Bio: Dr. John I. Schumpert, Caddo Parish La Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890 Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker ************************************************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ******** DR. JOHN I. SCHUMPERT, physician and surgeon, Bethany, LA. Dr. Schumpert is a man of decided intellectual ability, is ever ready to obey the call of all classes, and is, in truth, a physician of thorough learning and experience. He was born in Newberry, S. C., in 1835, and is the son of Jacob K. and Harriet (Abner) Schumpert, both natives of South Carolina also. There the parents resided their entire lives, the mother dying in 1887 and the father in 1888, and both were consistent members of the Lutheran Church. The father was a successful agriculturist, and was an honest, upright citizen. The paternal grandfather, Frederick Schumpert, was born in South Carolina, and was of German parentage. He served in the Revolution, and passed his last days in his native State. The great-grandfather was also a native of South Carolina, and received his final summons in that State. The great-great-grandparents of our subject were among the early colonists of theat country. The maternal grandfather, Zachariah Abner, was a native of South Carolina, and followed farming in that State until his death. His father was born in the Old Dominion, but died in South Carolina. He was of English descent. He also served in the Revolutionary War. Of the six children born to his parents, Dr. Schumpert was the eldest in order of birth. He was taught the duties of the farm in youth, and his early scholastic advantages, as he grew up, tended to increase the natural desire which he possessed to follow the medical profession. He attended college at Lexington, S. C., and then spent three years at the School of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City, where he graduated in 1859. He at once selected Caddo Parish as the scene of his future labors, and has resided here for over thirty years. Soon after the war broke out he joined the Seventeenth Texas Cavalry, as a private, and was soon after appointed surgeon, serving in that capacity in the Trans-Mississippi Department until about the last year, when he was ordered home to run a tannery, etc., for the Confederate government, a business he had followed before the war and some time after on his farm. For a number of years he had also devoted his time between his practice and the stock-raising industry, raising Jersey and Ayshire cattle, and also many horses. He is the owner of over 1,600 acres of land at Bethany, and has one of the pleasantest homes in the parish. Just prior to the last constitutional convention he was a member of the State Legislature from Caddo Parish, and afterward served one term as police juror. The Doctor is a member of the A. F. & A. M., joining Jackson Lodge at Greenwood many years ago, and also took three degrees in Shreveport Chapter. He was married in 1859 to Miss Mary P., daughter of Thomas and Rosannah (Herbert) Halt, natives of Tennessee, where they spent their entire lives. To Dr. and Mrs. Schumpert was born one child, Dr. Theo. Edgar, a practicing physician of this State and a graduate of that far-famed and renowned institution, the University of Louisville, Ky.