John Frederick Schulte, cashier of the Farmers Savings Bank of Manly, has been identified with the business development of the town since 1910. He was born in Clayton, Iowa, November 17, 1868, and, is a son of John Henry and Justine (Otting) Schulte. The father was a native of Oldenburg, Germany, while the mother's birth occurred in Hanover. In 1844 John H. Schulte left Germany as a passenger on a sailing vessel which was eight weeks in crossing the Atlantic to Baltimore, Maryland. He located in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he spent the winter, after which he continued his westward journey to Prairie Laport, now Guttenberg, Iowa.

The paternal grandfather was a wagon maker by trade and engaged in that business for a short time at Guttenberg, after which the family home was established upon a farm near Clayton, where the grandfather purchased some wild land whereon he built a log house in the midst of the timber. He cleared a part of his land and continued thereon until his death. He was one of the honored pioneer settlers and representative agriculturists of the community. His wife died on the old homestead in 1885 at the age of eighty-two years.

John Henry Schulte, their son, also made farming his life work and passed away in 1912 at the age of seventy-three. His widow still survives and occupies the old home farm at the age of seventy-five years. Mr. Schulte filled a number of local offices and was always loyal to the best interests of the community in which he made his home. His political allegiance was given to the democratic party and his religious faith was that of the German Lutheran church.

John F. Schulte spent his boyhood upon the old home farm, where he continued until he reached the age of nineteen years, and during that period he was a student in the public schools and in the State College at Ames, Iowa, where he was graduated with the class of 1891. He started out in the business world in connection with the drug trade at Victor, Iowa, where he remained from 1896 until 1905. In 1907 he became a, resident of Rock Valley, Iowa, where he also conducted a drug store until the spring of 1910. At that date he came to Manly and accepted the position of cashier in the Farmers Savings Bank, in which capacity he has since continued, discharging his responsible duties in a most capable and energetic manner. The bank was organized in 1910 by, W. R. Flemming, H. H. Schulte, A. Pitzenberger, D. E. McKercher, W. J. Waters, H. D. Blackhaus, H. A. Dancliff, J. J. Molsbery and F. J. Cerny. The bank was originally capitalized for ten thousand dollars, but the capital stock has been increased to twenty-five thousand dollars.

In addition to his connection with the bank, Mr. Schulte owns a farm in North Dakota and also a good tract of land in Clayton County, Iowa.

On the 9th of October, 1902, was celebrated the marriage of John Frederick Schulte and Miss Alice Maud Hyter, a native of Victor, Iowa, and a daughter of George W. and Margaret E. (Jenkins) Hyter. Her father was manager of a grain elevator at Victor. The death of Mrs. Schulte occurred in 1910, when she was thirty-three years of age. She had become the mother of four children: George, deceased; Frederick and Alice, both living in Manly; and Margaret, deceased.

Politically Mr. Schulte maintains an independent course. He has membership with the Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being connected with both the subordinate lodge and the encampment in the last named. His has been a well-spent life. He has always resided in Iowa and the spirit of western enterprise and progress has found exemplification in his career. Steadily and persistently he has worked his way upward, utilizing the opportunities that have come to him, and he is today actively connected with what is regarded as one of the strong financial institutions of Worth County.

 

HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, 1918,
Volume II, Page 305

 

Transcribed by Gordon Felland, August, 2003