The Family of Henry W. Schmidt
Be sure to read the comments at the end of this article for updates on this branch of the Schmidt family.
Wilhelm Heinrich Schmidt, son of Johann Joachim Schmidt and Dorothea Elizabeth Gartz, was born on 12 Feb 1874 in Two Rivers and died on 14 Nov 1947 in Two Rivers at age 73. He was most often referred to as Henry W. Schmidt.
He first married Bertha Kolze 12 April 1903. Bertha was born 1872 in Illinois and died in childbirth 31 May 1906.
Henry Schmidt & Louise Johannes Schmidt July 14, 1945
Henry then married Louise Johannes on 27 Jun 1907 in Manitowoc County, WI. Louise was born on 20 Apr 1875 and died on 19 Dec 1955 in Two Rivers at age 80. Henry had one child by Bertha and three by Louise.
Henry Schmidt also went to Chicago for a time between 1900-1910. He moved back to Two Rivers after the death of his first wife although it is believed he continued business in Chicago after moving back to Wisconsin. He appears in the 1910, 1920 and 1930 censuses as being a farmer in Two Rivers. He was a wealthy and active man. He was a director of the Mishicot Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He also was a member of the Manitowoc County Farm bureau, an officer of the Oakland school, and a trustee of St. John’s church.
Relatives remember while the family was at the funeral in Chicago, their house was stripped of many fine goods by burglars.
Obituary for Henry:
The Two Rivers Reporter (edited for possible living)
Nov. 17, 1947
Hold Rites for Henry W. Schmidt Funeral Services for Henry W. Schmidt, widely known town of Two Rivers farmer, were held this afternoon from the St. John Lutheran church with the Rev. W. G. Haese officiating. Burial was in Pioneers’ Rest cemetery. Mr. Schmidt was stricken after returning from the Community Farmers Get-together held at the Community House here Thursday night. He was a member of the Manitowoc County Farm bureau, an officer of the Oakland school, a trustee of St. John’s church and a director of the Mishicot Mutual Fire Insurance company. Surviving besides his widow are two daughters and a son, two brothers and a sister. There are four grandchildren. Pallbearers were from the Meineke, Schmidt, Johannes and Kappelman families.
Obituary for Louise.
Manitowoc Herald-Times | Manitowoc, Wisconsin | Monday, December 19, 1955 | Page 21
Schmidt
Mrs. Henry W. Schmidt, 80, of Rt. 1 Two Rivers, died Monday morning at Two Rivers Municipal Hospital following a six weeks’ illness.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the St. John Lutheran Church, Two Rivers, the Rev. W.G. Haese will officiate and burial will be in Pioneers’ Rest Ceetery, Two Rivers.
She was born Louise Johannes April 20, 1875, at Two Rivers, daughter of the late Christian and Caroline Johannes and in 1907 was married to Henry W. Schmidt. They located on the homestead farm. She was a member of the Ladies’ Aid Society of the St. John congregation. Her husband died in 1947.
Surviving are two daughters, Miss Bertha Schmidt of Milwaukee and Mrs. Edgar Stegemann of Two Rivers; son, Herert on the home farm; brother, Albert Sr. of Villard, Minn.; five grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Friends may call at the Deja and Martin Funeral Chapels, Two Rivers, after 3 p.. Tuesday. The casket will be moved to the church at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Children of Henry and Louise:
- Laura Schmidt, daughter of Henry and Louise, was born on 18 Oct 1912 and died on 2 May 1928 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA at age 15. Laura is remembered as having beautiful blond hair but was overweight. Her father sent her to Minnesota to attend school At 15, she was sent to Chicago to have surgery to remove some of the fat from her legs. She died during the operation or due to complications shortly thereafter. (This story is inaccurate (source unknown). Be sure to read the comments below)
- Herbert Schmidt, son of Henry and Louise, was born on 27 Sep 1914 and died on 26 Jul 1996 at age 81. He operated the original farm in Two Rivers until 1958. He was a water plant operator and an air-conditioning repairman. He retired in Florida, living first in Dunnellton, then moving to Tallahassee in 1995. Herbert was a mason and a Jehovah’s Witness.
Herbert married Ruby Cecelia Younk. Ruby was born on 2 Oct 1924 and died on 23 Feb 1997 at Tallahassee Community Hospital at age 71. She was a homemaker and also a Jehovah’s Witness. The couple had two daughters, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. (be sure tor ead the comments below for an update on Herbert and his family).
Additional Schmidt Family Images can be seen in the Schmidt Family Photo Gallery.
#1 by JudiW on January 17, 2009 - 2:26 pm
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I am glad to see a website in which my family (Schmidt) is included. Most of the information I have on the earlier generations comes from a history compiled by Ernest Schmidt in the 1950′s. It appears that this is the source of the information in this website. However, there are some inaccuracies about later generations.
My grandfather was Henry W. Schmidt, and my father was Herbert Henry Schmidt. I lived on the family farm until I was 12, and I went back to Two Rivers and the Manitowoc Country court house about 10 years ago to do family research. I also have documents that were in my dad’s possession and numerous family photos. I would like to correct some of the inaccuracies, and share some of the information and photos I have.
#2 by JudiW on January 24, 2009 - 5:55 pm
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Here is some information that I have which differs from this site. I don’t know where the details of Laura Schmidt’s death, as told on this site, came from, but they are not the same details that I learned from people close to her. My sources are my dad, Herbert Schmidt, who was Laura’s younger brother; my aunt, Bertha Schmidt, who was one of Laura’s older sisters; Laura’s obituary; and the Memorial Record presented to the family by Beduhn and Goetz Funeral Home, Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Herbert was 14 and Bertha was 20 at the time of Laura’s death.
Laura Esther Schmidt was born October 18, 1912 and died on May 2, 1928. Laura was a student at Washington High School in Two Rivers at the time of her death. Herbert said that she died of appendicitis. Bertha went into more detail. She told me that Laura had not been feeling well for several days and had been having abdominal pain, which was mistaken for cramps. One day, she passed out on the steps of the high school. She was taken to the hospital, where she died of a ruptured appendix.
Her obituary says she died following the surgery for appendicitis. I have never heard of her going to Minnesota to attend school or being in Chicago to have fat removed from her legs. I haven’t seen a death certificate, but I suspect she has been confused with someone else, or the story on the website is the product of gossip that is now taken as fact.
The pictures I have of her indicate she wasn’t overweight. When asked what Laura was like, Bertha told me, “Everyone said she was the pretty one.” One of the photos I will be sending stood on my grandmother’s dresser until Grandma’s death.
Laura’s funeral was at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Two Rivers on May 5, 1928 at 2:00 p.m., Rev. Haase officiated. She is buried in the family plot in Pioneer’s Rest cemetery, Two Rivers.
#3 by JudiW on February 8, 2009 - 1:43 pm
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Here are some details and corrections I would like to add about my parents, Herbert and Ruby Schmidt. I think the information on the Schmidt page may have come from his obituary, and it was a little mixed up.
Ruby was born October 7, 1924 and they were married July 14, 1945. We (Mom, Dad, my sister, and I) went to live in Florida in fall 1958. He shut the farm down for what was supposed to be only two years. We lived in Zephyrhills, where he worked for someone building a motel.
We went back to Wisconsin in summer and the next fall we lived in North Miami, Fl, where dad was a church custodian at a Lutheran Church. The pastor there was getting ready to build a 75 acre retirement village in the southern part of Miami (Cutler Ridge) and he offered Dad the job of maintenance superintendent. We moved there and built a new house in early 1961. During the time we were in North Miami, Wesly Conan worked the farm.
Dad sold the farm to him in spring 1962. Dad worked at East Ridge Retirement Village for several years, and while he was there he got his GED and took many courses at community colleges and universities; first in air conditioning and later in swimming pool maintenance and water treatment. After a few years he went to work for the city water department. He also had his own air conditioning repair business at the same time.
Some time around 1972 he and Mom moved to Silver Springs, just east of Ocala, FL. Dad worked as a treatment plant operator and ran his air conditioning business there. In 1976 they moved to Dunnellon, just west of Ocala. He continued working in the same jobs. Until their health started to fail, they went back to Wisconsin almost every summer. Before Dad retired he saved his vacation time and sick leave so he could take long vacations in summer.
They spent a lot of time traveling and camping through the western US including Alaska. When he was 76, he took his last camping trip, with another man, to Alaska. Some time around 1993 or 1994, Dad had a stroke and then Mom had a stroke a few months later. In 1995, they moved to Tallahasssee to be near my sister and her family (I live in Texas). They both died in Tallahassee.
#4 by JudiW on April 17, 2010 - 12:13 pm
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In the family of Henry W. Schmidt on this site, his name first appears as Wilhemn Heinrich Schmidt. He is the son of Johann Joachim Schmidt and Dorothea Elizabeth Gartz. At the time of the death of my father, Herbert Schmidt, I found the Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage Certificates for my grandfather, Henry. He was known by different names over his lifetime. His Baptism Certificate shows he was Arthur Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Schmidt. His Confirmation Certificate shows Heinrich Wilhelm Schmidt, and so does his Marriage certificate. During most of his adult life, as shown in his obituary, other clippings, and documents signed by him; he was known as Henry W. Schmidt. There is a website about German naming patterns that explains some of the customs and differences between how documents shows names and the names people were called by. Type in German Naming Patterns and do a search.
Henry died on November 14, 1947; not November 13.
His wife, my grandmother, was Louise Caroline Johannes. Throughout her life, many people mistkenly called her Louisa. It was just Louise. Above it reads, “Louise was born on 20 Apr 1875 and died on 13 Nov 1947 in Two Rivers at age 72.” The date of her death was probably confused with the date of Henry’s death. Louise Johannes Schmidt died December 19, 1955. That would have made her 80.
Henry and his first wife purchased the Schmidt farm on June 27, 1904. The transfers of ownership for the farm are found in the Deed Books at the Manitowoc County Courthouse. I won’t bother to site the pages and volumes here, but I can provide them for anyone who wants to look at the documents. On June 30, 1915, Henry officially named the farm Maple Grove Farm.
Here is a little information on one of Henry’s daughters, Bertha. Bertha Leona Schmidt was named after Henry’s first wife. She was boen June 10, 1908 on the farm. She never married. Bertha worked for a time at the aluminum goods in Two Rivers and then moved to Milwaukee where she worked as a medical secretary until she retired. Bertha was independent and intelligent. She traveled all over the world. After she retired, she moved to Phoenix, Arizona where she lived until 1998. When her health began to fail, she moved to Houston, Texas to be close to her grandniece, Christina White Hendricks. Bertha died of pancreatic cancer on August 16, 1998 in Missouri City, Texas. You will not find a grave marker for her. Per her wishes, her ashes were scattered at sea in a memorial ceremony performed by the U.S. Coast Guard at a specific location in the Gulf of Mexico.
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