Pike Township Family Stories
LOUIS J. SCHMITT
Nichols, Iowa Centennial Book 1884-1984, page 226
By Nell SchmittLouis J. Schmitt (1885-1946) tenth child of J. George Schmitt and Eva Attig Schmitt, was born at the family farm three miles west of Nichols in Muscatine county. On 26 March 1899, he was confirmed in the Lutheran church in Lone Tree, Iowa. On 16 July 1913, he married Natalie “Netty” J. Wagschal at the Methodist church in Muscatine, Iowa.
Lou and Netty purchased his parents’ farm in 1919 for the sum of $48,000. Here they set up housekeeping in 1913 and spent the remainder of their lives in the home in which Lou and his nine brothers and sisters had been born.
Three children were born to them. Herbert Schmitt married Nell Kelsey; Gladys Schmitt married Merle Reinsager (deceased), then Alvin Meyer (deceased), then Wilbur Barkhurst; Ralph Schmitt married V. Berneice McMahon.
The children attended Wild Rose rural school in Pike township, Muscatine county and high school in Nichols, Iowa. Wild Rose school was located one-half mile east of the farm home. During the late 1840s the building was moved to Nichols and converted into a duplex.
At various periods throughout their married life, this couple shared their home and love with twenty-three foster children. Hundreds of service boys stationed at the Navy Pre-Flight school in Iowa City during World War II were recipients of “Mom” and “Dad” Schmitt’s hospitality.
After the death of her husband in 1946, Netty carried on the business of her farm with the aid of her sons. Later she leased the farm and operated a restaurant in Lone Tree. After disposing of the restaurant, she took a position in a drug store in Lone Tree until her death in 1957.
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