One of Macoupin county’s best known German citizens is Peter
Schneider, a retired farmer of Shipman, who spent three years on the
battlefields of the south defending the flag of his adopted country.
Born in Germany on the 31st of July, 1832, his parents were John and
Margaret Schneider, who made their home during their entire lives in the
old country, where the father was engaged in farming.
The first
twenty-two years of his life Peter Schneider passed under the shelter of
the parental roof in the fatherland, in whose common schools he was
educated while being trained in agricultural methods by his father. In
common with the majority of Germany’s citizens of that time after laying
aside his text-books, he decided to learn a trade and settled upon that
of shoemaking. From his earliest boyhood he had been attracted toward
America, believing that here he would find conditions more conducive to
success and progress than in the land of his birth. He carefully saved a
portion of his meager earnings until he had accumulated the necessary
passage money and crossed the Atlantic to New York. He arrived in the
United States in January, 1854, and for two years thereafter continued
to reside in New York city, working on the New York Central Railroad. At
the expiration of that period he went to New Orleans, where he was
living at the breaking out of the Civil war. He made his way northward
to St. Louis where he followed his trade for a short time and came on to
Shipman. Upon his arrival in this county he invested his little capital
in land, in the cultivation of which he had hardly started, when he
enlisted in Company F, Twenty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He
remained at the front for three years, being mustered out at
Springfield, Illinois. While in the service he participated in many
fiercely contested battles and sharp skirmishes, among them being the
battles of Murfreesboro, Belmont and Columbus. After his discharge, Mr.
Schneider returned to his little farm and from that time until his
retirement gave his undivided attention to general farming and
stock-raising in this county.
Mr. Schneider has never married.
He gives his allegiance to the Roman Catholic church, of which he has
been a communicant since his early youth and in politics he is a
republican. Although he has ever been loyal to the principles of his
party and the nation of his adoption, he has never taken a prominent
part in political activities, having given his entire attention to the
development of his personal interests, in which he has met with
gratifying success.
Extracted 18 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 637-638.
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