Theodore SCHNÜTGEN

  General Notes:

1880 Census Iowa- Shelby Co.-Westphalia Theodor SHNUTTGEN Self S Male W 30 PRUS Farmer AUSTRIA AUSTRIA Theresia BAUMHOVEN Other S Female W 18 PRUS Housekeeper PRUS PRUS Adolf SHAVEN Other S Male W 17 WI Servant PRUS PRUS ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Source: "Past and Present of Shelby County Iowa" By Edward S. White - - Volume II Illustrated - - 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana: Page 730, 731:

SCHNUETTEGEN, THEODORE

The two score years which Theodore Schnuettegen* has spent in Shelby county, Iowa, sincearriving in this country from Germany, have made him one of the substantial men of the township in which he settled. The forty years which he has spent in Westphalia township have been years of labor and that they have been fruitful is shown by the fact that Mr. Schnuettegen* started in with nothing and now owns afine farm of four hundred and eighty acres. He arrived in this county when he was twenty-four years of age and by good management, close economy and persistent energy and industry, has arisen from a place of penury to a position of pecuniary independence. His career is like that of many other excellent German farmers who have come to this country and strikingly shows that the German citizensof our country have played an important part in every phase of its development. Theodore Schnuettegen*, the son of Anton and Marie Anna (Hitzboth**) Schnuettegen*, was born in Westphalia, Germany, February 7, 1850. His parents lived all their lives in Germany, his father's death occurring March 17, 1859, and hismother's in July 1883. His father was a farmer in his native land and followedthat occupation all of his days. Seven children were born to Anton Schnuettgenand wife, Anton, Frank, Joseph, Marie, Theodore, August and John. Of these children, Frank, August and Anton are deceased. John married Mary Weiland, while Joseph is still living in Germany.

Theodore Schnuettegen* received a good common school education in the schools of his native land and after leaving school, took up the carpenter trade and followed that occupation until he came to America in 1874. He arrived at New York harbor August 1, 1874, with just enough money to take him to Iowa. Upon arriving in Shelby county in the fall of 1874, he found employment as a carpenter and continued to follow this occupation for the first five years after coming to this country. He saved his money and in 1879 bought a farm of one hundred and seventy acres near Westphalia. He worked hard and divided his attention between carpentering and farming with the result that he prospered to an extreme degree, and as the years rolled by was able to add to his possessions from time to time. When he retired to Earling in 1912 his farm had increased to four hundred and eighty acres. Upon this farm he has erected handsome and substantial buildings so that its value today is more than fifty thousand dollars. Such is the record of an honest German emigrant who came to this country as a young man of twenty-four, and his history sets forth in a clear manner what good ability and hard work will do on the land in Shelby county.

Mr. Schnuettegen* was married at Westphalia, Iowa, March 9, 1886, to Fredericka Koester, and to this union six children have been born: Marie, the wifeof Anton Workman; August, who married Chrystine Schochinger***; Louise, the wife of John Workman; Odelia, the wife of John Gaul; Antonia, who died in 1892; Emma, who is single and living at home.

Mrs. Schnuettegen's* parents were Joseph and Brigta Koester, natives of Germany. They reared a family of eight children, Kasper, Anton, John, Robert, Joseph, Hubert, Richard and Fredericka. The history of Anton Koester, which appears elsewhere in this volume, gives the family history of the Koester family.

Mr. Schnuettegen* is a Democrat in politics and has always been interested in local affairs. He takes a deep interest in educational matters and is a member of the schoo

  Events

• Immigration: Arrived New York Harbor, 1 Aug 1874.

Theodore married Marie Bernardine Fredericka KOESTERS, daughter of Josef KOESTERS and Maria Brigitta SCHULTE, on 1 Mar 1886 in St. Boniface Catholic Church, Westphalia, Shelby Co., IA. (Marie Bernardine Fredericka KOESTERS was born on 1 Mar 1859 in Oberhundem, NW, DEU, died on 3 Jan 1948 in Earling, Shelby, IA, USA and was buried on 5 Jan 1948 in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery, Earling, Shelby Co., IA (Gravesite: I-5-33).)