~ EDWARD HAMMERSCHMIDT, b. 9 Jan 1846 ~ Related Surname - HAMMERSCHMIDT, HORSTMANN, HEYNEN A native of the City of Cologne, the capitol of Rhenish Prussia, our subject was born Jan. 9, 1846, and there under the parental roof he was reared to manhood. His parents were well-to-do, his father being a wholesale grocer in Cologne, and young Hammerschmidt was given excellent opportunities for education which he was fortunate in being able to appreciate. He was graduated from the famous college of his native city with honors, being the youngest member of his class which he entered at the age of ten years, and left at the age of seventeen, and being carefully reared in the doctrines of the Lutheran Church. From this institution have been graduated thousands of students, some of them the most eminent men in Europe and America. After graduating at college, he came to visit a sister residing at Naperville, near Chicago. At Hamburg he set sail for the United States on the 13th of May, 1862. He arrived at New York City on the 3rd of June following, and made his way directly to the home of his sister, Mrs. Mary Horstmann at Naperville, Ill. After a stay with her for two years, he decided to make this country his home, and afterward was employed on a farm five years, becoming in the meantime thoroughly interested in agriculture, and quite an expert at the business. Our subject next emigrated across the Mississippi to this county, for the purpose of taking charge of a large stock farm, of which he was manager one year. Then, returning to Illinois, he was married March, 1872, to Miss Mary Heynen, sister of the well-known O.W. and A.C. Heynen, of Miles. Mrs. Mary (Heynen) Hammerschmidt, was born at Freeport, Ill., and after their marriage, the young people settled on a farm in Du Page County, that State, where the death of Mrs. Hammerschmidt occured on the 10th of Feb., 1878. She left one child, a daughter, Rhea. Our subject contracted a second marriage in 1881, with Miss Lilly Lundy, daughter of John H. Lundy. She was born at Naperville, Ill. In the spring of 1878, Mr. Hammerschmidt associated himself in partnership with A.C. Heynen, in the hardware and agricultural implement trade at Miles, and since that time he has been a resident of this place. The partners dissolved in 1887, and since that time our subject has confined his attention to the furniture business. He owns his residence in the town and is in the enjoyment of a comfortable income. Upon becoming a voting citizen, he identified himself with the Republican party, and in April 1889, was elected as member of the Board of Education. Both he and his estimab! le wife belong to the Congregational Church, to the support of which, Mr. Hammerschmidt contributes liberally, and is Treasurer of the Building Committee. Mr. Hammerschmidt during his attendance at the college in Cologne, perfected himself as a crayon artist, and to this day does some very fine work in this line. He was also a graduate of Clark's School of Embalming. Of his present marriage there have been born three children; Jennie, Neva May and a babe unnamed. The parents of our subject died in Cologne, the mother at the age of sixty years, and the father when sixty-three. Their family consisted of nine children, of whom Edward was the youngest born. Eight are now living. ("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)