Jacob Scheidt

JACOB SCHEIDT. - A man of good business capacity, great intelligence and enterprise, Jacob Scheidt is numbered among the active and progressive agriculturists of Wyandotte county, his handsome property lying near Bonner Springs. Like many others of the more prosperous of our citizens he is of foreign birth and breeding, having been born December 1, 1850, in Bavaria, Germany, where he was bred and educated.

Henry Scheidt, his father, was born in Germany in 1824, and is still a resident of the Fatherland. Until his retirement from active pursuits, he was a civil engineer for the German Government, it being his duty in that capacity to look after the bridges and landing places for the army. He fought with the army in three battles, ranking as major. He married Elizabeth Rupp, who spent her entire life in Germany, her death occuring in 1874, aged about forty years. Five children were born of their union, as follows: Jacob, the special subject of this brief personal review; Adam, a railway engineer in Germany; Henry, operating a planing mill in New York; Catherine, living in Germany; and August, who lived but nine years.

Brought up in Germany, Jacob Scheidt studied civil engineering at the Heidelberg University, and subsequently, while his father Was in the German army, looked after his milling interests. Immigrating to this country in 1871, he was for some time employed in a brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1878 he continued his journey westward, locating in Wyandotte county, Kansas, as a farmer. He has since bought land from time to time and now has a finely improved and highly productive estate of three hundred acres, which he devotes to stock raising, dairying and potato growing, being one of the largest potato producers of his community. Politically Mr. Scheidt is affiliated with the Republican party, although in county elections he votes for the men and measures he deems best, regardless of party restrictions. Fraternally he belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons and to the Modern Woodmen of America.

Mr. Scheidt married February 22, 1879, Emma Herwald, who was born and brought up in Wyandotte county, and as a little girl played with the Indian children. Her father, Carl Herwald, came to Wyandotte county in 1859, and is now living retired from active pursuits on the farm adjoining that of his son-in-law, Mr. Scheidt. Mr. and Mrs. Scheidt are the parents of twelve children, nine boys and three girls, all of whom are at home and help in the farm work, namely: Ernest, who was educated in the common schools and in the John Wesley University, at Salina, Kansas, is a farmer and at home; Charlie, who received a high school education is at home; Louise, Jacob Lee, Anna, Henry, Walter, Otto, Emma, Amelia, Paul and Johnnie.