Schmedt 

Knippa

Family Reunion

Thanks for coming! We hope you had fun!

...as told to Aunt Toots in 1998.

Wilhelm Schmedt was born in Germany. He was a "stowaway" on a ship coming to the United States. He didn't want to get mixed up in the army.  He came in at Ellis Island where evidently spelled his name "Schmedt", not Schmidt. The spelling stuck.

Theresa Kohleba was born in Czechoslovakia (or Bohemia).  She came to the United States as a baby; father died on the sip.  She was married at 15.

Wilhelm, "Opa," and Theresa lived on a fame in Ammonsville Swiss Alp, Texas.   Their eight children were born there.  They were:

Louisa Schmedt Franke, whose daughter, Bertha, lived on a farm and had triplets.  She died at age 70.

Henry Schmedt, who daughter, Velma, stayed with Frances and Otto while attending school in Austin. Henry and his wife had twin daughters, too.  He died at 75.

George Schmedt left behind his one-year-old daughter Lena when he died of Typhoid Fever at age 34.

Willie Schmedt had six boys who came to live in Austin while getting rabies shots. The boys included Walter, a burly guy who'd wrestled a bear; Alfred, a nice boy who was killed on the famed King Ranch while delivering the mail; funny Bill; another brother with one blue eye and one brown one; and Ervin, who made fun of Toots.

Frances Schmedt Knippa, without whom none of would be reading this.

Erna Schmedt Steinmann, who with her husband on a ranch in Yoakum had nine children.  They included Delta, Wilman (Sonny), twins Velma and Thelma, Dempsey, Carolyn (Tootie), Joyce, Tilford, and Barbara.  We spent many fun times at their place.  The "kinder" (children) always sat on the stairs of the second floor of their house and the adults sat at the huge kitchen table.  Mother always said:  "Der kinder dey can vartent" so we kids ate later.  Jim and Bev once got on Uncle Eddie's tame bull.  Erna died at 92.   

Hedwig Schmedt Sladczyk, who was married but had no children. Tanta Hettie, as she was called, always had a huge grin on her face when we visited. We had some of the best food and three-layer  cakes at her house in La Grange.  She had a swing on her front porch which Lil continued to enjoy at her home in Houston. 

Minetta Schmedt Helmcamp, married to Helmut, had a daughter, Agnes Louise.  Family visited their  home in Schulenburg, which was around the corner from  Uncle Helmut's Texaco station.  Nettie died at 80.

Additional information:  France's father had a twin sister, which may account for so many multiple births down the line...  Mom and Dad were married in dad's church but Nettie and Helmut were married in the Philadelphia Lutheran Church in Swiss Alp....  Clarence was born shortly after his grandfather was kicked  by his horse...  Toots was born six months after Gilbert died...  Mama helped so many people.  When Nell came home from her appendectomy, she was brought in on an ironing board.