Hodge Podge Friday - Schmidt (Ft Wayne, IN)

WAS BUTCHER MANY YEARS AGO
CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT, OF WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, DEAD

Came Here in 1869 and Worked for Ten Years for Late Fred Eckert, Then Moved to Farm-Was Seventy Six Years Old

Christian Schmidt, seventy-six years of age, a pioneer butcher of Fort Wayne but for the past twenty-eight years one of the best known farmers of Allen county, died about noon Sunday at his home, six miles northwest of the city, in Washington township. His death was due to a complication of diseases. He had been sick for four months.

Mr Schmidt was born March 2, 1829 in Gross Schoenfeld, Pomerania, Germany, coming to America and to Fort Wayne in 1869. For the first ten years after his arrival here he was employed as a butcher for the late Fred Ecker. He was a frugal and industrious man and accumulating a snug fortune, twenty-eight years ago he purchased a good farm in Washington township. He moved to the farm and spent the remainder of his life there.

He is survived by his wife, Mrs August Schmidt, and four children, William Schmidt of Lake township; August F Schmidt of Washington township; Mrs Amelie Bruder of Toledo, and Mrs John Kurtz of Lake township. There are also nineteen grandchildren, a brother who resides at Blackburn, Mo and two brothers and a sister in Germany. Mr Schmidt was a member of the Bethlehem Lutheran church, on the Leesburg road.

The funeral services will be held Wednesday at 1:30 pm at the family home and at 2 oclock at the Bethlehem church, the Rev Herman Wurthman officiating.

Source: 29 MAY 1905  Journal-Gazette (Ft Wayne, IN)  Pg 4, Col. 3

MRS AUGUSTA SCHMIDT SUMMONED
Was Resident of Washington Township Forty Years
Widely Know in County –Died at Age of Seventy-five Year of Complication of Diseasses After Long Illness

Mrs Augusta Schmidt, for over forty years a resident of Allen county, died Sunday afternoon at 2 o’clock of a complication of diseases at the family home in Washington township. Mrs Schmidt was seventy five years old. She had been in failing health for a year and had been confined to her bed for the past two months.

Mrs Schmidt was born September 30, 1831 in Brandenberg, Prussia. She was married while still in Germany to Christian Schmidt, and came with her husband to America over forty years ago. Mr Schmidt was first employed in the county in the old Eckart slaughter house and later purchased a farm in Washington township where he moved and where Mrs Schmidt has since resided.

The husband died in May, 1905.

Five children have preceded Mrs Schmidt in death. She is survived by four children-Mrs Emilie Bruder of Toledo, Ohio; Mrs John Kurtz of Lake township; William Schmidt of Lake township and August F Schmidt of Washington township. There are twenty-one grandchildren. Two brothers also survive – Carl Haak of Germany, and Theodore Haak of Washington township and two sisters – Mrs Wilhelmina Gossow of Fort Wayne and Mrs William Miller of Washington township.

The funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon at 1 o’clock from the residence and at 1:45 o’clock from the Behlehem Lutheran church. The interment will be in the Bethlehem cemetery.

Source: 28 JAN 1907  Journal-Gazette (Ft Wayne, IN)  Pg 3, Col. 3
[Obits courtesy of co-contributor, Jim Cox]