Monday, January 13, 2014

Our Tinman- Peter Florian Schell



Peter Florian Schell lived his entire life in Quincy, Illinois. He was born on October 27, 1857. I am thinking he had a twin brother, George, who apparently died in infancy, but I have no proof of this yet. Peter also had another brother; Reinold Schell, who is my great grandfather.  Peter’s parents were Peter Schell and Sofia Sanders Schell. Peter Florian died on November 17, 1929.

Peter was a tinner by trade. If you look at the hat that he is wearing in the picture below, it looks to be metallic. My uncle Mark Schell thinks it could have been a ceremonial hat for parades. Quincy seemed to like parades a lot. I have run across many stories about all kinds of parades they had there- mostly in the late 1800s and early 1900s. So, this hat could very well have been for that purpose.

Pictured below is a combination of Peter F and Reinold Schell’s families. The only one not pictured is Reinold; so I assume he is the one taking the picture. From the left to the right and standing in the back are Cornelia and Florence- both daughters of Peter, then comes Peter Florian in the shiny hat, Helen and Pauline, both daughters of Reinold. All the children in the front are Reinold’s. The children, from left to right, are Paul, Rose, Carl (my grandfather), Eugene, and Coletta. The first woman on the left has not been identified, but I am inclined to think it may be Peter and Reinold’s mother, Sofia. The next woman I believe is Peter’s second wife, Frances Werneth. The third woman is Reinold’s wife Sophie Helen Kolker Schell.


As I mentioned above, Peter’s second wife was Frances Werneth. His first wife was Matilda “Tillie” Grether and she was the mother of nine children born between 1878 and 1890.

Peter is also the great grandfather of Terry Emerson, the cousin we found through genealogy living in California. I have mentioned Terry in a previous posting January of 2013; it was at the beginning of this blog and only my second posting. You can see it again in the archived postings on the right side of the blog page.

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