Edward W. Schmidt, born on October 28, 1862, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was a prominent businessman in Valley Springs, Minnehaha County, South Dakota. A member of a pioneering family, Schmidt moved to South Dakota in 1872 with his parents, Frederick W. and Augusta Schmidt, who settled in Lincoln County. After spending his youth working on the family farm, Schmidt returned to Wisconsin to learn the tinners’ trade. He later established a successful hardware and harness business in Valley Springs, eventually running it independently. A dedicated community leader, Schmidt served as village president and treasurer and was active in the Congregational church. He married twice, first to Emma Zick, with whom he had three sons, and later to Mabel Cassidy, with whom he had two daughters.
Edward W. Schmidt is one of the influential citizens and honored business men of Valley Springs, Minnehaha County, and has passed the major portion of his life in South Dakota, being a representative of one of its pioneer families. He was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on the 28th of October, 1862, and is a son of Frederick W. and Augusta (Barr) Schmidt, both of whom were born in Germany, whence they came to America when young. The subject secured his rudimentary education in the public schools of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and was but eight years of age when, in 1872, he came with his parents to South Dakota, his father becoming one of the pioneers of Lincoln County, where he took up homestead and timber claims and eventually developed a good farm. He and his wife are now both dead. As no public schools were established in the section at the time of the family removal to this state, our subject was denied further educational advantages in a specific way, but by personal application and by active association with men and affairs he has become a man of broad information and one well equipped for coping with the world, as is evident from the position he has attained as a successful business man, having accumulated every dollar through his own exertions and good management. He continued to assist in the improvement and cultivation of the home ranch until he had attained the age of nineteen years, when he returned to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he devoted two years to learning the tinners’ trade, becoming a skilled workman. He then returned to South Dakota and was employed at his trade for one year in Sioux Falls. In April, 1885, he came to Valley Springs, where he followed his trade for the ensuing two years, at the expiration of which he associated himself with E. J. Whaley and engaged in the hardware and harness business under the firm name of E. W. Schmidt & Company. Five years later he purchased Mr. Whaley’s interest in the business and has since conducted the enterprise individually, having built up a large and representative trade and having the high regard and unqualified confidence of all who know him and being one of the pioneer merchants of the town. He has a finely equipped and stocked establishment and his annual business transactions now reach an average annual aggregate of about ten thousand dollars. He is progressive and imbued with distinctive public spirit and civic loyalty. In politics he is a stalwart adherent of the Republican party, and he served two years as president of the village, while he has also been incumbent of the office of village treasurer and a member of the local board of education. He and his wife are prominent and valued members of the Congregational church in their home town and he is a member of its board of trustees, while fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America.
Mr. Schmidt has been twice married. On the 17th of September, 1886, was solemnized his union to Miss Emma Zick, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, who was summoned into eternal rest on the 13th of June, 1898, leaving three children, Albert R., Walter H., and Edward R. The eldest son is a member of the United States Navy and at the time of this writing is serving on the cruiser “Hartford.” On the 17th of October, 1900, Mr. Schmidt married Miss Mabel Cassidy, of Valley Springs, and they have two children, Margaret A. and Mabel S.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.