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Philip (George) Schneider

    Philip Schneider, son of Johan, George Schneider, better known as George, was born in Wunderhhausen, Westfallen, Germany on April 21, 1836. He came to the U.S.A. with his parents, brothers and sisters in 1847, when he was but 11 years of age. The family first settled in Crawford County, Ohio near Galion in 1847. Other families that had migrated to that area from Westfallen, Germany, were Riedesel, Duere and Wetter. In 1850 two young brothers, George and Henry Riedesel, walked from their home in Crawford County, Ohio to secure farmland in Clinton County, Iowa. Returning later to Ohio, after purchasing land, they gave such a glowing account of the rich prairie soil of their new home that other families of German descent were . . .

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. . . induced to move to this area and this included the George Schneider family. All were members of the German Reformed Church in Ohio.

     George Schneider and family set out for Iowa over the route by which the Riedesel boys had returned. He left his family in Davenport. Johan George and son Henry, with guns on their shoulders, started to walk in a northerly direction until they located the land purchased by the Riedesel Bros. George purchased land five or six miles southeast of Lowden for $1.25 an acre, and moved his family inland the week before Christmas. They came from Davenport on a sleigh drawn by a yoke of oxen to their new home.

     Settlers were very few and log cabins were thinly scattered along the edge of the timber. Mr Schneider and his brothers broke many acres of prairie and suffered many of the hardships of pioneer life. Their business was conducted in Davenport at that time, hauling their grain with oxen and often getting stalled in the mires and sloughs.

     Farming in the 1850's was yet very primitive here. Horses were very few and oxen were used in cultivating the land and hauling their grain to market. Horses were expensive and scarce west of the Mississippi. The oxen's great strength was used for pulling heavy loads and in breaking the tough prairie sod. Exchange of work was a great deal in vogue in these early settlements and purchases and sales of products and general commodities was nothing more than an exchange of articles, for money was the scarcest article of all. They took their grain to Davenport and brought back lumber, nails, coffee, etc. The few fences on the farms about the edge of the timber were all rail fences.

     On Jan. 1, 1863, he was united in marriage to Louisa Penningroth, oldest daughter of Carl Penningroth. They were married by Rev. Klar of Wheatland Reformed church. They farmed southeast of Lowden for the first two years. In 1865 Philip bought a farm two miles north of Lowden, the farm where the Walter Hack family now live. He lived here until his death June 27, 1908. Thirteen children blessed this union, one child died in infancy, another Caroline, died when eight years old of diphtheria. They are buried in the church cemetery, southeast of Lowden.

     The children of Philip and Louisa (Penningroth) Schneider were: Charles, Caroline, Johanna (Stoecker), Louisa (Liercke), William, Wilhelmina (Koch), Philip Henry, Henry, Martha (Koch), August, Otto, Frieda (Hamdorf) and the child that died in infancy.

     Philip Schneider and his father-in-law, Carl Penningroth were among the ten charter members of the first Zion Evangelical church built south of Lowden in 1863. He was a devout Christian, a kind-hearted benevolent man, befriending all who were worthy, helping where help was needed; doing good in his quiet unobtrusive way, never desiring notoriety or praise. The early hardships of frontier life no doubt helped to teach him the duties of a neigh- . . .

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. . . bor, citizen and man. He lived to be 72 years of age, spending over fifty of those years in the vicinity of Lowden. There was no town of Lowden when he came here, no railroads or telephones. He suffered hardships of pioneer life but also the joys of watching the country develop and was a part of that development.

              Mrs Lyle (Hazel Koranda) Raiber, A Granddaughter

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Picture of President Harding's Funeral Train

PRESIDENT HARDING'S FUNERAL TRAIN

    The train passed through Lowden August 6, 1923. The first four men in the picture, from right to left were Dick Meyer, Emil Boettcher, Joseph H. Fisher, and Albert Mensing. Other men, whose place on the picture was not determined, were Julius Freese, Henry Hoffmeier, Walter Klipp, Fred H. Wiebel, Paul Wenndt, and Louis Stolte. All were World War I Veterans who were members of the local American Legion,, the Lillis Deerberg Post except Joseph H. Fisher, who was a Civil War Veteran.