My Genealogy Hound

John G. Schuster was born in Germany, in 1824. His father, John F. Schuster, was a native of Germany, as was also his mother, whose maiden name was Neuschwander. The parents were married in Germany, and here the father followed the weaver’s trade, in connection with farming, in the hamlet of Heutingsheim, for a number of years. From there they moved to Erdmannhausen, where the father died in 1832. He was a member of the Lutheran Church. The mother afterward married, and in 1837 she and her husband and four children immigrated to the United States, and settled in Adams County, Ohio. Here her husband died in 1884. No children were born to this last union. The children by her first marriage had grown up, married, and had homes of their own. The mother, after her second husband’s death, made her home with her son, living with him until her death, which occurred January 20, 1887. She was formerly a member of the Lutheran State Church of Germany, but after coming to the United States joined the German Methodist Church. Our subject, while yet in his teens, left his home in Adams County, Ohio, and began as an apprentice to a wood turner. He was engaged in this business for five years before he became proficient in his trade, making but very little money. He then moved to Maysville, Ky., where he obtained a clerkship under Cutter & Gray, a wholesale grocery house, where he remained five years, during which period he was united in marriage to Miss Magdalena Bruner, a native of Germany, and the daughter of Frank Bruner, also a native of Germany. At the end of the five years’ clerkship, our subject and brother crossed the Ohio River, and started a saw mill in Adams County. Believing that farming would be a better means of making money, they sold the mill, purchased a farm in the same county, and began tilling the soil. This occupation he followed a short time, and then moved to Spencer County, Ind., and from there to St. Louis, where he resumed his trade. He next engaged in the furniture business, but was forced to seek other employment, and, as he possessed considerable natural ability, he obtained a position as engineer in Warsaw. This position he held for seven years, when, in 1865, he immigrated to Clark County, Mo. Of the ten children born to his marriage only six are now living: George J., J. W., Benjamin, Amelia, Frank and Edwin. After coming to Clark County, our subject purchased a farm upon which he has ever since resided. He is an honorable citizen, a good neighbor, and an enterprising farmer, owning a splendid farm of 160 acres, all well stocked and improved. In politics he has been a Republican since the death of the Whig party. He and his wife are members of the German Methodist Church.