Untitled From the Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- pages 573-574

ANTON SCHMITT, for years the principal horticulturist of Lancaster township, Grant county, was born in the grand duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany, Nov. 4, 1830, a son of Jacob and Marie (BRIEL) SCHMITT.

Jacob SCHMITT, the father of Anton, was a miller and farmer by occupation. His father was also named Jacob. Our subject's father died when Anton was sixteen years old, and left his wife with three sons and one daughter, Anton being the eldest. The latter had attended school until fourteen years of age, and has assisted his father in the mill until the latter's death, when he took charge of the business. In 1852 he married Miss Anna Elizabeth WEBER, a most estimable young lady, and in April, 1854, he and his wife and child sailed from Bremen, and after a voyage of thirty-six days landed in New York, whence they came direct to Lancaster, Wis. They arrived June 10, of the same year, and located in the township of Beetown, Grant county. Mr. SCHMITT, in April 1855, moved to the farm of Allen BARBER, in the township of Lancaster, which he worked, also operating his mill for about two years, when he bought the property. In 1869 he sold the mill and farm and settled in what is now the city of Lancaster, engaging first in merchandising, and later entering upon the great enterprise of his life in horticulture. He succeeded wonderfully in fruit culture, and not only prospered in this particular line of industry, but by his example, advice and teaching, led many others to follow in his footsteps, and to make the horticultural region of Wisconsin what it is today. In 1895 he sold his orchards and nurseries and built a fine residence, one block south and west of his old home. In 1896 he laid out a tract of land adjoining his present home, into blocks and streets, platted and recorded as SCHMITT's Addition to the city of Lancaster. Since then a number of residences have been built thereon, and in a short time this will become the continuation of one of the nicest streets in Lancaster.

In 1891 Mr. SCHMITT began building ice-houses and constructing ice-ponds, with the intention of supplying the residents of Lancaster with the purest possible ice during the summer months. These he still owns, but he has relinquished all active participation in the trade, and leased the premises and industry as already established to others, advancing years precluding his giving them further attention. Mr. SCHMITT began life as a business man with but little of this world's goods, yet during his forty-six years in Wisconsin he has not only realized a competence, but has himself aided in the remarkable development of Lancaster and Grant county, and is today recognized as an influential and substantial citizen.

To Mr. and Mrs. SCHMITT were born five daughters and two sons, of whom Carl was called away in 1872, when fifteen years of age. This was to Mr. SCHMITT one of the saddest events of his life, although his second son, Adolph, met with a tragic death in a railroad accident in California, May 10, 1890, when thirty-one years old. The eldest daughter, Louise, is the wife of James KNOTT, of Oakland, Cal.; Caroline is married to J. W. GRAVES, of Lathrop, in the same State; Amelia, now Mrs. Charles LISCHERNESS, lives in Lancaster, Grant Co., Wis.; K. Elizabeth and Veronica are still at home. On Aug. 8, 1900, Mrs. SCHMITT met with an accident which resulted in her death on the 11th of the same month.

In politics Mr. SCHMITT was first a Republican. He became entitled to the rights of citizenship as soon as possible after his arrival in the country by "declaring his intentions," and two years later voted for John C. Fremont, the first nominee of the Republican party for the Presidency of the United States; he also voted for Abraham Lincoln, at each of the two elections which seated the martyr in the Presidential chair, and continued a Republican until the second nomination of Stephen Grover Cleveland for the Chief Magistracy of the Union, when, being a man capable of thinking for himself he changed his politics, and has since voted the Democratic ticket, especially at National elections.

In religion Mrs. SCHMITT was reared in the Lutheran Church, but the younger of the two daughters at home is a member of the Congregational Church. Socially the family stand very high and deservedly so. Mr. SCHMITT, beginning with a home in a log cabin in the township of Beetown, Grant county, has reached affluence, and occupies as fine a dwelling as there is in Lancaster city.



This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck