. Interment was in Grace Hill Cemetery under the direction of the Barnard Funeral Home.

One of Hawarden's more prominent businessmen, Mr. Schoeneman was engaged actively in the lumber business for 58 years. He was born April 8, 1869, on a farm near Dodgeville, Wis. and stayed close to the soil until March 1888, when at the age of 18, he became associated with his brother, Robert, in the first Schoeneman lumber yard at Hull, Iowa.

He had attended a country school near Walnut, Ia., and for two winters high school in Walnut to which he walked four miles each day. More practical education followed in his many years of competitive business experience. After 10 months at Hull he established a lumber business at Sioux Center. There he met Miss Bertha Barton, a teacher, whom he married September 17, 1901, in Springfield, Ohio. The couple resided in Sioux Center until 1903 when they came to Hawarden. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary here in 1951 with their four sons and daughter present for the occasion.

The first Schoeneman Bros. Co. lumber yard in Hawarden was purchased in 1901 and Mr. Schoeneman commuted between Sioux Center and Hawarden by horse and buggy. At Sioux Center the 21 year-old manager lived in a room in back of the office. He and his wife moved to Hawarden in 1903. They purchased their first automobile in 1905.

Associated with Mr. Schoeneman were four brothers; Robert now deceased, who retired about 1909, David, who died in 1910; A.C. of Sioux Falls, who retired in the middle 1930's and J.H.C. a resident of Hawarden who was active until 1946.

In 1909 Frank Schoeneman became president and general manager of Schoeneman Bros. Co. which grew into a corporation with establishments in 12 cities. Mitchell, Hudson, Parker, Platte and Sioux Falls in South Dakota, and Alvord, Ames, Doon, Cherokee, Inwood and Spencer in Iowa with headquarters at Hawarden.

Mr. Schoeneman retired from active duty here in 1945, but as president of the Sioux City Schoeneman Lumber Co., a separate firm, remainded active for the long span of 71 years until his death.

He was an active church member in the Associated congregation, member of the Blue Lodge, Sioux City Consistory and Abu Bekr Shrine Temple, belonged to Odd Fellows lodge, the Rotary Club and was a charter member of the Northwest Lumberman's Association.

Survivors include the widow; a daughter, Flora, Mrs. D. N. Steffen of Glendale, California; four sons, Barton and Frank of Dallas, Texas; Forrest of Sioux City and Chester of Hawarden, who with the son-in-law, Dr. Steffen, and a nephew, Cecil Schoeneman of Sioux Falls, acted as pall bearers, two brothers, A.C. and J.H.C. and 12 grandchildren.

Source: Hawarden Independent March 12, 1959