John Schamber Biography


	This biography appears on pages 896-897 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here 
	Inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door 
	is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


	A photo of John Schamber faces page 896


	JOHN SCHAMBER.- The career of the honored subject of this sketch 
offers both lesson and incentive, since it indicates what is possible 
of accomplishment on the part of the young man of foreign birth who 
comes to our great republic and bends his energies to legitimate 
industry, availing himself of the resources at his command and gaining 
a success worthy the name. Mr. Schamber has been a prominent figure in 
the public and business affairs of South Dakota, of which he is a 
pioneer, and has been called upon to serve in offices of high trust and 
responsibility, as this context will later indicate. He is one of the 
leading business men of Hutchinson county, being engaged in the banking 
business in Menno, and is eminently entitled to consideration in this 
history.  

	Mr. Schamber was born in the historic Crimean district of 
southern Russia, within sixty miles of the famed old city of 
Sebastopol, on the 6th of March, 1856 being a son of Peter and 
Wilhelmina (Luese) Schamber, of whose six children four are now living, 
namely: Peter, a resident of Yankton county, this state; John, the 
immediate subject of this sketch; Rosina, wife of Joseph Bohrer, of 
Mercer county, North Dakota; and George, a prominent merchant of 
Freeman, Hutchinson county. The parents were born in southern Russia, 
where they were reared and where their marriage was solemnized. Peter 
Schamber was there engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1875, when he 
came with his wife to the United States, whither our subject had 
preceded him by one year. The former took up a homestead claim in 
Yankton county, where he resided until 1884, when he removed to the 
village of Freeman, where he passed the residue of his life, his death 
occurring in May, 1901, while his devoted wife passed away in 1883.  

John Schamber was reared on the home farm and secured his 
education in the common schools and the teachers' seminary in his 
native land, and there he taught school during one winter term prior to 
his emigration to America. His English education has been acquired by 
self-application and absorption since he came to the United States. Mr. 
Schamber arrived in New York city in August, 1874, and thence came 
westward to Iowa, where he gave his attention to farm work for one 
year, then coming to South Dakota and taking up a preemption claim in 
Yankton county, six miles southeast of the present town of Menno. Later 
he filed a homestead entry on this claim, while in the same locality 
his father also took up a homestead. In 1880 the subject left his farm, 
upon which he had made excellent improvements, and came to Menno, where 
he secured a position as clerk in a general store. In 1882 he removed 
to Freeman, where he engaged in the general merchandise business, in 
partnership with his brother George. They continued to be the leading 
merchants of the town until 1900, when our subject retired from the 
firm, selling his interest in the business to his brother, with whom he 
had been so long and pleasantly associated. In 1886 the farmers' 
elevator was erected in Freeman, the same being controlled by a stock 
company of leading farmers in the locality, and our subject and his 
brother became numbered among the heaviest stockholders in the new 
concern. In 1894 they acquired control of the enterprise, and finally 
became sole owners of the property. In 1902 our subject sold his 
interests in this line to his brother, who still remains in control of 
the same. In 1900 Mr. Schamber became one of those principally 
concerned in the organization of the Merchants' State Bank at Freeman, 
being made president of the same and retaining this office until 
February, 1902, when the bank was sold to the present owners. In 
November, 1901, he organized the Exchange State Bank of Menno, of which 
he is now the sole owner, the institution being recognized as one of 
the solid and reliable monetary establishments of the state and 
controlling an excellent business. He has maintained his home in 
Freeman.  

	Mr. Schamber is one of the leaders of the Republican party in the 
state, and his hold upon public confidence and esteem has been 
manifested in no uncertain way. He has held numerous local offices of 
minor order, and in 1886 was elected treasurer of Hutchinson county, 
serving three successive terms. In 1893 he was elected to represent his 
district in the state senate, being chosen as his own successor in the 
election of 1895 and proving a valuable member of the deliberative body 
of the general assembly. In 1898 still further distinction became his 
in that he was elected to the important office of state treasurer, in 
which he served two terms, having been reelected in 1900 and continuing 
incumbent of the office until January 1, 1903. He retired from this 
position with the record of having given a most able and discriminating 
administration of the fiscal affairs of the state. He is ever alive to 
the best interests of his home town, as well as the state in general, 
and his public spirit is manifested in a most helpful way. He is at the 
present time chairman of the board of trustees of Freeman. He and his 
wife are members of the Lutheran church, and both are prominent in the 
best social life of the community.  

	On the 11th of November, 1881 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Schamber to Miss Maria Kayser, daughter of Adam Kayser, of Parkston, 
and they are the parents of ten children, namely: T. Adolph, who is a 
student in Concordia College, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, preparing 
himself for the ministry of the Lutheran church; Robert E., who is 
cashier of the Exchange Bank of Menno; Otto G. is manager of the J. H. 
Leval & Company lumber yard at Lesterville and is said to be the 
youngest manager in the employ of that company; Hildegard, Herta, 
Edgar, Udo, Hedwig, Berthold and Alfred, all of whom are still at the 
parental home.