Pioneer Woman Called in Death Friday, Aug. 10 (Juliana Franzel Schmidt)

Mrs. Juliana Schmidt Died at St. Mary’s Hospital in Columbus That Day

Had Been in Poor Heath [sic] Since January. Went to Hospital on June 9th

Note:  the year “1934” was handwritten on the photocopy this text came from originally.  The photocopy came from Maryann Schmidt Raymond. She did not remember who gave her the document.

Death came quietly to Mrs. Juliana Schmidt, pioneer woman of this community, at the St. Mary’s hospital in Columbus on Friday, August 10. She had been ill since last January and her condition became such that on the 9th day of June she was removed to the hospital for treatment for complications due to old age. For the last two weeks of her life she had been under the care of a special nurse.

As Juliana Franzel the deceased was born in Austria on the 13th day of August, 1854. Here she spent her girlhood and grew into young womanhood. In the spring of 1879 she came to this country settling in Columbus, where in the fall of that year she was united in marriage to Joseph Schmidt, who had come to this country from Austria with her. They made their home in Columbus for a year, and then for two years resided in Norfolk, coming to Humphrey in 1882 where she has since made her home. Mr. Schmidt passed on on [sic] October 29th, 1923, following accidental injuries received in a fall at the lumber yards here, where he had worked most of his time as a resident of the city.

Mrs. Schmidt was the mother of ten children , four of whom have preceded her in death. Those living are Carl and Frank, of this city, Mrs. Frank Froemel and Joseph Schmidt, of Mt. Angel, Oregon. Louis Schmidt, of Carroll, Iowa and Mrs. Frank Fugger, of Platte Center. She is also survived by thirty-one grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Her body was laid to rest in the St. Francis cemetery last Monday morning, with [sic] incidentally would have been her eightieth birthday anniversary. Funeral services were conducted at the St. Francis church at 9 o’clock, with Rev. Fr. Ben officiating, and these were largely attended by her many friends and neighbors.

Active pallbearers were Wm. Groeger, Louis Maier, C.J. Frey, John Froemel, Felix Christ and Barney Lohaus. Honorary pallbearers were Mrs. Conrad Fuchs, Mrs. John Froemel, Mrs. Henry Foltz, Mrs. Jos. Lachnit, Mrs. Henry Scharwarth and Mrs. M. Supanchick. Members of the Christian Mothers Society and the Third Order society, of which the deceased was a member, attended in a body.

LIke all the early pioneers of this section the deceased experienced the sorrows, the success and the joy that came to those who had builded [sic] for the future. She had an unwavering faith in the possibilities of the country she had decided to make her home and to such as her goes much of the credit for the progress of the community in which she spent the most of her life, and where she now rests peacefully under its virgin sod. In her early residence in the community she took an active part in the social and civic affairs of the community, but in the sunset of her beautiful Christian life she was content to let these things fall to the shoulders of the younger generation and spent her time quietly in her home, although she still maintained an interest she had developed in her early youth and continued through life.

May the happiness of Heaven be her reward, and may He who has taken her from this earth bring surcease to the sorrowing ones she has left behind.

Those here from out of town to attend the funeral were Mr. and Mrs. Jos. Liebig and family, Mr. and Mrs. A. Miksch, Mrs Purchal and son, Matt, Mrs. Fred Zingg, Mrs. A. Klapust, Mrs. A. Kuta, Mrs. Pat Langan, H. Juchter, Mrs. A. Smith, Matt Nienaber and Rev. Leo Mainzer, all of Platte Center.

Compiled and annotated by Adam Wunn (Great, Great Grandson of Joseph and Juliana Schmidt, 2015).