Mathias Schmitz, the popular blacksmith of village of Stewart, is a native of Rhenish Prussia, Germany, born October 27, 1850, and is the son of Peter and Susan Schmitz. When he was but three years of age death deprived him of his mother's care, and he was taken by his grandparents to be reared, and remained with them, going to school until he had completed his twelfth year. At that early age, he started alone for the United States, and arrived in Chicago, Ill., April 4, 1863, but as he could f ind no work there, went to Northern Indiana, and there was employed about a year. His uncle, Nicholas, then sent for him, but the money sent for him, was given by the man, in whose care it was sent, to the wrong party. In December he was taken to St. Paul by a friend, and went to his father's homestead, in Hennepin county. His father had come to this country after losing his wife and after working two years in Chicago, went to st. Paul and bought property, but shortly after took a homestead in Hennepin County, where he now lives.

Mathias lived with his father for about a year and a half, but as there was a difference of opinion between him and his father's children by his second wife, he left home and went to Minneapolis in the spring of 1865, and worked in a bkaery for a few months. He then went to St. Louis, where he remained two years, working in a machine shop. Being taken ill, he lay in the hospital, after which he returned to his father's place, and stayed ther a year, and then, the old trouble breaking out, he, after working at harvesting a while, went to Minneapolis. Filling in the time in a lumber mill, the pineries, and a sawmill, until the fall of 1869, he then commenced to learn his present trade, in St. Paul, after which he worked at it in the Harvester Works in that city. Coming of age, he received his money from his mother's estate, he being an only child, and bought a shop and set up a forge of his own, but whortly after rented it, and was for several years thereafter, a driver in the St. Paul fire department. His health suffering by the confinement, he came to Stewart and built a shop, and residence, in 1878, and since July 28th, of that year, has made it his home. His was the third house put up in the village, and he is now doing an extensive busines in both blacksmith and wagon making, and also runs a hay press.

Mr. Schmitz was married, April 24, 1873, to Miss Hubertine T. Schwartz, a native of Germany, and the daughter of Paul and M. G. Schwartz. They are the parents of five children; Edward N., Francis A., George A., and Prosper L.

Our subject is a democrat in his political views, and is a member of the Roman Catholic church. He takes a deep interest in educational matters, and has filled the office of school treasurer for two terms.

-- from the Album of Biography of Meeker and McLeod Counties.

Civil war highlights taken from the Narrative of Brackett's Battalion of Cavalry

One account has Peter Sr. drafted and one has him elisted. Which ever is correct, he went into service at Fort Snelling in September, 1861.

"Peter Schmidt, 36, September 25, 1861 -- Blacksmith, transferred to Co. I, 5th Iowa Cavalry, March 1862. Black hair and dark eyes." Thus reads the muster sheet.

After capturing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, their duties were to carry dispatches, guarding wagon trains, and patrolling the countryside. Keeping the horses ready to go, which was Greatgrandfather's job, was essential.

Major A. B. Brackett and his Minnesota men were organized into Brackett's Battalion and the Curtis Horse Regiment in 1862. They went on to Savannah and Pittsburghts Landing (Shiloh)> They erected telegraph lines and built bridges to help the Union cause. Death was ever present from the fighting, disease, and the weather.

In 1864, after a furlough of 30 days, most of the battalion re-enlisted, which Peter Sr. did. They were assigned to the Northwestern frontier to face the Indians.

On to Pierre, South Dakota, where 2,200 men faced 5,000 hostile Indians and won. They were the first white men to cross the Badlands and on to the Yellowstone River where welcome rations awaited them. The railroad later followed them! The company cemetery was now over 6,000 miles long.

Ordered back to Sioux City, Iowa, they spent the next fourteen months patrolling two or three hundred miles open to frontier settlements until mustered out in 1866.

"Good soldiers! Good citizens! May we all meet in the great camp above!"

Mathias Schmitz

Proprietor of a modern blacksmith shop, and one of the leading citizens of Stewart, was born in the Province of the Rhine, Germany, October 27, 1850, son of Peter and Susan (Kieffer) Schmitz, who were both natives of that province, the father being a farmer. Mathias was only a child and, having the misfortune to lose his mother when only a year and a half old, he was cared for up to the age of 12 years by his maternal grandmother, whose maiden name was Francista Geritzer, she being the wife of Mathias Kieffer, a farmer and a cooper. Here he obtained his schooling. When he was six years old his grandfatehr died, but his grandmother continued to care for him. In the meanwhile his father Peter had come to America and settled on a farm in Hennepin County. He had also married again and now sent for his son Mathias to join him. Acordingly, in 1863, the latter left Germany for this country. He was accompanied, not by relative, but by three friends, who came with him as far as Chicago. The journey across the Atlantic occupied 27 days.

On reaching Chicago Mathias learned that is father had been drafted for serice in the Civil War. His money was all gone, but knowing that his father had friends living on a farm in Indiana, about 35 miles south of Chicago, he went there and stayed with them until December, 1863. At that time, a party from Germany who were on their way to St. Cloud, and who knew his father, passed through that locality and, finding him there, paid his way to St. Paul, where he had an uncle, Nichloas Schmitz. This journey he made by train to LaCrosse and by stage to St. Paul. Here he stayed on eweek and then his uncle took him out to his father's farm, the father having now returned home from the war. After staying with him for a year and a half, Mathias struck out for himself, going to Minneapolis, where he met a Mr. Robinson, who ran a mill, and who engaged him to work around his house doing odd jobs. After that he got a job in a bakery, where he worked two months. He then went down the river as far as Kentucky, working one summer on the farm and in the fall packing tobacco. Going to St. Louis, he there met a cousin and stayed about a year, but was taken sick with typhoid fever. In the meantwhile his father had been writing to him to come home and when he got better he took a job on the steamboat "Hawkeye State," runnign between St. Louis and St. Paul, on which he made three trips, after which he went ot visit his father. This visit lasted for a year, when Mathias set out on his travels.

For a while, he worked for neighbors in the vicinity of his father's farm and then went again to Minneapolis and obtained a job piling lumber. He continued at this work until he had saved about 85 dollars, and then joined a lumber camp and spent the winter cutting timer. In the spring he got a job in a sawmill, but had to work nights, which he did not like very well, so he soon went to St. Paul and, after a few days miscellaneous work there, a gentleman hired him to drive his carriage horse and take care of the garden. While thus employed he found opportunity to learn the blacksmith's trade, for which he had an interest. He served as a blacksmith's apprentice and workman for two and a half years and then got work at the St. Paul Harvester Works, where he stayed six months, subsequently working at his own trade for a short time in St. Paul. He then started a shop of his own in that city, which he conducted for about a year and a half. He was now a memeber of the volunteer fire department, and the department being put on the paid system, Mr. Schmitz took the job as driver of the hook and ladder team, retaining it for four years and four months.

Then, getting tired of the confinement, and hearing of the railroad being built west from Glencoe to Stewart, he came to the latter place to start a blacksmith's shop. There were then but two buildings in the village, this being 1878, but he then established himself at the location where he as ever since remained, and where he now has a fine shop. He helped to organize and incorporate the village of Stewart and was on of its first officers, and heas since been a member of the Farmer and Merchants Bank when it was first started and has served in it as officer and director. As a member of the Catholic Church, he held office on its board in earlier years. Mr. Schmitz was married September, 1874, to Hubertina Schwartz, who was born in Germany, March 29, 1850, and who came to the United States with her father in 1864, he locating in LeSueur county. Mr. and Mrs. Schmitz have eight children; Edward N., Lucier J., Frances, Prosper L., George A., Clemance J., and Charles S.

-- from the History of McLeod County