John F Schmidt

SCHMIDT WITTENBAUGH

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/16/2010 at 15:48:32

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

John F Schmidt
By J Stanley Schmidt

Henry A Schmidt was born in Linden, Saxony, Germany, on March 24, 1861. He emigrated to Fayette County, Iowa, in 1871, and was married to Rose Anna Wittenbaugh on February 3, 1887. She was born in Gelderfingen, Berne, Switzerland, on May 2, 1868. They had ten children: six boys, Fred, August, Louis, John, Frank and Harold; and four girls, Mary, Emma, Amelia ‘Sue, and Leta. At the end of 1983, only Leta and Harold are still living; Harold in Fayette, Iowa, and Leta Hintz in Denver, Colorado.

One of the children eventually moved to Woodbury County – John Franz Schmidt. Born in Wadena, Fayette County, Iowa, on February 12, 1898, John Schmidt attended public schools in that community and graduated from Upper Iowa University, in Fayette, in 1922 with a B A degree. In 1929 he received an M S degree from Iowa State College, now Iowa State University, in Ames. Later he took graduate work at Drake University, New York University, the University of South Dakota, Morningside College in Sioux City, and George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee.

Before moving to Sioux City, John Schmidt launched his career as a public school teacher and administrator. He was principal and superintendent, successively, at Luana, Fort Madison, Burnside, and Ferguson – all Iowa communities. While at Burnside, he fell in love with, and later married, one of his faculty members, Lois Ethleen Jones of Perry, Iowa. Their wedding took place on July 24, 1926, in Fort Dodge.

John and Lois Schmidt moved to Sioux City in 1929 where he joined the Sioux City Public School System as teacher of speech and English at East High School. He was also coach of debate teams at East High, and his students captured numerous honors at both the regional and national levels.

In 1939, John Schmidt was appointed director of guidance for the Sioux City School system; from 1943 to 1946 he was assistant principal of Central High School; principal of Leeds High School from 1946 to 1951; director of adult education from 1951 to 1959; and principal of Riverside High School from 1959 until his retirement in 1963. Of John Schmidt’s forty-three years as a professional educator, thirty-four were in Sioux City.

During World War II, John Schmidt taught in the U S Army Air Force pilot cadet program at Morningside College. He was also on Morningside’s extension faculty for eight years. While he was principal of Leeds High School, he and his staff were cited by the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for excellence in teaching citizenship.

As director of adult education, he directed a program sponsored by the Ford foundation that focused on liberal education for adults. Sioux City had been selected as one to twelve test communities in the United States. Under John Schmidt’s leadership, and stemming from the adult education program, the Sioux City Project was born. Nearly 700 men and women began working for the improvement of Sioux City by discussing its problems. Identifying the major ones, and charting a course to resolve them. This effort culminated six years later in a national award to Sioux City as an ‘All-American City’.

John Schmidt served as chairman of the city-wide committee that brought the city-manager form of government to Sioux City and selected the initial candidates for public office. He was appointed by Iowa Governor Harold Hughes, and reappointed by Governor Robert Ray, to the Lewis and Clark Trails Commission. In this capacity, he supervised three annual historical exhibitions at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

In 1929, John and Lois Schmidt became members of Sioux City’s Morningside Presbyterian Church. Elected a ruling elder of the congregation, John Schmidt became moderator of the Northwest Iowa Presbytery and a member of the Iowa Presbyterian Synod Council. He was chairman of the committee to restore the Sheldon Jackson Monument on Prospect Hill in Sioux City, and in 1966 initiated commemorative prayer meetings on the hill. His community activities included the United Way, the YMCA, the Sioux City Council of Churches, and the Boy Scout Council. He was president of the Art Center Board, executive secretary of the Knife and Ford Club, and national president of the American Interprofessional Institute. Other memberships included numerous educational associations, Kiwanis International, the Iowa Association for the Preservation of Historic Landmarks, the Iowa Historical Association, and the Sioux City Public Museum.

Almost immediately upon first arriving in Sioux City in 1929, John Schmidt developed, and subsequently nurtured, a love for that northwest Iowa community. He began collecting historical data, anecdotes, and memorabilia – a process that lasted until his death in 1975. He was asked by the Sioux City Public Museum to work on its Sioux City History Project. He accepted with enthusiasm. His book A Historical Profile of Sioux City was independently published in 1969. This book is now in its fifth printing. At the time of his death, John Schmidt was considered the foremost authority on the history of the city he loved. He was in great demand as a speaker on Sioux City’s history.

During his retirement he became a successful amateur painter, and his watercolors have been widely exhibited. He also was chairman of the committee to save the abandoned ‘Castle on the Hill’ (Central High School) as an historic landmark.

John Schmidt died on January 12, 1975, in Rochester, Minnesota, where he had been hospitalized, following a brief illness. Burial was in Sioux City’s Memorial Park Cemetery.

Lois E Schmidt continues to live in Sioux City, where she is active in numerous civic and church organizations. In many of them she carries on the work begun by her husband. She is on the board of the Sioux City Public Museum. Born July 24, 1902, in Des Moines, Iowa, she is the daughter of C Durant Jones and Ida Mae Pickering, each a child of a pioneer Iowa family. She graduated from Morningside College and held various teaching positions in several Woodbury County communities. She is one of the organizers of the Woodbury County Genealogical Society. Her mother, Ida Mae Pickering Jones, lived in Woodbury County from 1931 until her death in 1949.

Copyright 1984 Used by permission. More can be read from "The History of Woodbury County, Iowa" ISBN 0-88107-018-1. Pages 608, 609.