Peter Schmidt (abt. 1788 - 1863)

Born about 1788 in Prueben, Germany

Ancestors

Husband of Margaretha (Wagener) Schmidt — married 30 Nov 1809 (to 1831) in Trier, Germany

Descendants

Died 8 Apr 1863 at about age 75 in Wilmette, Cook, Ill.

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Sources

• my mothers research

Biography

From the Winnetka Historical Society: Tracing the History of the Schmidt Family Gazette Article by: Joan Evanich Appeared in the Gazette: Fall/Winter 2006

The grand opening of the Schmidt-Burnham Log House in September 2006 was attended by a group of fifth, sixth, and seventh generation descendants of Peter Schmidt, the first documented owner. Although there are tantalizing gaps in the story, research has uncovered solid information about the Schmidt family’s arrival and early years in America. According to some of his descendants, Peter Schmidt emigrated from Koblenz, Germany around 1836 with his son and three daughters. A study of immigration lists revealed a probable match: a German farmer named Peter Schmidt who disembarked from the ship Florence at Castle Garden, New York on August 10, 1839. (Castle Garden was the port of entry for over 10 million immigrants from 1830 until Ellis Island replaced it in 1892). He was accompanied by a 10-year-old son, Peter Schmidt, Jr., and daughters Catharine (age 17), Anna (15), and Elizabeth (8). The ages, names and port of departure (Le Havre, France) are all consistent with information provided by the Schmidt descendants with one exception: Peter, Sr. was actually traveling with a son and three daughters. There is no documentation to prove how the family traveled from New York to northern Illinois. Most people at that time traveled up the Hudson River by ship to Albany, where they could board towboats on the Erie Canal. The boats were hauled by horses or mules, and the 363-mile trip to Buffalo took as long as six days. At Buffalo, immigrants could board a schooner that passed through lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan to reach Chicago. The voyage lasted about a week, longer if there were storms, lack of wind, or pirates. Others traveled from Buffalo to Chicago by wagon, which took several weeks. The Schmidt family next appears in official records in 1841 as purchasers of a log house and 37 acres of land near the present-day intersection of Church Road and Winnetka Avenue. In settling there they became part of a community of German Catholics, originally from Trier, who lived along the Ridge Road stretching from Grosse Pointe (now northwest Wilmette) to the southern part of what is now Winnetka. They also quickly became a multi-generational household. According to the 1860 Cook County census, Peter and his wife Madeline (ages 70 and 66) shared the house with Peter, Jr., his wife Cecelia (34 and 33) and their six children, ranging in age from 10 years to one month. In a census taken a decade later, the oldest daughter was married and living elsewhere, the two youngest children were no longer listed (presumably deceased), and four more children had been born between 1860 and 1868. Although the house had been enlarged to accommodate his growing family, Peter Schmidt, Jr. sold it in 1870 and moved to Kenosha County in Wisconsin, where he died in 1880. His daughter Magdelina (known as Ellen) married Conrad Engelhardt of Kenosha and had six children. It is the descendants of one of their sons (Albert John Engelhardt, Sr., born in 1892) who gathered at the Schmidt-Burnham log house, once again uniting three generations of Schmidts under that roof. Tags: Fall/Winter 2006, Joan Evanich, Schmidt-Burnham Log House

Peter was married three times, first to Margaretha Wagener, she was the mother of all four children. She apparently died after 1831 before they came to America, he met and married Madeline (last name unknown) here and later married Helen Gard.

Sources

• from my mothers research, family records, St. Pauls Church in Germany, Winnetka Historical Society,