2008
Schmidt Reunion
Willian Joesph Schmidt was born in Germany on February 2, 1886 to Ted and Anna Schmidt. Anna Zellehoff was born on November 22, 1889 in Spokane, Washington to Henry and Maria Druffel Zelleroff.
Pop
spoke "high" German, which would suggest that he came from northern Germany.
He was 4 years old when he and his family came to this country,
approximately 1890. They may have come by the way of Canada. Pop talked about
working in Alberta and harvesting into the winter; shoveling snow off the grain
stacks so they could feed the trashing machine.
About 1905, Grandpa Ted homesteaded overlooking the Salmon River, four miles southwest of Kuetherville, Idaho. His wife died young and he was left with a young family. Three of the children were raised by another family. Pop was older than the other three children so he stayed home and kept house and cooked for Grandpa Ted at the shake Kucherville mill.
Henry and Maria Zellerhoff were both born in Germany. They both migrated to
this country with families. They were married on January 9, 1889 in Spokane
at Our Lady of Lourdes
church,
a wooden church where the Cathedral now stands.
As the story goes, Pop homesteaded in Joseph or Enterprise, Oregon. Mom went
down there to visit Victor Mersman, a Druffel relative. Pop and Mom met at a
Grange dance. They were married on June 22, 1915 in Genesee, Idaho at a
Priest's house. They lived in Joseph, Oregon; Jim, Laura and Bill were born
there. The summer of 1919 Pop sold his homestead for $5,000 and headed for
Uniontown. Pop drove the
horses
and a wagon with their belongings and Mom's brother Hank drove the car. Pop
crossed the Snake River and came up Steptoe Canyon. He bought 240 acres from
Joe Druffel for $20,000. He put $4,000 down and bought some machinery and
built three granaries and a machine shed with the extra $1,000. During
the Depression, wheat was 15 cents a bushel. Pop couldn't make the payment
on the acreage. He gave Joe Druffel promissory notes for the payment for three or
four years. The land was went into foreclosed and then they rented the land. Pop
paid interest on those notes for about twenty years, and finally
paid them off during World War ll. Seven children were born in Uniontown: Leo,
Elmer, LeRoy, Mary, Larry, Agnes and Peggy.
Times were tough during the Depression. Dr. Berg charged $50 to deliver a baby. The price was half price if the baby came before he got there. Babies were always born at home back then. When Mom started to have a baby, she would wait until the last minute to call the doctor, so the baby would be born by the time Dr. Berg got there. The doctor lived about three miles away, and the doctor traveled by car on a dirt road and through the field to get the house, so the doctor was generally late, anyways.
About
1935, Pop had a nervous breakdown and was taken to Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake. He was gone for three or four months.
Son, Bill stayed home for
two years and worked the farm. The telephone was taken out because they
couldn't afford the $1.25 a month payment. Times were very tough, with ten kids,
living in a two room house, no electricity, no indoor toilet, pumping water
at the sink, no money, no phone and Pop was sick and broke.
Pop and Mom moved to Colton approximately 1940 to a farm down in the Canyon.
Grandpa Zellerhoff bought the land and split it up the land among his children. Schultheis's old house was moved down to what was called the Rimrock in
Colton. They lived in the grainerly for a
couple of months until the house was ready. It was a very modern home with running
water and a bathroom between the two bedrooms. Later they got electricity.
After moving to the Colton place things got a lot better.
Pop had hip problems. He was on crutches for years. He would walk to his tractor on his "sticks", plow all day and at the end of the day he would again get his "sticks" walk back to the house.
There were a series of springs along the entry road to this farm. Above the nearest spring, Mom had a raspberry patch. The ground was cool, damp and dark so rattlesnakes loved it. She carried a hoe and a bucket while Leo asked her "Hey, Mom, how many berries today?" She responded, "Two gallons of berries and one rattler." The farm was rented out when they moved to Spokane. Grandson Gary lived with them his last two years of high school to help with the farming from 1953-1955.
They bought a house in 1956 in Spokane in the Lincoln Heights district (27th and Ash). Mom and Pop said, "if we have to move to town, at least we need some chickens". They loaded a small building, which used to be the smoke house, latter a brooder house, on a truck and hauled it to Spokane. They had a very large garden in partnership with thrit son, LeRoy. Pop would hoe the garden while on his "sticks". LeRoy and his children did most of the gardening. The house has since been torn down and replaced with a couple of new houses. Pop and Mom were charter members of St. Peter's Catholic Church.
Pop died December 8, 1970 in Spokane at the age of 84. He was buried at Saint Gall's Catholic Cemetery in Colton. After Pop's death, Mom lived in Uniontown and lived in a trailer on her daughter's Peggy and son in-law Hardy's property, where she had her beloved garden. She passed away on November 22, 1974 on 85th birthday and was buried next to Pop.
A
very big thank you goes to Grandson Gene Schmidt for researching and
providing the stories that makes up the Schmidt genealogy.