John M. Schaefer, born on April 12, 1861, in southern Russia, was the treasurer of Hutchinson County and a prominent businessman in Tripp, South Dakota. His father, John M. Schaefer, born in Germany in 1814, moved to Russia at age fifteen. John M. Schaefer settled in Tripp in 1886, co-founding a general store with Gottlieb Doering. After selling his mercantile interests in 1901, he bought into the Mayer & Wildermuth business in 1903, forming Schaefer & Wildermuth. Elected county treasurer in 1900 and re-elected in 1902, he was a dedicated Republican and a Lutheran. He married Christina Doering in 1885, and they had six living children: Albert, Hulda, Amanda, Gustave, Edwin, and Ella.
John M. Schaefer, who is incumbent of the office of treasurer of Hutchinson County and is also one of the representative businessmen of the attractive village of Tripp, is a native of southern Russia, where he was born on the 12th of April 1861, being a son of John M. and Christiana (Klopfer) Schaefer. The father of the subject was born in Germany, about 1814, and when he was about fifteen years of age he accompanied his parents on their removal across the border into southern Russia, where he was reared to manhood and where he continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits until his death, at the age of fifty years.
In 1886, the year which witnessed the founding of the town of Tripp, Mr. Schaefer came hither as one of the first permanent settlers, and here he opened a general store in partnership with Gottlieb Doering, with whom he continued to be thus associated for many years, the partnership being dissolved in the spring of 1901, while the business of the concern had grown to be one of the most prominent and prosperous in the county. In the fall of 1900, Mr. Schaefer was elected to the office of county treasurer, and he disposed of his mercantile interests the following spring, his partner simultaneously retiring. In the spring of 1903, Mr. Schaefer purchased of F. F. Mayer his interest in the mercantile business of Mayer & Wildermuth, and the business has since been continued under the title of Schaefer & Wildermuth, while the well-equipped establishment of the firm caters to a large and discriminating patronage, its trade extending throughout a wide radius of country normally tributary to the thriving town of Tripp. He was re-elected county treasurer in November 1902, and his administration of the fiscal affairs of the county has brought to him unqualified commendation. He is a staunch supporter of the Republican party, and he and his wife are valued members of the Lutheran church.
On the 13th of September, 1885, Mr. Schaefer married Miss Christina Doering, a daughter of Gottlieb Doering, of Hutchinson County, and of their ten children six are living, namely: Albert, Hulda, Amanda, Gustave, Edwin, and Ella, all of whom remain at the parental home.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.