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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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Henry
Peter Schnug The
farmers who constitute the bone and sinew of Jasper County, or, indeed, any
section of this or any other state, are not those who are unstable and
unsettled, who change from one occupation to another, who do not seem to know
how to discharge the duties of citizenship until they are told and who take no
active and intelligent interest in public affairs, or who hesitate in the
support of schools, churches and property.
The backbone of this country is made up of the families which have made
their homes, who are alive to the best interests of the community in which they
reside, who are so honorable in their every-day affairs of life that it is no
trouble for the neighbors and associates to know it, and who, attending strictly
to their own business, are thus too busy to attend to that of others, who work
on steadily from day to day, taking the sunshine and the storm, and who rear a
self-respecting, honest family to a comfortable home and useful life.
Such people are always welcome in any community.
They are wealth producers and the country is blessed with many of them,
among whom is the Schnug family of which Henry Peter Schnug, farmer and stock
raiser of Elk Creek Township, is & worthy representative. Mr.
Schnug was born in Elk Creek Township, Jasper County, Iowa, on September 16,
1866. He is the son of John and
Anna Elizabeth (Strate) Schnug, both born in Germany, the father in the town of
Weidselters, the duchy of Nassau on January 6, 1827, and the mother in Filbach
Herzogthum, in
the duchy of Nassau, August 6, 1833. They grew up in the fatherland, received
such educational training as was possible and there the father learned the
miller's trade, running mills for various employers, and when a young man, in
1850, he decided to cast his lot with the North Americans and accordingly
boarded a slow sailing vessel for our shores. He located in Richland County,
Ohio, and there worked in a flouring mill, and there he was married to Anna E.
Strater, who had emigrated to that County in 1842, when a young girl, with her
parents. After the marriage of the
subject's parents, which occurred on September 21, 1851, they established a home
in Richland County and remained there until in 1856, when they immigrated to
Jasper County, Iowa, and here Mr. Schnug found employment in a flouring mill at
Galesburg; later he ran Warren's mill, Marion County, on the Skunk River, and
across that stream he assisted in building one of the first bridges that spanned
it. He worked a great deal at the
carpenter's trade and he finally turned his attention to agricultural pursuits,
buying eighty acres of prairie and one hundred and twenty acres of bottom land
on the Skunk River, and he became very well established, developing one of the
best farms on that historic stream and there he continued to reside, engaged in
general farming and stock raising until 1905 when he moved to Manson in Calhoun
County, Iowa. He has been blind for the past twenty-one years.
He
has long been a consistent member of the German Lutheran church, and,
politically, he is a Democrat. He
has always borne an exemplary reputation and his life work has been
characterized by industry and fairness to his fellow men.
He came to this country when it was wild and sparsely settled and he
lived to see it grow into one of the first farming sections of the great
commonwealth of Iowa. Three
sons and three daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. John Schnug, named in order
of birth as follows: Mrs. Catherine
Pahre is deceased; Mrs. Mary Strater is also deceased; John Edward lives at
Ralph, Iowa; George is making his home in Pocahontas County, this state; Mrs.
Esther Walker lives in Council Bluffs; Henry Peter, of this sketch, was the
youngest in order of birth. Henry
P. Schnug assisted his father in his general work when a boy, spending his
boyhood days in Elk Creek Township, this County, attending the common schools in
the winter time. When twenty-three
years of age he bought eighty acres of land, part of the home place, and set to
work with a will; he has accordingly prospered and he is now the owner of one of
the choice farms of the community, which consists of one hundred and
ninety-three and one-half acres, in Elk Creek Township.
He has here carried on general farming and stock raising in a manner that
has stamped him as being fully abreast of the times in these matters.
He has placed his under a fine system of improvements and keeps his soil
well tilled, so that it has retained its old-time fertility.
In the year 1902 he built a modern, convenient and tastily arranged
dwelling and he has other substantial buildings.
He keeps a fine grade of livestock, making a specialty of Percheron
horses, Hereford cattle and he feeds large numbers of cattle and hogs, no small
part of his annual income being derived from this source. Mr.
Schnug is a Democrat politically and he has served his community as Township
trustee. On
April 1, 1889, was celebrated the marriage of Henry P. Schnug and Margaret
Kling. The latter was born in Elk
Creek Township on March 5, 1867, and here she grew to womanhood and was educated
in the common schools. She is the
daughter of Henry Kling and wife, one of our honored pioneer families. To
Mr. and Mrs. Schnug have been born the following children: Murlin, born February
12, 1892; Pearl, born November 21, 1893; Ruby, born June 19, 1895; Clifford,
born February 4, 1897; Florence, born January 15, 1901; Harold, born May 19,
1904; Helen, born September 25, 1906; Eldred, born April 7, 1909. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 685. |
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