Biography of
William Schwartz
p. 1458
WILLIAM SCHWARTZ.
Prominent among the more prosperous German farmers of Southern Illinois, and
especially Pulaski county,
William Schwartz takes high
rank as a representative and valuable citizen of his community. From a small
beginning in 1890 he has increased his interests from time to time until he now
has one of the finest farms in the state, fully equipped with the most modern
appliances and with a dwelling and other buildings which would do credit to any
man.
Born January 6,
1859, in St. Clair county, Illinois,
Mr. Schwartz
is a son of
Peter Schwartz,
a native of
Germany who settled in that county many years before the war of the
rebellion. He was
born in Schleswig-Holstein, on November 2, 1828, in which place he received the
advantage of a good education, and was trained in the craft of the blacksmith.
He served his country in the army during the war of 1848 and in 1853 he
emigrated to America in company with a brother, William,
who became a resident of Arizona, near El Paso, Texas. Peter
Schwartz
was followed to the United States a few years later by a brother
and sister, John
and Margaret (Luedemann) Schwartz,
who
settled in St. Clair county. For a number of years following his advent to
America and the state of Illinois, Mr. Schwartz
followed
his trade as a blacksmith, but with the acquisition of a tract of land he was
emboldened to branch out into farming, a move which proved to be most profitable
on his part, as he proved that he was as capable in the role of a farmer as in
that of a blacksmith. In 1856 Mr. Schwartz
married
Barbara Ruebel,
who was born near Wiesbaden, Germany: She
died in 1868, leaving her husband and four children to mourn her loss, The
children are: John,
a farmer of St. Clair county;
William,
of this sketch; Christopher,
also a farmer of St. Clair county; and Fritz,
who died in
East St. Louis on December 20, 1911. Mr. Schwartz
contracted a second marriage in later years, when Mary Gauss
became his wife. She survives her husband, who passed away in 1899.
The education of William Schwartz
was secured in the district schools of his locality, and he was for a short time
an attendant at a German school near his home. He came to know the life of a
farmer by his actual experience with it, and when he was twenty-three years old
his father turned the county home over to him and his brother for cultivation
and management. During the years which intervened
P. 1459
before he came to Pulaski county
he accumulated some stock, farming implements and other necessary paraphernalia
incidental to successful farming, and he came to Southern Illinois prepared to acquire a farm of his own. He purchased a hundred and sixty acres of land
possessing rather primitive improvements,
and began to raise stock and grain. He
reaped a liberal reward from his applied industry and in a comparatively short
time was able to add another quarter section to his estate. In 1900, ten years
after he located in Pulaski county, Mr. Schwartz
built
himself a handsome residence, suited in every way to the demands of country life
and entirely modern in the best sense of the word, in addition to which he has
erected a fine lot of buildings which give him an ideal equipment for the
housing of his products and his stock. All things considered, his place is one
of the best and most suitably equipped that may be found in the county. In
addition to his extensive farming interests, he is a stockholder in the Grand Chain Mercantile
Company, one of the leading concerns of the village of Grand Chain. He shares in
the political faith of his father, which was that of the Republican party, and
is interested in the advancement of the cause, although his time is so fully
occupied by his manifold duties in connection with the proper management of his
farm that he has little time to devote to political matters. He has been a
school-director for his district, giving praiseworthy service in that capacity.
On November 20, 1884,
Mr. Schwartz
was married to
Miss Eva K. Daab, a daughter of Louis and
Johanna (Fahrbeck) Daab,
both of German birth and residents of Monroe county.
Mr. Daab died in 1864, and
two of his four children were living at that time.
Mr. and Mrs. Schwartz became
the parents of six children, all of whom are living. They are:
William D., a
farmer of Pulaski county, married
Miss Lizzie Allif, who died after a few months
and he took for his second wife Miss Angie Riffner;
Julius, a resident of
Belleville;
Walter F.; Eddie P.; Frederick W.; and Albert Philip.
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