Jacob Schnaidt Biography

	This biography appears on pages 995-996 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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JACOB SCHNAIDT, one of the prominent business men of Menno, 
Hutchinson county, is a native of southern Russia, where he was born 
November 10, 1847, a son of Frederick W. and Salomea (Herr) Schnaidt, to 
whom were born two children, Frederick having died at the age of one 
year. The parents of the subject passed their lives in southern Russia, 
the father having there been engaged in agricultural pursuits during his 
active life, being a man of prominence and influence in the community 
and having held for several years the office of mayor of the town of 
Cassel, in which he maintained his home. His father, Frederick W. 
Schnaidt, was born in Germany, whence he emigrated to Russia in 1807, 
and he likewise was mayor of Cassel for a number of years and wielded 
marked influence in public affairs of local nature. The subject of this 
sketch passed his youthful days on the homestead farm and secured such 
educational advantages as were afforded in the schools of the locality. 
Upon attaining maturity he continued his identification with 
agriculture, while in his native place he was married, in 1868, to Miss 
Catherine Mehlhaf. In 1873 they set forth to seek their fortunes in 
America, arriving in due time in New York city and thence coming to what 
is now South Dakota. Mr. Schnaidt forthwith took up a preemption claim 
in Bon Homme county, but a year later he removed to Yankton, where he 
secured employment as a salesman in the hardware establishment of the 
firm of Dudley & Hawley, with whom he remained about five years, at the 
expiration of which he engaged in the same line of business upon his own 
responsibility, Yankton being then the capital of the territory. In 1881 
he sold his business and came to Menno,  where he opened a hardware 
store, successfully conducting the same until 1887, when he disposed of 
the enterprise and engaged in the lumber business, this undertaking 
likewise prospering under his able supervision. In 1898 Mr. Schnaidt 
sold his lumber yard and purchased the hardware store and business which 
he had previously owned, and to the same he has since given his 
attention, controlling a trade which extends throughout the wide area of 
country naturally tributary to the town and being known as one of the 
county's most progressive and reliable business men. He is the owner of 
four hundred and eighty acres of valuable land in the county, and the 
same is well improved.  

In politics Mr. Schnaidt gives an unfaltering allegiance to the 
Republican party, in whose councils he is a prominent figure in the 
state. In 1882 he was elected county commissioner, serving two terms, 
while he was a member of the territorial legislature in 1887, serving 
one term. In 1890 he was elected to represent his district in the state 
senate, serving through the general assembly of the ensuing year and 
still farther proving his loyalty to and interest in the state with 
whose interests he has so long been identified. In 1901 he was appointed 
a member of the state board of charities and corrections and is 
incumbent of this office at the time of this writing. He and his wife 
are prominent members of the German Reformed church. They are the 
parents of thirteen children, namely: Jacob, Jr., who is engaged in the 
real-estate, loan and insurance business in Menno; Christoph, who is now 
a resident of Lodi, California; Emil, who is with his father in the 
store; Henry, who is a druggist in Groton, this state; Edward, who is 
preparing himself for the profession of dentistry; and Magdalena, 
William, Lydia, Helmuth, Martha, Herbert, Gideon and Theodore, all of 
whom remain at the parental home.