Routt County CO Archives Biographies.....Schaffnit, Henry 1833 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 25, 2006, 11:43 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

      Born in Germany and living during the last four years in Colorado, and

between the two places traveling through many parts of the United States to the

Pacific and from the Gulf to California, suffering all the hardships and

privations and encountering all the dangers of frontier life, escaping death by

cholera and fever, by famine and flood, reveling at times in the wild existence

of the mining camp and at times longing for the blandishments of civilization,

and in his wanderings gathering together one of the most extensive and curious

collections of deformed horns and antlers of elk, deer, antelope, gazelle and

roebucks in existence, the interesting subject of this sketch has had a career

of unusual adventure and breadth of experience, and has made it all subservient

to his own progress and advancement and the benefit of the region of his present

home.  He was born in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1833, the son of Martin and Elizabeth

Schaffnit, also native in that country, where they were prosperous farmers and

prominent citizens, the father serving as mayor of his home town for nine years.

 They were members of the Lutheran church, and died in their native land, the

father in 1863 and the mother ten years later.  Henry emigrated to the United

States in 1851, after acquiring a common-school education and learning his trade

as a blacksmith in Germany, and on arriving at New Orleans, the port to which he

was bound, made his way to St. Louis, where he worked two years as a clerk and a

gardener.  On the way from New Orleans to St. Louis, Missouri, cholera broke out

on the steamboat and nine persons died on the way up the Mississippi, and the

boat was on this account quarantined at an island opposite St. Louis, and

detained there some time.  Mr. Schaffnit passed the winter of 1853-4 at New

Orleans, then, to escape a virulent yellow fever epidemic, returned to St. Louis

in the spring, and started for California under the influence of the gold

excitement over that state, journeying up the Missouri and through northern

Kansas until the party, composed of himself, Mr. Bush and Mr. Stephenson &

Company, driving two hundred and fifty head of cattle and a number of ox teams,

reached the Blue river in Kansas  This stream rose four feet in the night and

flooded all the valley and all the cattle belonging to the train stampeded,

being visible only when the lightning flashed.  This circumstance so discouraged

Mr. Schaffnit he determined to return east; but after a jaunt of fifty miles on

the backward track, during which he was compelled to sleep on the open prairie

at night, Mr. Schaffnit changed his mind and turned his face once more to the

land of gold and promise, although his only possession was one blanket and a

pistol.  He soon fell in with another party, in which he became well acquainted

with Mr. Legan and Mr. Brassfield, of Liberty, Clay county, Missouri, and

together they pushed on to their desired haven.  The trip was full of incident

and danger, at times the wagons having to be stopped on account of the immense

herds of buffalo passing through, and consumed five months of wearying travel. 

But at length they reached Sacramento, where Mr. Schaffnit followed gold mining

with success for five years in Shasta and Trinity counties, California.  In the

fall of 1859, when he gave up mining for a time, he saw the body of United

States Senator Brodrik lying in state at San Francisco, he having been killed in

a duel with Judge Terry, the chief justice of the state, and heard Colonel

Baker, of the First California Volunteers, preach the funeral sermon.  Leaving

California then and proceeding to his former home, on the steamer “North Star,”

under command of Captain McGaven, he was doomed to another disaster.  The wheel

of the vessel broke off in the Caribbean sea after leaving the Isthmus of

Panama.  In 1861, at St. Louis, Mr. Schaffnit enlisted in the Turner Zouaves,

Third United States Reserve Corps, under Colonel McNeil, and in the three years

service in the Tenth Illinois Infantry he rose rapidly to the rank of

lieutenant.  He was wounded at Flint river, in Alabama, after which he passed

three months in the hospital at Nashville, Tennessee.  In 1864 he resigned from

the army by reason of disability and came to Colorado to live, being among the

first settlers here.  On his journey overland from Atchison, Kansas, his party

had trouble with the Indians, but arrived at Central City without serious

mishap, and there he engaged in mining on the Bob Tail and Gunel claims.  In

1865 he again became a soldier, enlisting in the First Colorado Militia under

Captain Cousins for a campaign against the Indians, who were in hostility.  A

few months later he returned to Central City and continued mining until the

spring of 1866, when he made a visit to his old home in Germany.  When he came

back to Central City before the end of that year, he started mining again,

continuing his operations in this line successfully until 1877.  He then became

proprietor of the Washington Hotel and managed it for a year.  Selling out in

1879, he moved to Leadville, having four years earlier made a trip into the

Hayden valley in Routt county and pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land

there. On this first trip, in 1874, he passed through the mining village of

Hahn’s Peak, and down to Snake River, Wyoming.  On their return he came into an

Indian camp on Elk river.  The savages demanded of the party ponies and knives,

and, being refused, ordered the new-comers to move out of the region.  Mr.

Schaffnit afterward made many trips between Hayden and Leadville, some on snow

shoes, and suffered all the extremes of the winter seasons.  But wild game was

plentiful and furnished him with meat without much difficulty.  His ranch is

near Steamboat Springs, and he devoted his energies to its improvement and

cultivation until 1888, but since then has leased it to other persons.  In that

year he built the first hotel at the Springs, the one now known as the Sheridan.

 He was married in 1868 to Miss Margaretta Kleinschmidt, a native of Germany. 

They are the parents of one child, a son.  The father is one of Routt county’s

most prominent and best known citizens, held in high esteem throughout the

county and worthy of it.  He is a leading member of the Routt County Pioneer

Association, and actively interested in all good works for the betterment of the

county.  They now reside at Steamboat Springs.  

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/routt/bios/schaffni423gbs.txt

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