Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana, 1903. pp. 342-344.
G. B. SCHOTT.
The story of the life of men who from the smallest and most insignificant beginning have accomplished much in the way of accumulating property and rearing in comfort, even in luxury, large families, is always encouraging to others beginning at the bottom round of the ladder of life with little more than good health and a determined purpose out of which to carve success. Such a life story is that of G. B. Schott, of Domestic, Indiana.
Born in Logan county, Ohio, on the 12th day of April, 1841, of German parentage, the greater part of his busy life has been spent within a few hundred miles of his birth place. His parents were both natives of Byron, Germany, the father, George Schott, emigrating to America when he was seventeen years of age. He was by trade a baker and worked at the business five years in the city of New York, where he landed. The maiden name of the mother of the subject of this sketch was Margaretta Bowman, and she came to New York with her parents when quite young. Being from the same place in the Fatherland, the young people were not long in becoming acquainted and they were not long acquainted until they determined upon a closer and more sacred relationship. After an industrious residence of five years in America, George felt that he had accumulated enough to justify him ill taking the important step in life. He was married in New York city and immediately determining to anticipate the advice of Horace Greeley to "go west and grow up with the country;" he did so, settling in Logan county, Ohio. He there engaged in farming, prospering year after year, and in addition being blessed by the birth of a number of robust, healthy and vigorous sons. About the year 1844 he moved his family to Lorain county, Ohio, where he resided until his death, at the ripe age of eighty-four years, September 1, 1902. His good wife, Margaretta, continued to bless her family with motherly care and affection until 1861, when she bade farewell to earth and was gathered to her fathers.
George and Margaretta Schott were the parents of four children, all of whom are living: G. B., the subject; Peter, a resident of Wells county, Indiana; John B., who has lived for many years in Missouri, and Henry F., whose residence is in Lorain county, Ohio.
During the years of his boyhood G. B. Schott attended the district schools of Lorain county. He became very proficient in all the common school branches then taught, continuing in the task of acquiring an education until he was twenty years of age. The next year all his time was devoted to work on his father's farm, when he entered the employ of Dr. Underhill, of Lagrange, Ohio, taking entire charge and having full and unrestricted control of the Doctor's farm. At this time the war of the Rebellion was in progress in all its fury, and few youths with spirit enough to be worthy of mention could content themselves at home, away from the scene of active hostilities. In the fall of 1862 G. B. Schott enlisted in Company D, Huffman's Batallion, which afterwards became the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Regiment Ohio Volunteers. He saw much active service during the two years and nine months of his soldiering, continuing in the ranks until mustered out at the close of the Rebellion.
The life of the average soldier is not particularly favorable to the accumulation of money. On returning from the front to his home in Ohio, G. B. Schott found himself worse off financially than he was some three years before. Possessed of health and vigorous constitution, despite the exposure of his life at the front, he turned his attention to the first labor that offered itself. It was the season of the year when sheep were to be sheared and good wages were to be made by any one who could deftly and skillfully handle the clippers. While the season lasted the ex-soldier occupied his time in relieving sheep of their winter fleeces and when nothing more was to be done in that line he found himself in possession of a little ready money. With this he moved to Wells county, Indiana, settled in the woods, built a small log cabin and began the clearing of the fine, productive farm upon which he now lives.
December 1, 1865, Mr. Schott was united in marriage to Miss Hannah Keller, a native of Medina county, Ohio, and daughter of Daniel Keller, who had emigrated to America from Wittenburg, Germany. To his humble cabin in the woods Mr. Schott brought his blushing bride soon after their marriage. The market value of all their worldly possessions could then be covered by a very few dollars, one horse being the sum and substance of their entire live stock The furniture of their home was of the rudest and most primitive character. To illustrate: the bed upon which he slept was constructed of poles, fastened to the logs in one corner of the cabin. Upon these a straw tick was placed, which, with the usual covering, formed a couch that would not be entirely to the fancy of many young people of the present day. Yet, it is safe to say, Mr. and Mrs. Schott now look back upon those days of unremitting toil and nights of refreshing repose and hail them as the happiest of their lives. About half an acre, which he planted in potatoes, was all he had cleared on his own place the first year, but he rented and cultivated land on the farm of a neighbor, Thomas Williams. This he continued to do for two years, by which time he had enough of tillable land on his own place to occupy his time and attention. About this time his brother Peter, who was a carpenter and quite handy with edge tools of all kinds, came to live with the young couple. He was possessed of a little ready money which did much to relieve the pinching poverty, and with two men in the woods, where only one had toiled before, the tract of land soon began to take on all the appearance of a productive, well-kept farm. At this time provisions of all kind were inordinately high. A fair quality of flour brought fifteen dollars a barrel and other articles were in proportion. It need not therefore shock the reader to learn that what constituted the staff of life for most people in poor or modern circumstances was nothing more nor less than good old-fashioned, home-made corn bread. This, with genuine maple syrup, made in abundance by nearly every family in the locality, formed the basis of quite palatable and enjoyable meals.
About this time the almost criminal waste of the finest timber, thousands of feet of splendid logs being rolled together in heaps and consumed by fire to get them out of the way, induced the Schott brothers to invest in and operate a saw-mill. This they did about 1869 and continued in the business of manufacturing lumber until a few years ago. During the years they were in business they turned out from their mill millions of feet of hickory, ash and black walnut lumber, for which they always found a most ready sale.
At the present time G. B. Schott is the owner of two hundred and forty acres of as fine land as can be found in the state. Eighty acres of this is the old home place on which he first settled, the other one hundred and sixty having been purchased since. Upon this land are eleven producing and productive oil wells, which alone make a very comfortable income for their owner. Back in 1883 a splendid home with modern conveniences was erected on the farm and in 1890 Mr. Schott built a large barn that is a model of convenience. This was necessary to accommodate the pure bred stock of cattle, hogs and sheep, in the rearing of which he is engaged.
Mr. and Mrs. Schott are the parents of three children, Henry C., Sarah and Lillie. Sarah has been a teacher in the public schools for a number of years and Lillie is the wife of Dr. Runnels, of Montpelier, Indiana. The latter are the parents of one child, a promising little daughter, named Grace. Mr. and Mrs. Schott are both members of the New Light church, and are active and zealous in all Christian work. Mr. Schott is a member of John P. Porter Post, G. A. R., of Geneva, is a firm believer in the principles of the Republican party and always votes the way he believes. This year he was elected a delegate to the state convention of his party and on two occasions heretofore was honored with the nomination for county commissioner from his district. But Wells county is too well supplied with Democratic voters to permit many Republicans to feast at the official crib, so Mr. Schott, as he expected, was defeated each time. There are, without doubt, many men in this country who have accomplished more during the span of their business career than has Mr. Schott, but certainly there are not many who, with such limited resources as he had at his command in the beginning, have excelled or even equalled him.